NBA Teams With Hard Caps For 2017/18
The NBA salary cap is somewhat malleable, with various exceptions allowing every team to surpass the $99.093MM threshold when that room is used up. In some cases, teams blow past not only the cap limit, but the luxury-tax limit as well, with clubs like the Cavaliers, Warriors, and Trail Blazers going well beyond that tax line this year.
The NBA doesn’t have a “hard cap” by default, which allows those clubs to build significant payrolls without violating CBA rules. However, there are certain scenarios in which teams can be hard-capped. When a club uses the bi-annual exception, acquires a player via sign-and-trade, or uses more than the taxpayer portion of the mid-level exception, that club will face a hard cap for the remainder of the league year.
When a team becomes hard-capped, it cannot exceed the tax apron at any point during the rest of the league year. Under the new CBA, the tax apron is set at the point $6MM above the luxury tax line. For the 2017/18 league year, the tax line is at $119.266MM, so the apron – and the hard cap – is at $125.266MM.
So far this year, six teams have imposed a hard cap on themselves by using the bi-annual exception, using the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, or acquiring a player via sign-and-trade. Listed below are those six teams, along with their current salary situation. Team salaries are estimations, since not all contracts have been finalized, and we don’t know the exact figures on all those salaries.
Los Angeles Clippers
- How they created a hard cap: Acquiring Danilo Gallinari via sign-and-trade. Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Milos Teodosic and Jawun Evans.
- Approximate team salary: $120MM
- Breakdown: The Clippers still have some non-guaranteed salary on their books, but even if they were to cut those contracts, they’d need to fill out their 15-man roster somehow, so they appear likely to stay over the tax line, despite losing Chris Paul. They’ll fill out their roster with minimum salary players and will have somewhat limited flexibility in trades unless they dump some salary at some point.
Houston Rockets
- How they created a hard cap: Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign P.J. Tucker and Zhou Qi. Using bi-annual exception to sign Tarik Black.
- Approximate team salary: $119MM
- Breakdown: The Rockets acquired Chris Paul before the new league year began in order to hang onto their mid-level and bi-annual exceptions, and made full use of them. Like the Clippers, the Rockets have some non-guaranteed salary that could be removed from their cap to sneak under the tax line, but they don’t appear concerned about that for now. It will be interesting to see if their hard cap limits their flexibility at all when it comes to adding a highly-paid player like Carmelo Anthony.
Toronto Raptors
- How they created a hard cap: Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign C.J. Miles.
- Approximate team salary: $118MM
- Breakdown: Dumping the salaries of DeMarre Carroll and Cory Joseph allowed the Raptors to use their full mid-level exception, which gave them the opportunity to land a talented swingman like Miles. Toronto was originally planning to acquire Miles via a sign-and-trade, but either approach would have hard-capped the club.
Detroit Pistons
- How they created a hard cap: Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Langston Galloway and Eric Moreland. Using bi-annual exception to sign Anthony Tolliver.
- Approximate team salary: $116MM
- Breakdown: Once the Pistons added Galloway and Avery Bradley, it became clear that Kentavious Caldwell-Pope wouldn’t return. Even without KCP on their books, the Pistons are inching close to tax territory, though they should be able to avoid crossing that threshold.
Memphis Grizzlies
- How they created a hard cap: Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Ben McLemore and Rade Zagorac. Using bi-annual exception to sign Tyreke Evans.
- Approximate team salary: $104MM
- Breakdown: The Grizzlies are well below the tax line – and the hard cap – for now, but JaMychal Green‘s new contract looms large. At this point, it seems unlikely that Green will sign a massive offer sheet that forces Memphis into tax territory to match it. But even if Green gets $10-12MM per year, the Grizzlies will get a whole lot closer to the tax threshold, which will limit their ability to add more salary. If they let Green walk, that won’t be a problem, but I’d be surprised if that happens.
San Antonio Spurs
- How they created a hard cap: Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Rudy Gay.
- Approximate team salary: $97MM
- Breakdown: The hard cap shouldn’t have a major impact on the Spurs, who are still nearly $30MM away from reaching it. However, new contracts for Manu Ginobili and Pau Gasol could take San Antonio a whole lot closer to that tax threshold, depending on how much the club ends up paying its returning veterans.
Update (10-8-2017):
New Orleans Pelicans
- How they created a hard cap: Using non-taxpayer mid-level exception to sign Rajon Rondo, Quincy Miller, and Frank Jackson.
- Approximate team salary: $118MM
- Breakdown: The Pelicans are closer to the hard cap than their team salary would suggest, since several unlikely incentives – which don’t currently count against the cap or tax – count for hard cap purposes. They’ll have to be careful this season about making further signings or taking back more money than they send out in a trade
Salary information from Basketball Insiders, HeatHoops, and ESPN used in this post. Team salary information not up to date.
