NBA, NBPA Agree On Penalty For Players Who Miss Games Due To Vaccine Mandates
The NBA and NBPA have agreed that unvaccinated players who can’t play in games due to local governmental vaccine mandates will be docked 1/91.6th of their salaries for each game missed, according to ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Bobby Marks, and Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Typically, when a player is suspended, he loses 1/145th of his salary per game or 1/110th of his salary per game if the suspension exceeds 20 games, so this penalty is a little harsher than that. It appears that last season’s fine for games missed due to COVID-19 protocol violations was used as a guideline for determining this rate — missing a game during last year’s 72-game season for violating COVID-19 protocols cost a player 1/81.6th of his salary.
For now, New York and San Francisco are the two primary municipalities worth monitoring, since each city has a vaccine mandate for individuals entering indoor venues. The Knicks are reportedly fully vaccinated and Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins recently became vaccinated as well. That leaves Nets guard Kyrie Irving as perhaps the lone unvaccinated player on the three teams based in those cities — it’s possible he’s not the only one, but no others have been reported to date.
Irving’s cap hit for the 2021/22 season is just over $35MM, so he’d lose about $383K per home game if he remains unvaccinated and can’t play in Brooklyn.
Those executive orders in New York and San Francisco aren’t expected to apply to unvaccinated visiting players, who will receive an exemption. The one exception would be Nets vs. Knicks games — since both teams are based in New York, they’d both presumably be subject to local restrictions.
As we noted last week when we first wrote that players would lose salary for games missed due to local vaccine mandates, it was also crucial to determine whether a player’s lost salary would reduce his team’s tax bill for the season, since the Nets and Warriors are both far over the tax line. However, according to Marks (Twitter link), teams won’t receive any tax savings for any players who miss games due to vaccine mandates.
Andrew Wiggins Now Vaccinated, Will Be Available For Home Games
Warriors starting small forward Andrew Wiggins appeared deeply resistant toward being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus COVID-19 as recently as last week, but he has now received the vaccine, according to his head coach Steve Kerr, reports Kendra Andrews of NBC Sports Bay Area.
Due to strict ordinances pertaining to large indoor events in the city of San Francisco (every attendee over the age of 12 needs to be vaccinated against the coronavirus), it had appeared that the vaccine-resistant, maximum-salaried swingman was in danger of missing all 41 of Golden State’s home games for the 2021/22 season.
Wiggins will now be available to play every home game this season, tweets Anthony Slater of The Athletic. Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle adds (Twitter link) that Wiggins will be able to join his Golden State teammates as early as Monday, in the team’s first preseason game against the Trail Blazers.
The NBA had previously announced it would not compensate unvaccinated players for games missed in markets with indoor vaccination requirements. How much of Wiggins’s $31.6MM salary for this season would be docked per game was unclear.
“He just told me today that he was fine with us acknowledging it and that will be the end of it,” Kerr said of Wiggins’s decision, per Nick Friedell of ESPN (Twitter link). “I’m not going to answer any questions beyond that.”
Knicks Waive Luca Vildoza
The Knicks have placed Luca Vildoza on waivers, the team announced (via Twitter).
New York signed the Argentinian guard to a four-year deal in May, but there was no guaranteed money and he never played for the team. Vildoza’s contract for the upcoming season would have been guaranteed for $3.32MM if he was still on the roster at 11:59pm on October 21, tweets Bobby Marks of ESPN.
Vildoza reported to camp with “complicated ankle issues” and hasn’t been able to practice, according to Marc Berman of The New York Post (Twitter link). He had a sprained ankle, along with fluid in the back of his foot that was discovered after Summer League (Twitter link).
“Availability is a big part of it and we just feel like the guys who are here, they are the guys fighting it out for that last spot,” coach Tom Thibodeau said. “But he’s a good player, and we wish him well.” (Twitter link from Fred Katz of The Athletic)
Vildoza, 26, played for Argentina in the Olympics before joining the Knicks in Las Vegas. He made brief appearances in two Summer League games, but averaged just 6.4 minutes and didn’t score any points. In addition to his injury issues, Vildoza’s future in New York appeared uncertain after the team added point guards Miles McBride and Rokas Jokubaitis in the draft.
