2017 G-League Expansion Draft
August 24th, 2017
Amidst the aftermath of the Kyrie Irving trade, the D-League – still finding it difficult to call it the G-League – held an expansion draft tonight for its four new franchises for the 2017/18 season. In a D-League expansion draft, incumbent teams are allowed to protect the returning player rights to nine of their players, with all unprotected players put into the pool, able to be selected by the four newbies. Selecting a player’s rights does not mean that that player will play for that team next season; that player will need to sign in the D-League next season, and these rights ensure only that if they do, this will be the team they must go to. Many have or will sign elsewhere, including the NBA in a couple of cases, and of course it is certainly normally the case that the best D-League (G-League, whatever) players will have their rights protected if there’s any realistic chance that they will return. Nevertheless, some will. And for the 44 players drafted tonight, these will be the teams they now have to join if they sign in the next two seasons [after which they will have no returning rights and will enter the player pool, from which they can be acquired by any team]. Returning player rights can be, and often are, traded. It therefore behoves the drafting teams to prioritise not only those whom they think are best, but also those with the best chances of returning to the D-League. And with all that in mind, here are the picks. Memphis Hustle Round 1: Marquis Teague (from Fort Wayne Mad Ants) Round 2: Okaro White (from Sioux Falls Skyforce) Round 3: D.J. Stephens (from Iowa Wolves) Round 4: Omari Johnson (from Fort Wayne Mad Ants) Round 5: Jamaal Franklin (from […]
2017 NBA Manifesto
June 29th, 2017
Hello! I am Mark, the owner and sole proprietor of this website, ShamSports.com. A few months ago, someone said to me, “why don’t you produce NBA content any more?” The comment, meant with genuine intrigue, still proved irksome. “I do”, I answered. “I watch more than ever. I talk about it. I still write a bit. I’m working on projects.” All these things were true. Still, they had a point. Look at the dust on this website, after all, and this is supposed to be the pinnacle of my CV. The comment was irksome because it was correct – I wasn’t actually producing enough stuff publicly. “What happened to that English guy who we briefly heard of?”, said no one ever. But they could have done, and that resonated. So I thought I’d make some NBA content. Over the last few months, I have created what I am calling my 2017 NBA Manifesto. I hereby launch it below. The idea of the manifesto is thus. It outlines the assets available to every NBA team. It looks at what their financial situation is, what instruments and exceptions they have for spending, and their total salary outlook. It does the same with their draft position. It looks at the players they already have on their roster, plus the issues that need addressing as a team. And then it thinks aloud about what to do with it all. It does this 30 times for 30 teams. All in all, it gets quite big. Every word in here is mine. Every opinion is mine. No one paid me to write it, and no one will pay to read it. This is me and what I think, based on facts as correct as an outsider can ascertain. This is my work and my thoughts, on […]
An asset is an asset: How the shifting market has stifled the Milwaukee Bucks’ best intentions
September 25th, 2016
This week, Milwaukee Bucks wing man Khris Middleton suffered a torn hamstring, and will miss the majority of the upcoming season. Over the last three years, Middleton has made himself into a quality player. Coming into the league as a sub-par outside shooter, Middleton is now one of the league’s best, and retains the quirky off-the-dribble game that got him to this point to now be a valuable and versatile scoring presence. He is not a star, but he is an asset on any team, and particularly on the one he is on. Last year, the Bucks had only the fifth-worst offense in the league, based in large part due to their bad shooting. They made the most two pointers in the league, but both made and attempted the fewest three-pointers, and only because of Middleton were they close to being the second fewest. Only two players made more than 100 three-pointers (Middleton 143; Jerryd Bayless 101; the third highest was O.J. Mayo at a lowly 52.) The whole team made only 440 three pointers – for context, Steph Curry alone made 402. Moreover, excluding the lone attempt of Johnny O’Bryant, Middleton and Bayless were two of the only five Bucks to shoot over 30% from three. Of the other three, Mayo’s 52 for 162 recorded a lowly 32.1%, while Tyler Ennis and Steve Novak combined for only 15 of 45 all year. Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jabari Parker and (to a much smaller degree) Michael Carter-Williams are all key rotation, future and offensive pieces, but all three do it without the three, shooting a combined 52-199 from there in a combined 6,880 minutes. Middleton’s absence, then, will decimate the shooting. Making it worse, Bayless and Mayo have already left – Bayless has gone to the Philadelphia 76ers as a free agent, while Mayo is beginning his two year suspension. Novak is also […]
Golden State’s efficient inefficiency stunned Cleveland in game one
June 7th, 2016
In game one of the NBA Finals, the defending champion Golden State Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers in relatively comfortable fashion. Leading almost the whole way throughout the game, the Warriors led by as many as 20 points, and ultimately won by 15. And they did so with unanimous MVP Steph Curry far from his best, recording only 22 minutes and 11 points on 4-15 shooting, with a +/- rating of a compact 0. The Warriors won this game with their depth, and specifically the depth behind Curry. Backup point guard Shaun Livingston scored 20 points on 8-10 shooting, while backup shooting guard Leandro Barbosa made all five of his shots in scoring 11 points. That is 31 points on 15 possessions from two players who normally contribute 12 on 10. There is a reason Steph only played half the game. This is not to say that the duo did this entirely unexpectedly. Barbosa has long been a scoring super-sub, winning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award in 2007, and Livingston has been a fine NBA player for the last five years or so since finally finding his health and his niche in this league. They are key rotation players on a historical great because they are good at what they do, so it should not be news when they are good. They also did not do anything stylistically that they did not already do. Livingston was not pulling up from 30 feet and bombing away like Curry, and Barbosa was not crossing people over and finishing in traffic at the rim. Rather, they just picked their spots, found where to go, and did what they did best. What is noteworthy, however, is the juxtaposition between how they do it, and all that which was focused on before […]
Bismack Biyombo: A walking contradiction of Charles Barkley’s pessimism
May 30th, 2016
Earlier this week, former NBA great and current analyst Charles Barkley did that thing that former NBA greats do, and lamented the present while reflexively celebrating his era. In an interview with Arizona Sports 98.7 FM, and at a weirdly ill-timed juncture in light of the genuinely exciting and unexpected Conference Finals series taking place, Barkley had the following to contribute: “People think us old guys hate when we talk about it. It has nothing to do with the Warriors’ greatness, LeBron’s greatness. But I’ve never seen the NBA as bad as it is, and I’ve been saying it the last three or four years. We’ve got too many young players coming out of college that don’t know how to play. It’s frustrating for me because I want to see competitive basketball.” Apparently not seeing the competitive basketball currently being played, or perhaps misremembering his own playing career and somehow thinking that everything was far more competitive back in an era where the same team won the title six out of eight years, Barkley rustles up the well-used mantra that the NBA is not as good as it was. Many have stated this before, yet here, Barkley states it more bluntly, and in his own inimitable way. He later attempts to speak forebodingly of this summer being “do or die” for the NBA, as if ‘die’ were ever an option. (Maybe it would ‘die’ in Barkley’s mind. But on the basis of the evidence thus far, I suspect this will be his belief anyway.) In contrast, not one week earlier, former NBA great and current Indiana Pacers president of basketball operations Larry Bird pretty much did the opposite when speaking to the New Yorker, championing the current era and celebrating the diversification of different styles over time: “It’s funny how the […]
Dwight Howard’s recent ESPN interview shows he needs to take a long, hard look at himself
May 24th, 2016