Spurs, Manu Ginobili Finalizing Agreement
The Spurs are finalizing the details on a new agreement with longtime guard Manu Ginobili, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN. Ginobili had considered the possibility of retirement, but appears poised to return for at least one more season. It will be his 16th in the NBA.
Ginobili, who will turn 40 later this month, has been a Spur since the 2002/03 season, and continued to play a key role for the team last year. Although he set new career lows in several categories, including PPG (7.5), FG% (.390), and MPG (18.7), the Argentinian made 39.2% of his three-point attempts, and the Spurs had slightly better offensive and defensive numbers when he was on the court.
The Spurs hold Ginobili’s Bird rights, so the team won’t be limited in its ability to offer him a fair salary. While the former second-round pick won’t necessarily be in line for a big payday at this stage in his career based on his 2016/17 production, San Antonio has less than $100MM in team salary on its books for 2017/18, and has already used its full mid-level exception.
As such, the Spurs may be willing to overpay Ginobili a little to reward him for his performance with the franchise over the years, since doing so wouldn’t really limit the team’s spending flexibility. However, the club will also have to account for a new contract for Pau Gasol, who is expected to re-sign at some point.
Dirk Nowitzki (Mavericks) and Tony Parker (Spurs) are the only players who have been on the same team’s NBA roster longer than Ginobili. Nowitzki has been a Maverick since 1998, while Parker joined the Spurs in 2001. Ginobili was technically drafted in 1999, but didn’t sign with the Spurs until 2002.
Ginobili is currently the second-oldest player in the NBA behind Vince Carter, who turned 40 earlier this year.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Rudy Gay: Winning Outweighs Bigger Contract
Rudy Gay doesn’t have any regrets opting out of his contract with the Kings and taking less money to play for the Spurs, as he discussed with ESPN’s Michael C. Wright during a Q&A session. Gay could have made $14.26MM next season if he had opted in but instead wound up signing a two-year, $17.2MM deal with San Antonio. The Spurs offered the 31-year-old forward their mid-level exception. He’ll make $8.4MM in the first year and has a player option next summer. Gay met with the Clippers during free agency and the Heat, Thunder, Jazz and Warriors were also reportedly interested in him.”Looking at my career, it’s just time to win,” he told Wright. “That’s what it’s mostly about. I’ve been in this league for a little while now, and I haven’t gotten out of my career what I wanted.”
Other interesting tidbits from the Q&A session:
- Gay says he’s medically cleared “to do everything” after recovering from a torn Achilles tendon injury that limited him to 30 games last season. He’ll “definitely be ready” to play by training camp.
- He’s had multiple conversation with Spurs coach Gregg Popovich regarding his role and is eager to prove he’s more than just a scorer. His ability to switch defensively is another aspect of his game that attracted San Antonio. “I’ve been known to get buckets, and I’ve had that stigma of just being a scorer. But I think there’s a lot more to my game. I think I can show that here in San Antonio.”
- Gay has no qualms about playing for the hard-driving Popovich: “You want to play for somebody that you respect on the court and off the court. That’s a guy you’d want to go to battle for, a guy that’s not afraid to say how he feels on the basketball court or off the basketball court.”
Southwest Notes: Anthony, Simmons, Mavericks, Rondo
Houston continues to be the preferred destination for Carmelo Anthony, but former Rockets coach and ESPN commentator Jeff Van Gundy doesn’t see the high-scoring forward as a “natural fit” for the team, relays Marc Berman of The New York Post. Van Gundy, who still lives in Houston, believes the Rockets need to focus on defense in any future transactions. “I think they have a lot on their plate integrating [Chris] Paul and [James] Harden,” Van Gundy said. “They’re not going to be better offensively than they were last year. They were the second-best team in the league offensively. I thought they had defined roles everyone knew.”
Efforts to work out a four-team trade that would send Anthony to Houston are currently on hold as new Knicks GM Scott Perry hopes for a face-to-face meeting with his star player before proceeding. New York officials would like Anthony, who can block any deal with a no-trade clause, to expand the list of teams he is willing to join, which reportedly now just includes the Rockets and Cavaliers.
There’s more this morning from the Southwest Division:
- The Spurs never made a serious attempt to keep Jonathon Simmons, tweets Casey Keirnan of News 4 San Antonio. Simmons agreed to a three-year, $20MM deal with the Magic on Friday after the Spurs pulled his qualifying offer and made him an unrestricted free agent. Despite reports that San Antonio was trying to retain Simmons, the team never made him an offer apart from the QO, sources tell Keirnan.