The move leaves the Knicks with 19 players on their training camp roster, 14 of whom have guaranteed contracts. The team also has a two-way slot open, and Thibodeau has indicated that final decisions won’t be made until after the preseason.
Six Teams Still Inquiring About Simmons’ Availability
The Timberwolves, Pacers, Cavaliers, Pistons, Raptors and Spurs continue to inquire about Ben Simmons’ availability, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports via a league source.
The Simmons saga is one of the major storylines of this preseason and it took another twist on Friday when reports surfaced that the Sixers were withholding an $8.25MM advance payment from their disgruntled playmaker.
However, as Pompey points out, this standoff could drag on until after December 15, when many free agents signed this summer can be included in trades.
The Sixers have put an exorbitant price tag on Simmons, in part while waiting to see if the Trail Blazers made Damian Lillard available or if the Wizards were willing to part with Bradley Beal. Simmons’ agent, Rich Paul, tried to assist the Sixers in receiving a five-player package for Simmons in a three-team trade but Philadelphia’s asking price was too rich, according to Pompey.
The withheld salary has been placed in an escrow account. Simmons is likely to receive all the money in his contract once he’s traded, Pompey notes, since it’s expected the team that acquires him will waive the fines the Sixers have instituted for his refusal to show up for training camp.
The Inquirer’s beat writer explored the standoff in great detail. Here are some highlights:
- Simmons’ desire to be traded was communicated to the front office just days after the team was eliminated from the playoffs. Paul told GM Elton Brand his client wanted out three days after the Hawks bounced the team out of the playoff chase. Brand then told president of basketball operations Daryl Morey.
- When the Sixers asked why Simmons wanted out, Paul told them his client was “mentally exhausted,” says Pompey.
- When Morey was hired last November, Simmons suspected he wouldn’t be with the franchise long-term. He was the centerpiece in trade talks with Morey’s former team, Houston, in the Sixers’ failed attempt to acquire James Harden. Simmons even went house shopping in Houston in anticipation of being dealt.
- Simmons doesn’t have any ill will toward his All-Star teammate Joel Embiid, but believes their partnership on the court has “run its course.” Even if he does return to Philadelphia to rejoin the team, Simmons has no intentions of playing another game for the Sixers.
Wizards’ Bradley Beal Becomes Extension-Eligible
2:35pm: As expected, the Wizards have offered Beal an extension, reports Chase Hughes of NBC Sports Washington.
8:21am: All-Star guard Bradley Beal is now eligible to sign a contract extension with the Wizards that would tack on up to four years and $181.3MM to his current deal, starting in 2022/23, as Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets.
Beal signed his last contract extension on October 17, 2019. Typically, a player has to wait at least two years to become eligible for another extension, but the two-year anniversary for extensions signed between October 2 and the start of the regular season is considered to be October 1.
According to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, general manager Tommy Sheppard said last month that the Wizards planned to offer Beal a max extension “at dawn” on October 1. While Sheppard may have been exaggerating a little for effect, it seems safe to assume an offer will be on the table for Beal very soon, if it’s not already.
Beal’s agent Mark Bartelstein said this week that his client is “really excited about the team and the direction the team is going,” adding that “everything is pointing in the right direction,” according to Wallace. However, the 28-year-old doesn’t sound like he’s in a hurry to lock in a new long-term deal quite yet, telling reporters on Monday that he’ll let the team and Bartelstein figure out his contract while he focuses on what happens on the court.
“My biggest thing is getting us off going to a good start,” Beal said. “We worry about the contract money and all that later. I’ll let them deal with it when the time comes, for sure. I got all year to sign, too. So I’m not in a rush.”
Beal’s point is a good one — unlike a number of other players around the NBA who face an October 18 extension deadline, he’ll still be able to finalize a contract extension anytime during the 2021/22 league year.
It’s also worth noting that waiting until he can become a free agent in 2022 would be more advantageous for Beal from a financial perspective, even if he already knows he wants to be with the Wizards long-term. As a free agent, he’d be eligible to sign a five-year contract worth $241.6MM with Washington, or a four-year deal worth $179.1MM with another team. Those figures are based on a projected $119MM salary cap.