This week, Dwight Howard of the Houston Rockets (for five more weeks, at least) was the subject of a rather illuminating interview with Jackie McMullan at ESPN.com. Although contracted through the end of next season, Howard has the ability to opt out of his deal this summer, and considering the huge salary cap spike that is about to galvanise the upcoming free agent period, he is almost certainly going to do so. This does not prohibit him from remaining in Houston, but in light of the lacklustre Rockets season, his own reduced role and his supposed terse relationship with James Harden, it has long been assumed that he was going to leave the team this summer. And if anyone still thought there was a chance, there probably won’t be now after this interview. Asked why he was (by his own admission) clearly disinterested at parts of this season, Howard responded in part by calling out Rockets general manager, Daryl Morey: “I felt like my role was being reduced. I went to Daryl and said, ‘I want to be more involved.’ Daryl said, ‘No, we don’t want you to be.’ My response was, ‘Why not? Why am I here?’ It was shocking to me that it came from him instead of our coach. So I said to him, ‘No disrespect to what you do, but you’ve never played the game. I’ve been in this game a long time. I know what it takes to be effective.’” This is what you do when you have no intention of staying. When a situation is irretrievable, and you really need people to think it wasn’t your fault. And Dwight really does need that. In his 12 year career thus far, Dwight has played for three teams, yet he will now leave all three under a cloud. […]
Scott Skiles: Risking his and Orlando’s future with yet another early departure
May 17th, 2016
Yesterday, a particularly bizarre day in the NBA, began with the surprise resignation of Orlando Magic head coach Scott Skiles, who had been with the team for less than one year. “Surprise” might be a bit of an understatement there. Skiles and those within the Magic who knew of this news managed to keep it entirely under wraps until the official statement was released – as can be ascertained from guard Evan Fournier’s slightly off-colour reaction, not even the players knew. In the Twitter era, this is no small feat. There are few genuine shocks left. However, the unexpectedness of the announcement came only from the outside. Inside, the key players in the Magic’s front office set-up knew. Soon after the announcement, rumours inevitability filtered out as to why, and seemingly, discontent had been bubbling under for a while. As the story goes, despite at one point heavily campaigning for the role, Skiles regretted taking it fairly soon after doing so and said as much to his hand-picked assistant coach Adrian Griffin (whom Skiles hired twice as an assistant and had twice as a player). In the first instance, it seems Skiles did not tell owner Rich DeVos, president Alex Martins or general manager Rob Hennigan, but instead only Griffin. And Griffin, caught in between a rock and a hard place, was the one to tell management. (Seemingly, at the behest of Martins, it never filtered up to DeVos. We will never know if he reacted like Fournier.) Skiles not knowing what he wanted is fine. We all do that. Skiles or any coach having bad days at work and speaking out of turn is also somewhat fine. We all do that too, albeit perhaps not to this degree. Skiles having second thoughts is fine, even if airing them might not have been. […]
Frank Vogel: An unfortunate victim of the NBA’s ever-changing landscape
May 9th, 2016
After being knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the Toronto Raptors in a game seven decider this week, the Indiana Pacers and their president of basketball operations Larry Bird announced head coach Frank Vogel would not have his contract renewed. Tantamount to a firing, the news has raised many eyebrows, these ones included. Vogel has long been revered as one of the better coaches in the game, a defensive craftsman who has maximised the limited amount of talent available to him over the years and made the once-disappointing Pacers into a consistent threat in the Eastern Conference. In announcing the news, Bird said he felt the team needed a “new voice”. But he did not say what that meant, or why he felt it. He just felt it. At the start of the year, it was felt that the Pacers needed a new direction. Specifically, that direction was to abandon their largely halfcourt game and play a higher tempo, full-court brand of basketball with quicker offence and smaller, faster, more athletic players. Notwithstanding the fact that such an offensive strategy generally relies on high efficiency outside shooting (which key acquisition Monta Ellis does not bring), this is the task Vogel was charged with. He tried. He tried to convince superstar small forward Paul George to play power forward, to be the key piece in the Pacers’ paradigm shift to keep pace with the new NBA. When George would not concur, Vogel played onetime shooting guard C.J. Miles as a really, really smallball power forward. He tried to pair up George Hill and Ellis (and, up to a point, Rodney Stuckey), despite them being in many ways the same player and an illfitting pairing. And he tried to make do with only one good big man (rookie […]
