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Close To 100 Roster Cuts Still To Come

By | at October 11, 2013 12:08 pm

As I’ve outlined before, the Collective Bargaining Agreement allows NBA teams to carry up to 20 players during the offseason, a rule that many clubs have taken advantage of this fall. However, teams must reduce their rosters to 15 players in time for opening night, meaning several dozen players currently on NBA rosters will be looking for work by the end of the month.

Currently, by our count, the league’s 30 teams are carrying a total of 538 players. Taking into account all the roster moves happening this month, that number is in flux, and will likely change by the end of the day. But considering a maximum of 450 players can be on NBA rosters during the regular season, that current figure means that at least 88 players will be cut within the next two or three weeks.

Of course, some NBA teams won’t carry a full 15-man roster into the regular season. Considering the 14th and 15th players on rosters rarely see the court (except perhaps in the D-League), it’s no surprise that not every club wants to carry the maximum. Teams are required to carry at least 13 players, but some front offices prefer to keep a spot or two open, either to save some money or to create additional flexibility. That means those 88 cuts to come represent the minimum — the actual number could easily end up exceeding 100.

Every year, there are a handful of surprising names released before the season begins, but for the most part, the players waived will be camp invitees or guys owed little or no guaranteed money. As our list of NBA roster counts shows, only the Suns currently have more than 15 fully guaranteed contracts, so most teams shouldn’t be on the hook for much money owed to released players.

Here are a few more things to consider as the deadline for 15-man rosters approaches:

  • The Sixers, Trail Blazers, and Warriors are believed to be carrying more than 15 contracts that are either fully or partially guaranteed. So, barring any trades, those clubs will have to eat at least a little salary when they make cuts.
  • The Bulls and Pistons are currently the only teams with 15 or fewer players on their respective rosters, so they won’t necessarily need to make any moves. I’d expect the tax-conscious Bulls to start the season with just 13 or 14 players though.
  • The Sixers, Cavs, Hawks, Heat, Jazz, Knicks, and Mavericks are all at the preseason 20-man limit, so those clubs still have to waive at least five players.
  • As noted above, players on non-guaranteed contracts are the most likely candidates to be released this month. You can check out our complete list of partially guaranteed and non-guaranteed players right here.
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Team Facebook/Twitter/RSS

By | at October 10, 2013 8:58 am

If you want to keep tabs on all of Hoops Rumors’ stories and updates, you can follow us on Twitter, like us on Facebook, or subscribe to our feed through your RSS reader of choice. However, if you prefer to only receive news about your favorite NBA team, we have you covered. Below are links to our Facebook, Twitter, and RSS pages and feeds for all 30 teams.

Atlantic

Central

Southeast

Southwest

Northwest

Pacific

Transactions only: Twitter / RSS

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Upcoming October NBA Deadlines

By | at October 7, 2013 11:27 am

For the next several weeks, we’ll refer to the end of October as a deadline by which a number of decisions must be made by NBA teams. Whether it’s cutting rosters down to 15 players, exercising 2014/15 rookie contract options, or signing fourth-year players to extensions, teams have plenty of decisions to make by the end of the month. Here’s a quick rundown of what to look for by Halloween:

Monday, October 28th (Last day of offseason)

  • Teams must reduce rosters to a maximum of 15 players.
  • Last day for summer contracts to clear waivers without applying to team salary.
  • Last day to complete sign-and-trade deals this season.

Thursday, October 31st

While a number of decisions are due by the end of the month, not all of the important early-season deadlines occur in October. For instance, non-guaranteed contracts don’t become guaranteed for the rest of the season until January 10th, 2013, unless a different date was written into a player’s contract. If James Anderson, for example, remains on the 76ers’ roster beyond October 31st, his 2013/14 salary will become fully guaranteed, as our schedule of guarantee dates shows.

Larry Coon’s Salary Cap FAQ was used in the creation of this post.