Beal’s decision to accept a two-year extension back in 2019 was a surprising one, so it’s possible he’ll surprise us again by how he handles his upcoming contract year. For now though, it sounds like he’s content to see how the new-look Wizards’ roster performs under new head coach Wes Unseld Jr. before he makes any major decisions about his future.
Sixers Reportedly Withholding Advance Payment For Ben Simmons
The terms of Ben Simmons‘ contract with the Sixers call for him to receive 25% of his $33MM salary for the 2021/22 season on October 1, after he received the first 25% on July 1. However, according to Jake Fischer of Bleacher Report, the 76ers don’t intend to give Simmons that advance payment of roughly $8.25MM on Friday.
Philadelphia’s stance is that Simmons is not fulfilling the terms of his contract by not reporting to training camp, according to Fischer, who says that league-office personnel and players’ union officials believe the Sixers are within their rights to withhold that payment.
ESPN’s Tim Bontemps, Brian Windhorst, and Bobby Marks confirm (via Twitter) that the Sixers won’t give Simmons that $8.25MM today, noting that the team has put that money into an escrow account. The fines he accrues will come out of that amount going forward, per the ESPN trio.
There had been some uncertainty about whether the 76ers would take this route, since refusing to pay such a large sum would escalate the standoff with Simmons and perhaps make a resolution less likely. However, a resolution has never seemed especially likely anyway, and there has also been a sense that the league – and other team owners – would want to see Philadelphia take a strong stance to discourage other players from holding out in the same manner.
One source close to the situation told Marc Stein of Substack (Twitter link) that Simmons’ camp believes he’ll get the money one way or another — even if the Sixers withhold that $8.25MM for the time being, Simmons could still eventually get it (minus fines) via an arbitration process or by reaching a resolution with the team. Additionally, as Brian Windhorst of ESPN noted on his latest Hoop Collective podcast, if and when a trade gets completed, Simmons’ new club would likely do all it can to make sure he gets paid in full to avoid starting the relationship off on the wrong foot.
Interestingly, Fischer says there have been “growing whispers” among his sources this week that Simmons could respond by reporting to the 76ers and saying that he’s injured. If he’s found to have a legitimate injury, Simmons wouldn’t be compelled to actually take the court for Philadelphia, but the team would still be required to pay him. However, Fischer’s sources may simply be speculating — Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) suggests that Simmons still isn’t showing up and understands the ramifications of his absence.
A trade remains the best way to end this staredown between the Sixers and their three-time All-Star, but Fischer reiterates that no deal appears close.
According to Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News (Twitter link), new Timberwolves head of basketball operations Sachin Gupta has touched base with Philadelphia since receiving his promotion, but the Sixers have never seemed enthused about Minnesota’s trade assets, and that hasn’t changed since Gersson Rosas‘ dismissal.
Kerr Considered Favorite To Succeed Popovich As Team USA Coach
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has emerged as the frontrunner to replace Gregg Popovich as the head coach of Team USA, league sources tell Marc Stein of Substack. Popovich, the Spurs‘ head coach, is stepping down from his position with USA Basketball following his team’s gold medal victory at the Tokyo Olympics.
USA Basketball is undergoing some changes this year, with Grant Hill recently succeeding Jerry Colangelo as the managing director of the program. Naming a new head coach is the first major move that Hill will have to make as part of his new role. He said earlier this month that he hopes to finalize the decision before the start of the NBA regular season on October 19.
As Stein writes, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra is viewed as another strong candidate for Team USA’s head coaching position, but Kerr has more international experience, having served as an assistant to Popovich during the 2019 FIBA World Cup as well as the Tokyo Olympics. Spoelstra was involved in the lead-up to the Olympics as well, coaching the U.S. Select Team, but he wasn’t part of the group that traveled to Tokyo.
Kerr’s experience coaching several star players in Golden State and competing in five consecutive NBA Finals makes him a natural fit to manage Team USA’s star-studded rosters and to handle the pressure of international competitions. He also recently confirmed that he’d have interest in the job.
“Of course I’d be interested. I mean, who wouldn’t be? I’ll leave it at that,” Kerr told Tim Kawakami of The Athletic in August. “I have no idea how it will all transpire; there are a lot of great candidates out there. And if I were to be considered, that would be an honor.”