Dissecting a difficult season in Houston
May 2nd, 2016
Earlier this week, Houston Rockets guard Jason Terry guaranteed that his team would beat the defending champion and legitimate candidate for best team in history, Golden State Warriors, in game five of their playoff series, a game which would end the Rockets’ season if they lost. And yet despite missing defending MVP Steph Curry, the Warriors won at a canter by 33 points. Terry was held scoreless. The above is both a fitting conclusion and a damning microcosm of the Rockets’ season. They were expected to compete because they had just done so, making the Western Conference Finals last season losing only to those same juggernaut Warriors. But from the very off, when James Harden could not hit a jump shot to begin the season and the team waddled listlessly through high profile early season matchups on international television, they never got going. Indeed, they never got especially close to going. The team finished 41-41, an unimpressive eighth seed without even much of a crescendo or a sign that it would suddenly snap into life. They were the Western Conference version of the east’s Chicago Bulls and nothing like what they so recently were. Any title-less season requires a postseason post-mortem, especially disappointing seasons. The coach has already taken his share - head coach Kevin McHale was fired back in November after the 4-7 start – and the marginal improvements under interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will not stop him from having to interview for his own place again. The players have been scrutinised, Harden especially, and will continue to be. But if players do not fit together, it must be explored why they were put there, and who by. Two weeks ago, I looked back on the body of work of former Philadelphia 76ers general manager and vice president […]
The Mid-Level Exception rule is essentially redundant, and that could just be the start
April 27th, 2016
The Mid-Level Exception was introduced in the 1999 Collective Bargaining Agreement, and quickly became a vital tool in the interminable team building struggle, if not for many, the most vital. For teams over the salary cap, the Mid-Level Exception (also known in its infancy as the Middle-Class Exception, and never since then) was a way to continue to sign players for significantly more than the minimum salary, thereby enabling themselves to add players of decent to good quality despite having already spent the theoretical maximum any team could spend on players. In practice, then, the MLE was, to an extent, the most powerful weapon most teams could have – with it, there was less incentive to stay under the cap. However, the 2011 CBA shifted the balance back and provided a far greater incentive to stay under the cap. By introducing the post-cap room MLE and other mechanisms (such as the ability for teams under the salary cap to make amnesty waiver claims, which does not matter anymore but which certainly did to begin with), there was more reason to stay under the cap; concurrent as it was with the rules shortening contract length, and a much-heightened awareness in the internet era of the importance of salary cap management, it was not only preferable to stay under the cap but much more important to do so. Far fewer teams had cap room in years past compared with today – compare the three that had cap room in the summer of 2009 (under the 2005 CBA, where the MLE ruled the day) with the 15 in the summer of 2013 (when the benefits of the new 2011 CBA were ripe for the taking). Simultaneous to that shift in the balance came big revenue spikes in the league, which drove the salary […]
Given ultimate freedom, Sam Hinkie did half the job
April 15th, 2016