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How New Execs Fared This Summer

By | at October 5, 2013 4:55 pm

The unprecedented head coaching turnover this summer overshadowed the five executives who took over day-to-day basketball operations since the 2012/13 regular season came to a close. Technically, there's six such execs, since the Knicks replaced Glen Grunwald with Steve Mills last week, but Mills hasn't had a chance to make any major moves. So, we'll focus on the five who have as we look back on the debut offseason for the league's new executives:

  • Larry Bird, Pacers: Larry Legend returned to the Pacers after a one-year hiatus, and he jumped right into an active offseason. He re-signed free agent David West, made a trade for Luis Scola that was the centerpiece of the team's bench upgrade, and committed a max extension to Paul George. He's also decided against trading Danny Granger, at least so far, preferring to hold on to Granger's expiring contract as the Pacers eye a title run.
  • Pete D'Alessandro, Kings: Ben McLemore fell to Sacramento at the No. 7 pick in the draft, but the heavy lifting happened later in the offseason, when D'Alessandro traded former Rookie of the Year Tyreke Evans to the Pelicans for Greivis Vasquez and acquired Carl Landry and Luc Mbah a Moute. The most important decision might have come last month, when D'Alessandro and the Kings signed DeMarcus Cousins to a max extension.
  • Doc Rivers, Clippers: The coach is also in charge of picking the players in Clipperland, but the most significant move the team made may have been acquiring Rivers in the first place, since it helped cinch the re-signing of Chris Paul to a max contract. Rivers reportedly professed affection for Eric Bledsoe, but he OK'd a three-way swap that sent Bledsoe to the Suns and brought J.J. Redick to the Clippers.
  • Flip Saunders, Timberwolves: Former Wolves GM David Kahn was noted for his overemphasis on drafting point guards, and Saunders used another lottery pick on a point guard this summer. The difference is that Saunders traded point guard Trey Burke, the No. 9 overall pick, to the Jazz on draft night for Shabazz Muhammad and Gorgui Dieng, the 14th and 21st selections, respectively. Saunders focused on the wings, adding Kevin Martin and Corey Brewer and re-signing Chase Budinger before locking up restricted free agent Nikola Pekovic for five years.
  • Masai Ujiri, Raptors: Ujiri quickly made his presence felt, trading Andrea Bargnani — whom previous GM Bryan Colangelo had selected No. 1 overall soon after assuming control of the team — to the Knicks. Tyler Hansbrough was the team's most significant offseason acquisition, so other than the Bargnani trade, Ujiri appears content to see how the team he inherited performs this season.
  • Ryan McDonough, Suns: President of basketball operations Lon Babby remains in place, but McDonough had a hand in an offseason in which the team drafted Alex Len fifth overall, acquired Eric Bledsoe, and cut ties with Michael Beasley. There's plenty of work that remains to be done, and the long-term future of trade candidate Marcin Gortat is still unresolved.

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Notable Recent Preseason Trades

By | at October 4, 2013 8:21 pm

October's NBA transactions are dominated by training camp cuts, as the pair of players hitting waivers today demonstrate. Still, teams make the occasional trade this time of year, and sometimes those swaps are significant. Last year's James Harden trade is a case in point, and while few recent preseason deals have drawn as much attention, the ripple effects that many of them made have drastically changed the fortunes of teams around the league. Other trades from recent Octobers haven't had long-lasting impacts, but they still involved key members of their respective teams. Here's a look at several notable trades that have taken place between October 1st and opening night around the NBA since 2005, when the most recent former collective bargaining agreement took effect.

  • October 27th, 2012: Thunder trade Harden, Cole Aldrich, Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to the Rockets for Jeremy Lamb, Kevin Martin, a 2013 first-round draft pick (Steven Adams), a future first-round draft pick and a future second-round draft pick — A salary dispute over an extension for Harden precipitated this trade, so perhaps we'll see one of this year's rookie-scale extension candidates change teams before the season begins.
  • October 23rd, 2010: Trail Blazers trade Jerryd Bayless to the Hornets for a 2011 first-round draft pick (Tobias Harris) — Bayless has always been a valuable bench piece, but Harris is showing signs of being more than that for the Magic, one of several teams to hold his rights in one form or another since the Bayless deal.
  • October 24th, 2007: Timberwolves trade Ricky Davis and Mark Blount to the Heat for Michael Doleac, Wayne Simien, Antoine Walker and a 2009 first-round draft pick (Ty Lawson) — Davis' best days were behind him, but the gem of this trade was the future draft selection. Minnesota later traded Lawson's rights to Denver, where he's turned into perhaps the best player on the Nuggets.
  • October 26th, 2005: Hornets trade Jamaal Magloire to the Bucks for Desmond Mason and a 2006 first-round draft pick (Cedric Simmons) — They're largely forgotten about now, but Magloire and Mason played significant roles, both appearing primarily as starters for their respective teams in the season prior to the trade as well as the one after it. Magloire was just a year and a half removed from playing in the 2004 All-Star Game.
  • October 4th, 2005: Bulls trade Eddy Curry, Antonio Davis and a 2007 first-round draft pick (Wilson Chandler) to the Knicks for Jermaine Jackson, Mike Sweetney, Tim Thomas, a 2006 first-round draft pick (LaMarcus Aldridge), a 2007 first-round draft pick (Joakim Noah), a 2007 second-round draft pick (Kyrylo Fesenko) and a 2009 second-round draft pick (Jon Brockman) — This was the most significant preseason swap until the Harden trade, and perhaps this one had an even greater effect. Curry, just like Harden, wound up with a lucrative deal as a result of the swap, receiving the six-year, $60MM contract from the Knicks that shortly thereafter turned him into perhaps the most overpaid player in the league. The Bulls got back their center of the future in the draft pick they used on Noah, and they could have used this deal to form an imposing frontcourt if they didn't wind up trading Aldridge to the Blazers on draft night.
  • October 4th, 2005: Raptors trade Rafer Alston to the Rockets for Mike James — The Rockets and Raptors swapped point guards, and both took over as starters for their new teams. 