Nuggets Sign Michael Porter Jr. To Five-Year Max Extension
SEPTEMBER 29: Porter’s extension is now official, the Nuggets announced today in a press release.
Meanwhile, more details have emerged on Porter’s fifth-year salary. Only $12MM of his $39.3MM salary for that season is guaranteed, sources tell Shams Charania and Sam Amick of The Athletic (Twitter link). It can become fully guaranteed based on All-Star, All-NBA, or All-Defensive honors, or MVP or Defensive Player of the Year awards.
According to Mike Singer of The Denver Post (Twitter link), one All-Star appearance for Porter would increase the fifth-year guarantee by $5MM, while two All-Star nods would fully guarantee that $39MM+ salary. There are several other potential triggers, Singer adds.
SEPTEMBER 27: The Nuggets and forward Michael Porter Jr. have reached an agreement on a five-year contract extension worth the maximum salary, agent Mark Bartelstein tells ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
The deal currently projects to be worth $172.5MM, based on the NBA’s projection of a $119MM salary cap for the 2022/23 season. However, the contract will include Rose Rule language, allowing Porter to potentially earn 30% of the cap in the first year of the extension (rather than 25% of the cap) if he makes an All-NBA team in 2021/22. In that scenario, the five-year contract would be worth a projected $207MM.
The fifth year of Porter’s contract will be partially guaranteed, according to Ryan McDonough of Audacy Sports, who reports (via Twitter) that MPJ’s fifth-year salary would become fully guaranteed if he meets certain “lofty” performance benchmarks.
The Nuggets’ investment signals how far the former 14th overall pick has come since missing his entire rookie season in 2018/19 due to a back injury. After playing a modest role in ’19/20, Porter became a key piece for Denver last season, averaging 19.0 PPG and 7.3 RPG with an impressive .542/.445/.791 shooting line in 61 games (31.3 MPG).
Porter still has plenty of room to improve on the defensive side of the ball, but the 23-year-old has displayed the potential to become one of the NBA’s very best scorers, so there was no chance the Nuggets would let him get away.
With extensions for Porter and Aaron Gordon completed this offseason, the Nuggets’ roster is getting very expensive. The newly-extended forwards won’t even be Denver’s highest-paid players — that honor belongs to veteran stars Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray, who are earning a combined $60MM+ in 2021/22.
As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, the Nuggets project to carry about $156MM in team salary for the ’22/23 campaign and are on track to be a taxpayer for the first time in over a decade. The team remains below the tax line for the ’21/22 season.
Porter’s deal is the fourth maximum-salary rookie scale extension to be finalized this offseason, with the Nuggets forward joining Luka Doncic, Trae Young, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. As our tracker shows, Robert Williams is the only player who has received a rookie scale extension below the max so far in 2021.
Players Won’t Be Paid For Games Missed Due To Local Vaccine Mandates
The NBA confirmed today that players who miss games due to governmental vaccine mandates in certain municipalities won’t be paid for those games, as Shams Charania of The Athletic relays (via Twitter).
“Any player who elects not to comply with local vaccination mandates will not be paid for games that he misses,” league spokesperson Mike Bass said in a statement.
This is especially relevant for players based in New York and San Francisco, the two NBA cities that have implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates for indoor venues. Players for the Nets, Knicks, and Warriors who don’t receive the vaccine – and don’t receive an exemption – won’t be permitted to play in home games in those cities. Based on how the executive orders were written, the same restriction doesn’t apply to unvaccinated players on visiting teams.
Nets guard Kyrie Irving and Warriors forward Andrew Wiggins, who are both reportedly unvaccinated, are among the most notable players affected by these local mandates. Irving is owed nearly $35MM this season, while Wiggins has a $31MM+ salary, so missing out on game checks for 41 games would result in significant financial losses.
As ESPN’s Tim Bontemps explains, New York’s executive order permits individuals who have received one vaccination shot to enter indoor venues, so Irving and any other unvaccinated Nets would become available virtually immediately if they opt to receive the vaccine. The Knicks have said their roster is fully vaccinated.