Last week, Philadelphia 76ers general manager and president of basketball operations Sam Hinkie announced his resignation from the team. The move came a few months after the Sixers’ ownership hired long-time NBA executive Jerry Colangelo as chairman, a move that precipitated a reduction in Hinkie’s role and influence and which ultimately led to his departure. Hinkie announced his resignation to the franchise’s owners via a 13-page internal letter, one almost immediately released publicly by ESPN’s Marc Stein. It is a letter well worth reading in full, providing as it does a first-hand insight into the mind of arguably the NBA’s most unique, enigmatic, reclusive and polarising executives. Hinkie’s resignation was a surprise, and the public release of his resignation letter even more so. But the contents of it should not be. That letter is in style, tone and content, a final report from a hedge fund manager to his investors, a management consultant restricting a struggling business, an interim CEO brought in to get the college ready for Ofsted inspectors. Only briefly touching on the basketball side of the operation, the end product is described in terms of asset management and ‘repositioning’ because that is the task with which Hinkie was charged (or at least, the one he chose to take on). The largely triumphant tone of Hinkie’s letter speaks to a job description, real or perceived, that was primarily if not exclusively concerned with taking apart what went before and accumulating as many assets as possible. To that end, Hinkie primarily chooses to evaluate himself on how he did that half of the job. However, that job description is at best only half of the job required of a successful basketball front office. And while Hinkie may not have been brought in to do only half the job, it […]
True sacrifice marks this fan’s long-distance love of the game
August 17th, 2015
[the fan being, me; this originally ran on NBA.com] Mark Deeks is a 30-year-old Englishman who didn’t play basketball growing up, didn’t coach, didn’t scout and didn’t really follow the game at all. Yet over the last decade, Deeks has become among the most knowledgeable people on earth about the game and the league, through his expertise in understanding one of the NBA’s least understandable topics: the salary cap and Collective Bargaining Agreements. His website, ShamSports.com, has become among the go-to sites for anyone seeking down to the penny info on player contracts and the arcane yet necessary knowledge about the CBA (the site is currently being renovated). It was Deeks who discovered in 2012 that Zach Randolph’s contract extension with the Memphis Grizzlies and Tim Duncan’s with the San Antonio Spurs technically violated existing CBA rules, and needed to be changed to be legal. They were. Deeks also blogs about how teams put together rosters — the why as opposed to the how — and has strong opinions on team and player decisions. Mark has been kind enough to lead us off this week with his story. ******* The NBA is an increasingly global brand. With NBA games now played every season in Europe and Asia, plus ones last year in Brazil and last month in South Africa, the NBA has delivered its distinctly American product around the world. And of course, the league has used the greatest facilitator ever, the Internet, to cover games live and on-demand to pretty much anyone who wants it. As a result, there are hundreds of millions of basketball fans around the world, many of whom are quite new to it. To be a fan of basketball outside of the USA is to be a fan of the NBA — no matter how good your domestic league is, or how much like a religion […]
Complete History Of NBA Luxury Tax Payments, 2001-2015
July 9th, 2015
NB: This article has now been updated and superceded by a 2022 version, available at Forbes.com. This website and its sole proprietor keep a spreadsheet containing to-the-dollar information on all luxury tax paid to date, updated annually. Here is the latest update. In the 14 seasons since the luxury tax was created, it has been applicable in twelve seasons; in twelve eleven seasons, 26 NBA franchises have paid over $1.1 billion in payroll excess. The exact details can be found here. NBA All-Time Luxury Tax Payers – sorted alphabetically (click to expand) NBA All-Time Luxury Tax Payers – sorted by expenditure (click to expand) (Orange cells denote the team that won the championship that year.) Please use the spreadsheet freely for resource purposes, and feel equally free to suggest any improvements. However, please do not just take it, and if you do cite its data somewhere, please acknowledge its source. While the content is not my IP, I did spend a long time sourcing the relevant information, and in return, I seek only credit and a few page hits for that. Thank you.