RealGM.com and Basketball-Reference.com were used in the creation of this post.

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Hoops Rumors Seeking Part-Time Writers

By | at October 3, 2013 4:40 pm

We're looking to add part-time contributors to the Hoops Rumors writing team. The position pays on an hourly basis. The criteria:

  • Exceptional knowledge of all 30 NBA teams, with no discernible bias. Knowledge of transaction-related concepts and CBA basics.
  • Extensive writing experience is necessary with professional experience preferred. A background in journalism is a plus.
  • Attention to detail — absolutely no spelling errors, especially for player and journalist names. Ability to follow the site's style and tone.
  • Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news in a few paragraphs. We need the best of both worlds: quick writing with thoughtful analysis. You must be able to add value to breaking news with your own insight, numbers, or links to other relevant articles.
  • Ability to use an RSS feed reader such as Feedly. Ability to use Twitter. Both of these are crucial.
  • Strong evening availability – typically 5-11pm central time shifts. Flexibility to cover daytime and weekend shifts is also a significant plus.
  • At least some college education is required.
  • If you're interested, email hoopsrumorsapplications@gmail.com and take a couple paragraphs to explain how you qualify and stand out. Many will likely apply, so unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications.

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Rookie Contract 2014/15 Option Tracker

By | at October 2, 2013 9:00 am

October 31st represents the deadline for players entering the fourth year of rookie-scale contracts to sign extensions, but that’s not the only piece of business NBA teams must address by Halloween. Clubs also have to decide whether to exercise or decline 2014/15 options for rookie-scale players heading into their second or third NBA seasons.

The players listed below are already on guaranteed contracts with their respective teams for the 2013/14 season, but only have team options for 2014/15. These players’ clubs must decide by Halloween whether to lock them up for ’14/15 for the contract amount indicated in parentheses, or to let them become unrestricted free agents next summer. As Chuck Myron of Hoops Rumors wrote in September, many of these guys are locks to have their options picked up, but that’s not the case for all of them.

That October 31st deadline is still several weeks away, and many of the decisions on these players won’t become official until much closer to that date, but we’ll be tracking every decision right here for the rest of the month. You can find our rookie contract 2014/15 option tracker anytime on the right sidebar under “Hoops Rumors Features.” Here’s the list to date, with updates to come as decisions are announced:

76ers

Bobcats

Bucks

Bulls

Cavaliers

Celtics

Hawks

Heat

Jazz

Kings

Knicks

Magic

Nuggets

Pelicans

Pistons

Raptors

Rockets

Spurs

Suns

Thunder

Timberwolves

Trail Blazers

Warriors

Wizards

Storytellers Contracts was used in the creation of this post.

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Following Specific Players On Hoops Rumors

By | at October 1, 2013 3:57 pm

As we've outlined before, there are a number of different ways to follow Hoops Rumors via Facebook, Twitter, and RSS. If you don't want to follow all the site's updates, you can subscribe to team-specific or transaction-only Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feeds. Although we don't have Facebook pages or Twitter feeds for specific players, you can also easily follow all our updates on your favorite player.

If, for instance, you want to keep track of all the latest news and rumors on LeBron James as he enters a potential contract year, you can visit this page. If you're interested in keeping tabs on contract extension talks between the Jazz and Derrick Favors, you can find Favors' page right here.

Every player we've written about has his own rumors page. You can find your player of choice by using our search box (located in the right sidebar); by clicking his tag at the bottom of a post where he's discussed; or, by simply typing his name in your address bar after hoopsrumors.com, substituting dashes for spaces. For example, LeBron's page is located at hoopsrumors.com/lebron-james.