San Francisco’s executive order, which requires individuals to be fully vaccinated in order to enter indoor venues, goes into effect on October 13. That means Wiggins is still permitted to practice and play with the team for now, but wouldn’t be by the time the regular season gets underway if he hasn’t been fully vaccinated.
It remains unclear exactly what percentage of a player’s salary he’d lose if he misses a game due to not complying with a vaccine mandate. While teams play an 82-game schedule, the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement docks a player 1/145th of his salary per game when he’s suspended, or 1/110th if the suspension covers at least 20 games. However, there was a stricter per-game penalty in place last season for players who were sidelined due to COVID-19 protocol violations.
The amount of the per-game fine is still being discussed, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks (Twitter links), who notes that we’ll also need clarity on whether the fines are coming from the league or the teams — if it’s the league issuing the penalty, it would create tax savings for the Nets and the Warriors. A team-issued fine would not.
Here’s more on the COVID-19 and vaccination situations around the NBA:
- There’s growing tension between staffers around the NBA – who face vaccine mandates from the league – and unvaccinated players, reports Baxter Holmes of ESPN. Some vaccinated staffers are concerned about the health risks of being exposed to unvaccinated players, while others are upset that players aren’t subject to the same mandates as coaches, referees, and other personnel. Mike Bass said in a statement his week that the NBA has proposed vaccine mandates to the NBPA, but the players’ union has “rejected any vaccination requirement.”
- NBPA executive director Michele Roberts put out a statement on Tuesday confirming that over 90% of the NBA’s players are vaccinated (Twitter link via Mark Medina of USA Today). In Roberts’ view, there should be more focus on that vaccination rate – which is far higher than the national average – rather than the league’s unvaccinated players or lack of a vaccine mandate for players.
- The NBA and NBPA are close to finalizing the COVID-19 protocols for the 2021/22 season, according to Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press, who reports that the league sent out a tentative version of those protocols to teams on Tuesday. As previously outlined, unvaccinated players will face far stricter guidelines.
Porzingis Reportedly Wanted Trade Prior To Coaching Change
At the end of a disappointing 2020/21 season, Mavericks big man Kristaps Porzingis would have liked to be traded, ESPN’s Tim MacMahon said during an appearance on Brian Windhorst’s Hoop Collective podcast (hat tip to Dan Feldman of NBC Sports). However, according to MacMahon, Porzingis is “coming back optimistic” following a healthy summer and Dallas’ hiring of Jason Kidd as head coach.
“At the end of last year, Porzingis wanted to be traded. My understanding is he feels like he has a fresh start with the coaching change,” MacMahon said, per Feldman. “He’s had the healthy offseason. He has been able to work, not just on his game, but on his body some more. He’s kind of coming back with a refreshed feel.”
Even if the Mavs hadn’t made a coaching change in the spring, MacMahon doesn’t think Porzingis would have come out and asked the team to trade him, recognizing the poor optics of such a move following his up-and-down season. However, it’s not hard to understand why he was frustrated by his role following a first-round playoff loss in which he averaged just 13.1 PPG and 5.4 RPG in seven games (33.3 MPG) and often found himself standing in the corner on offense.
According to MacMahon, Porzingis felt more like an afterthought than a co-star for Luka Doncic under former head coach Rick Carlisle. Kidd visited Porzingis in Latvia over the summer – which the 26-year-old said on Monday was “huge for me” (Twitter link via Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News) – and envisions a more expansive role for the former Knick.
“The simple way to put it is, I want KP to be a basketball player,” Kidd said, adding that he expects Porzingis to start at power forward. “There’s no limitations on just shooting threes. Being able to roll, to be able to shoot the mid-range, to be able to put the ball on the floor — I want him to be who he is, and that’s a basketball player and not just be limited to shooting threes or crashing from the corner. I want him to feel comfortable on the floor in any spot. I think he’s a weapon. He shoots the ball too well not to be able to shoot mid-range shots.”
The Mavs are optimistic that a healthy offseason for Porzingis – who has a history of knee and leg injuries and missed 29 games last season – will position him for a nice bounce-back year in 2021/22, writes MacMahon.
“I think he’s in way better shape this year, especially mentally,” Doncic said of his teammate on Monday. “You can see him having a good time when we’re playing pickup, and I think he’s going to have a great season this year.”