2015 NBA Summer League Rosters – Brooklyn
July 4th, 2015
Darius Adams A 6’2 scoring guard, Adams is trying to emulate David Logan and go from Division II Indianapolis right to the highest levels of professional basketball. And he’s doing a bloody good job of it. In fact, he’s already done it. A scoring machine, Adams has worked his way to the Spanish ACB in three short years after graduating. He led Division II in scoring as a senior with 23.2 points per game, followed it up with 18.9 points per game with Guaiqueries in Venezuela, followed that up with 19.3 points per game in the Ukraine with Kryvbasket, followed that with 18.0 points per game with Bremerhaven in Germany, and followed that up with 18.3 points per game with Nancy in France. There aren’t many more levels to go up after that – Nancy were a EuroLeague team this year – and after a mid-season move to the ACB and Laboral, Adams is now knocking on the NBA’s door. Adams is not just a scorer – he’s also a high assist guy, a very good rebounder for his size, and a decent defender with great hands. He’s streaky as a shooter and takes some bad ones, but such hot streaks can be extremely hot, and although he is small and does little at the basket, his energy and dynamicism make him a pest on both ends. Adams is fast, athletic, energetic and relentlessly aggressive, and he is becoming one of the better American point guards not in the NBA. Be prepared for a LOT of turnovers, however. Cliff Alexander From this year’s NCAA power forwards list: An out and out post player, Alexander was something of a disappointment as a freshman, which is a little unfair given that no one ultimately can control the expectation of others but which […]
2015 NBA Summer League Rosters – L.A. Clippers
July 4th, 2015
Branden Dawson From this year’s NCAA small forwards list: Dawson is a power forward in a shooting guard’s body, which of course makes him a small forward by default. He is undersized but explosive, and capable of defending inside and outside. Capable in various matchups, Dawson can match up at the two, three and four positions, and is a physical specimen, combining athleticism with strength and a wide, wide frame. Normally defending the post, Dawson gets by on defence despite the height disadvantage with this strength and with great discipline. He might be smaller than most opponents, but he is almost always stronger and more athletic than they are, and his long arms help make up for some of the difference. Dawson grabs tough rebounds and is measured in his aggression, and has good anticipatory skills and positional awareness. This does not negate the size disadvantage, but it surely helps a lot. Offensively, Dawson has developed a little bit of a mid-range shot, but it’s not pleasant looking, and he has absolutely no three point range at the moment. With little handle to speak of either, Dawson is entirely a finisher and not a creator, not even down low in the post. Rarely getting to the line (and shooting dreadfully when he does), Dawson is an opportunistic offensive player who gets by through transition, cuts, offensive rebounds and hustle. Yet when he does get such a look, he tears the rim off. This is pretty much all he does on offence, but it’s both fun and useful. Dawson, then, is limited to only a couple of areas of the game, but is extremely effective within them. If he can spot up a bit and keep the energy up, he could stick in the league for a while. Diante Garrett Garrett […]
Antoine Walker was (half) right
October 2nd, 2014
Throughout his playing career, Antoine Walker was always something of an object of ridicule. Rightly or wrongly, this happened. The fearsome, unrelenting uniqueness of watching him play was precisely why. For all his talent, particularly his prodigious handling and passing skills for a big man, Walker became best known for shooting three pointers. More specifically, he became best known for not shooting three pointers very well, yet doing it anyway. Toine was not a Josh Smith-like shooter out there. However, it was closer than it should have been. Walker’s career 32.5% three-point shooting mark ranks him 217th on the list of players with over 500 career three pointers made, nestled in between Stephon Marbury (216th) and Baron Davis (220th). And considering there are only 232 players who have hit at least that many in their career, this is not a strong placement for Toine. What further separates him from the good shooters on the list was the sheer volume of attempts – of those 232 players, Walker was 16th in total attempts, but only 26th in makes. He was not quietly inefficient. Indeed, he was never quietly anything. For two seasons in particular, Antoine’s three-point volume was ginormous. Walker hit 221 of 603 three pointers in the 2000-01 season (both leading the league), and 222 out of 645 the following season (second in makes only to Ray Allen, and again leading in attempts). This was the era of the three-point explosion – whereas in 1997-98 the 29 NBA teams shot a total of 30,231 regular season threes, that number had jumped almost 20 percent in the 2001-02 season to 35,071, led by Jim O’Brien‘s Celtics team willingly fuelled by Walker. That Celtics team and its 1,946 three-point attempts led the second-highest placed team (Orlando with 1,660) by almost 300 attempts. Although that league-wide number pales compared to the 52,974 […]