- The Mavericks are taking an international approach to rebuilding their roster, notes Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News. This week’s signing of German star Maxi Kleber could give them as many as seven international players at training camp. Joining roster holdovers Dirk Nowitzki, J.J. Barea, Dwight Powell and Salah Mejri will be Kleber, Nico Brussino and Ding Yanyuhang. However, Brussino’s $1,312,611 salary for next season won’t be guaranteed until Thursday, so he may be somewhere else when camp opens. “You want good players, and it doesn’t matter where you find them,” said president of basketball operations Donnie Nelson. “There are players all over the world. It’s our job to know where they are.”
- After reaching an agreement Saturday with Rajon Rondo, the Pelicans plan to use him and fellow point guard Jrue Holiday as their backcourt starters, according to Marc J. Spears of ESPN.com (Twitter link). Rondo’s friendship with former Kings teammate DeMarcus Cousins was a factor in choosing New Orleans, Spears indicates.
Spurs Sign Brandon Paul
JULY 14, 12:32pm: The Spurs have formally issued a press release making their deal with Paul official.
JULY 13, 2:24pm: The Spurs have reached an agreement with Brandon Paul to add him to the team, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter link). Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.com adds that the contract will be guaranteed, though no other details of the deal have trickled out yet.
Paul played abroad last season for Anadolu Efes Istanbul where he shot 41.5% from behind the arc. He played for the Cavaliers’ Summer League team in 2017 and the Sixers’ squad during the summer of 2016.
The combo guard spent four years at the University of Illinois before going undrafted in the 2013 draft. During his senior year in college, he scored 16.6 points per game while shooting 40.1% from the field.
Spurs, Suns Discussed Tyson Chandler Trade
Before they renounced Jonathon Simmons‘ rights and made him an unrestricted free agent, the Spurs discussed a sign-and-trade scenario that would have sent Simmons to the Suns in a deal for center Tyson Chandler, writes Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News. It’s not clear if the proposed deal would have been Simmons for Chandler straight up or if other parts would have been involved, but either way, San Antonio backed out of the deal, reluctant to take on Chandler’s contract, per Young.
Spurs Make Jonathon Simmons Unrestricted FA
1:00pm: Having spoken to Simmons’ representatives, Jabari Young of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link) says they are no longer in talks with the Spurs. Referring to today’s move as “last call,” Young strongly suggests a reunion isn’t in store for Simmons and San Antonio.
Meanwhile, Wojnarowski adds (via Twitter) that Simmons is in talks with “several” other clubs, while Charania confirms the UFA guard is focused on signing elsewhere.
11:27am: The Spurs continue to negotiate with Simmons as an unrestricted free agent, tweets Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
If that’s the case, it seems the team may have simply rescinded Simmons’ qualifying offer rather than renouncing his rights entirely. Withdrawing Simmons’ QO would leave the Spurs with his Early Bird rights, while renouncing him would leave only the bi-annual exception or Non-Bird rights for a new deal.
11:04am: In a surprising move, the Spurs have renounced Jonathon Simmons, making him an unrestricted free agent, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Today is the last day for teams to withdraw qualifying offers for restricted free agents, so San Antonio made the move just before the deadline.
A former undrafted free agent out of Houston, Simmons played a career-high 78 games for the Spurs last season, averaging 6.2 PPG, 2.1 RPG, and 1.6 APG in a part-time role for the club. Although he has played just two years in the NBA, Simmons will turn 28 in September.
Despite his age and his modest production last year, however, the 6’6″ swingman has been viewed as one of the more intriguing players on the shooting guard market, given his two-way potential and his ability to play a key role for the West’s second-best team. Simmons also took on a larger role in the postseason, averaging 15.3 PPG and 3.3 APG in the Warriors’ four-game sweep of the Spurs.
The Kings, Clippers, Knicks, and Timberwolves are among the teams that have expressed interest in Simmons since free agency got underway, though most of those clubs no longer have the flexibility to make a competitive offer. Sacramento still has some room left, and under-the-cap clubs like the Nets and Sixers could be worth watching as well.
The Spurs’ decision to renounce Simmons is somewhat unexpected, considering the team was said to be preparing an offer in the range of $9MM annually for him at the start of free agency. However, San Antonio may have viewed Simmons as a non-essential piece after using the mid-level exception to bring Rudy Gay aboard.
Jaron Blossomgame To Join Austin Spurs
1:30pm: Blossomgame will be joining the Austin Spurs, San Antonio’s G League affiliate, but not on a two-way contract, according to Michael C. Wright of ESPN.com. Wright indicates that Blossomgame will get a standard G League contract, as the Spurs retain his NBA rights. That will give the club the flexibility to add two other players on two-way contracts.