In addition to players and teams, there are a number of other subjects you can track by clicking on the tags we use at the bottom of posts. Items related to the NBA D-League, for instance, can be found on this rumors page. If you want to follow early updates on the 2014 NBA draft, those are all available here.

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Maximum Salary Rookie-Scale Extensions

By | at October 1, 2013 10:24 am

When teams and players are negotiating rookie-scale contract extensions, talks will often go down to the wire, with the two sides reaching an agreement just days or hours before the deadline. But when the club is willing to offer the maximum allowable salary, why wait? That's been the case for several extension candidates this offseason, as we've seen Paul George, John Wall, and DeMarcus Cousins ink max deals with the Pacers, Wizards, and Kings respectively.

Because they have less than six years of NBA experience, George, Wall, and Cousins won't be earning the same kind of max salaries that players like Kobe Bryant and Carmelo Anthony are. Still, their contracts still represent significant commitments from their respective teams, despite the fact that the trio has combined for just one All-Star appearance and one All-NBA spot (both from George in 2012/13). The potential for greatness is there for all three guys, but their teams were willing to give them long-term max deals before that potential has been fully realized.

2013 represents the third consecutive extension period in which multiple players have received max deals. From 2011 to 2013, eight players have signed max rookie-scale extensions, after only five players signed max extensions in the four years from 2007 to 2010.

So why have these maximum-salary extensions been handed out with increasing frequency in recent years? Some may point to an increase in deserving players, but that's a tough case to make. After all, Al Horford, Joakim Noah, Rajon Rondo, and LaMarcus Aldridge were among the players in 2009 and 2010 alone who re-upped for less than the max.

One factor that must be considered is the Collective Bargaining Agreement. It's probably not a coincidence that this increase in max extensions began in the first year of the new CBA. Much has been made about how that CBA has kept spending in check more than the previous iteration did, but perhaps teams are just becoming smarter about where to spend their money. Clubs seem more willing to commit max money to their best players, while becoming more averse to mid-level overpays for role players, which can quickly eat up leftover cap room.

Additionally, because teams are becoming smarter about managing their cap situations and avoiding bad long-term contracts, there will always be at least one club with max cap space in the offseason, ready to pounce in free agency and offer a top restricted free agent a max deal. As we've seen in recent years with players like Eric Gordon and Nicolas Batum, those free agent situations can become messy, with the player publicly expressing a desire to join that new team, only to backtrack when his previous team matches an offer sheet. Getting a deal done during the extension period and avoiding free agency altogether allows clubs to sidestep those potentially awkward situations, while exhibiting to the player that they're fully committed to him.

Even after three years, it's hard to argue that the increase in maximum salary rookie-scale extensions is a full-fledged trend. But the 2014 offseason could provide a strong hint. At the moment, only Kyrie Irving seems like a solid bet for a max extension a year from now. If another player or two from a group that includes Kawhi Leonard, Jimmy Butler, Enes Kanter, Klay Thompson, and Tobias Harris is able to land a max deal, it will be clearer that the new CBA is playing a major role in teams' evolving extension decisions.

With the help of Chuck Myron's look back at recent rookie-scale extensions, here's the complete list of maximum rookie-scale extensions since 2007. Not all of these contracts are for the maximum amount of years, but they're all for the max salary:

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Hoops Rumors Seeking Part-Time Writers

By | at September 30, 2013 8:35 am

We're looking to add part-time contributors to the Hoops Rumors writing team. The position pays on an hourly basis. The criteria:

  • Exceptional knowledge of all 30 NBA teams, with no discernible bias. Knowledge of transaction-related concepts and CBA basics.
  • Extensive writing experience is necessary with professional experience preferred. A background in journalism is a plus.
  • Attention to detail — absolutely no spelling errors, especially for player and journalist names. Ability to follow the site's style and tone.
  • Ability to analyze articles and craft intelligent, well-written posts summing up the news in a few paragraphs. We need the best of both worlds: quick writing with thoughtful analysis. You must be able to add value to breaking news with your own insight, numbers, or links to other relevant articles.
  • Ability to use an RSS feed reader such as Feedly. Ability to use Twitter. Both of these are crucial.
  • Strong evening availability – typically 5-11pm central time shifts. Flexibility to cover daytime and weekend shifts is also a significant plus.
  • At least some college education is required.
  • If you're interested, email hoopsrumorsapplications@gmail.com and take a couple paragraphs to explain how you qualify and stand out. Many will likely apply, so unfortunately we cannot respond to all applications.

Read more

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