How Agents Make Money Out Of Rookie Contracts
September 26th, 2014
(originally posted elsewhere) The general rule for agents is that their earnings off of negotiated player contracts are capped at 4% of the player’s salary. Indeed, 4% is an assumed amount unless otherwise agreed upon, as outlined in section 3(B) of the Standard Player Agent Contract: If the Player receives compensation in excess of the minimum compensation applicable under the CBA for one or more playing seasons, the Agent shall receive a fee of four percent (4%) of the compensation received by the Player for each such playing season, unless a lesser percent (%) or amount has been agreed to by the parties […] In practice, this 4% is rarely deviated from. 4% is the norm, and rarely is it any different, especially in contracts involving the more powerful agents. There was an intriguing case involving Antoine Walker and agent Mark Bartelstein some years ago, in which Bartelstein had agreed the fairly unusual concession upon Antoine’s signing of a contract with Atlanta of lowering his standard fee from 4% at the time of signing to 3%, at the player’s discretion, if it was felt that Bartelstein ‘wasn’t doing a good job’. (The case went to arbitration over a disagreement over quite what that phrasing meant, and of how much Walker had to pay him. It was not in dispute that Walker owed Bartelstein, but merely how much, based on the arbiter’s findings of whether Walker was entitled to pay only 3% or not. Bartelstein won the case and was awarded a judgement of $671,373.) But this case stands out for its novelty, and is certainly not par for the course. However, the same handbook adds a few other criteria. In section 3(A) immediately preceding the previous paragraph, it states this: If the Player receives only the minimum compensation under the NBA-NBPA […]
San Antonio Spurs Sign Josh Davis
August 26th, 2014
The San Antonio Spurs have signed Josh Davis, last of San Diego State, to a multi-year contract. The amount of guaranteed money is not yet known. Davis graduated from San Diego State last season after transferring in from Tulane, where he had spent the previous two seasons after spending his freshman campaign at North Carolina State. The 6’8 athletic forward saw his offensive game regress significantly last season, down to 7.7 points per game from 17.6, shooting only 45.5% from the field down from 49.2%, and struggling badly at the free throw line, hitting only 47.2% from where he had previously shot 71.6%. Nevertheless, he brings to the table athleticism, prolific rebounding and versatile defence, and recently played well for the Charlotte Hornets summer league team, averaging 8.6 points and 10.1 rebounds per game. Should he not make the Spurs’ roster, is a logical and perhaps likely candidate for allocation to the team’s D-League affiliate, the Austin Toros. With Davis’s signing, the Spurs’ roster now stands at 17. Davis will likely battle fellow camp signees JaMychal Green and Bryce Cotton for what might at best be one roster spot.
Boston Celtics Sign Rodney McGruder And Christian Watford
August 20th, 2014
The Boston Celtics today signed Rodney McGruder and Christian Watford to one year contracts. The levels of guarantee are not yet known, but are expected to be either nominal or nil. Watford, a jump shooting combo forward, attended summer league this year with both the Detroit Pistons and Golden State Warriors, averaging 8.5 points in two games for Detroit. He has spent the one year of his professional career thus far in Israel. McGruder meanwhile did not appear in summer league for anybody, yet last year spent some time with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 6’4 off-guard is also only one year into a professional career, spending the bulk of his first campaign in Hungary with Atomeromu, averaging 14.4 points and 5.3 rebounds in 27 minutes a contest. After signing Tim Frazier earlier in the day, the Celtics roster now stands at 20, the maximum permissible amount in the offseason. Evan Turner, reported to have agreed a deal with the team some weeks ago, has yet to sign it.