10:39am: Reports of Blossomgame signing a two-way contract are “not accurate,” per Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link).
It’s not clear whether the Spurs intend to sign Blossomgame to an NBA contract or if no decision has been made yet. Since he was a draft pick, San Antonio holds Blossomgame’s NBA rights, so the two sides figure to work something out at some point.
8:27am: The Spurs will sign 2017 second-round pick Jaron Blossomgame to a two-way contract, according to Chris Reichert of 2 Ways & 10 Days (via Twitter). The deal is not yet official.
Blossomgame, a 6’7″ forward, was ranked as the 50th-best prospect in this year’s draft class by DraftExpress. In his senior season at Clemson, Blossomgame averaged 17.6 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 33 games. The Spurs made him the 59th overall pick in the draft last month.
As we’ve detailed, two-way contracts are a new addition to the league’s Collective Bargaining Agreement that allow teams to control two extra players who primarily play for the club’s G League affiliate. They can be called up to the NBA roster, but only for up to 45 days per season.
Blossomgame is the third late-second-round pick to agree to a two-way contract, along with the Pacers’ Edmond Sumner (No. 52) and the Suns’ Alec Peters (No. 54). I expect most second-round selections will avoid having to sign two-way deals, but I wouldn’t be surprised if teams picking late in the draft spoke to players and agents before draft day to see if they’d be amenable to doing a two-way deal.
Spurs Sign Rudy Gay
7:49pm: The Spurs have officially signed Gay, the team announced in a press release.
7:15pm: The Spurs have reached an agreement with free agent forward Rudy Gay, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN (via Twitter). According to Wojnarowski, Gay’s new deal with San Antonio will be a two-year contract worth $17MM+ and will feature a second-year player option (Twitter link).
Since striking a deal to bring back point guard Patty Mills shortly after the new league year got underway, the Spurs have been fairly quiet this week as they waited out the first couple waves of free agency. However, Wojnarowski reports (via Twitter) that the team “worked hard” to close a deal with Gay over the last 72 hours.
Gay, who will turn 31 in August, averaged 18.7 PPG and 6.3 RPG in 30 games for the Kings this past season before going down with an Achilles injury. Despite the injury, the veteran forward elected to decline a player option for 2017/18 that would have paid him approximately $14.26MM.
Gay will earn less than that for the Spurs this season, as San Antonio will use its mid-level exception to complete the signing. The mid-level for a non-taxpaying team like the Spurs is worth $8.406MM in 2017/18, and Gay’s two-year total will be $17.232MM. Although he’ll take a pay cut, the UConn alum seemed frustrated with the organization in Sacramento, and is likely thrilled to be joining a championship contender in San Antonio.
Despite committing to Gay, the Spurs retain the flexibility to match an offer sheet for Jonathon Simmons, who is still on the restricted free agent market.
As for Gay’s other suitors, the Jazz were said to have interest, as were the Heat and Thunder. However, Utah has been working to land Jae Crowder from the Celtics, while Oklahoma City used its mid-level exception on Patrick Patterson and Miami used its remaining cap room on Kelly Olynyk.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
RFA Rumors: Mirotic, Noel, Simmons, Green
A handful of restricted free agents have made out well so far this year on the open market. Tony Snell, Joe Ingles, Cristiano Felicio, and Andre Roberson got lucrative new multiyear deals from their respective clubs, and Otto Porter reportedly has a maximum salary offer sheet in place with the Nets, though the Wizards have yet to receive it.
Still, there are a number of RFAs still on the market as league-wide cap room begins to dwindle. Sean Deveney of The Sporting News takes a closer look at six big-name RFA still seeking a new contract, so let’s dive in and round up the highlights…
- Prior to free agency, rival executives estimated that Nikola Mirotic would seek something in the range of $20MM annually. However, the Bulls‘ power forward may have to settle for something closer to $12MM per year, according to Deveney, who notes that team owner Jerry Reinsdorf has played “hardball” in these situations in the past.
- Deveney predicts that the Mavericks and Nerlens Noel will eventually negotiate a deal in the four-year, $85MM range.
- The Spurs are expected to match reasonable offers for Jonathon Simmons, which could mean something in the range of $30MM over three years, per Deveney. The Kings and Knicks have expressed interest in Simmons.
- Grizzlies RFA JaMychal Green has drawn some interest from the Bulls and he may be a backup plan for the Spurs depending on what happens with Simmons, says Deveney, adding that Memphis still wants to retain Green.
- Bojan Bogdanovic‘s price tag is “quickly dropping,” according to Deveney. The Wizards RFA was believed to be seeking something in the range of $50MM over three years, but that doesn’t seem realistic at this point. The Kings may be Bogdanovic’s best bet if they don’t land another small forward, writes Deveney.