Sorry guys, Carmelo Anthony did not get $62 million in advance
August 16th, 2014
(originally posted elsewhere) For the most part, NBA players are paid on the first and fifteenth of every month, with a standard of 24 paydays per calendar year. Players earning more than the minimum can agree to 12 payments over six months or 36 payments over eighteen months, yet the norm is the norm. There is room for some further deviation from these standards. Players can receive both advances on their salary, and receive loans from their teams. There is not, however, room for the amount of deviation that is currently being reported in the case of Carmelo Anthony. It is being reported in several places around the web, most notably (and I believe initially) the Wall Street Journal, that Melo received 50% of his new $124,064,681 contract in one up front payment. Admittedly, it is not so much expressly stated as it is implied that this is the case, but whichever it is, the idea it spawned that he will or might have already gotten $62 million is wrong. The confusion comes from a misunderstanding about how, when and to what degree NBA contracts can be advanced, a confusion I hope to clarify here. The first and most important point to make is that salary for a future season can never ever be advanced. NBA seasons begin on July 1st and end on June 30th, so if it is October 6th 2014 and you want an advance on your 2015/16 salary, you are begrudgingly going to have to wait until July 1st 2015 to get so much as a piece of it. This rule alone is enough to show that the idea that Melo received a full 50% of the full life of the contract up front is false. There is, however, a reason the story exists, for the […]
Jusuf Nurkic revisited
August 7th, 2014
This post from yesterday talks about how Nuggets draftee Jusuf Nurkic was set to receive less than 120% of the rookie scale, the customary amount. And in doing so, it was mentioned that he would be the highest first-round pick to ever do so. Not quite. It turns out this is a misreporting on my part. Nurkic will receive less than the salary of the 120% rookie scale amount, but he will count on the cap for the 120% amount. Nurkic’s buyout with Cedevita was for larger than the amount NBA teams can pay cap-exempt ($600,000 this season), and while teams are eligible to pay more than that amount in an international player’s buyout, they must do so by putting any amount greater than that paid into the cap hit in the form of a signing bonus. This is not especially to do in a rookie scale contract, with its fixed parameters, but it is doable if sufficiently small. The figures listed for Nurkic were an even $350,000 smaller than what the full rookie scale would have been, and that is the extra amount of buyout Denver paid, charged as a signing bonus. These rules were known to me, of course, and the practice is not uncommon. Bismack Biyombo, Andrea Bargnani and several others have been in this same situation, getting less than the full 120% in actual salary yet counting against the cap as the full 120% (and to anyone other than the people signing and receiving the cheques, i.e. us team building fans, only the cap number matters). Nevertheless, it was understood in the instance that the figures given were the actual cap hits and thus included the buyout signing bonus. It was counter checked and passed both tests. And yet now the opposite is said to be […]
Without looking, guess which first-round draft pick didn’t get the full 120% of the rookie scale this year
August 4th, 2014
Answer after the jump. (this is the jump) The answer is Jusuf Nurkic of the Denver Nuggets. His contract calls for 108% of the scale in year one ($1,562,680), 107% in year two ($1,642,000), and then 120% in years three and four ($1,921,320 and $2,947,300 respecitvely). That adds him to an exclusive and small club of non-120%ers, including Raul Lopez, George Hill, Ian Mahinmi, James Anderson, Sergio Rodriguez, MarShon Brooks, and probably some others. It is believed that Nurkic, a #16 pick, is the highest drafted player to ever not receive the full amount.
30 Offseason Reviews In 30ish Days: Atlanta Hawks
August 4th, 2014
Completed transactions: Draft night: Drafted Adreian Payne (15th, signed) and Walter Tavares (43rd, unsigned). Acquired the rights to Lamar Patterson (48th, unsigned) for a future second round pick. 30th June: Traded Lou Williams and the rights to Lucas Nogueira to Toronto in exchange for John Salmons. 10th July: Waived John Salmons. 15th July: Acquired Thabo Sefolosha via sign and trade (three years, $12 million) along with cash and the draft rights to Giorgis Printezis in exchange for the draft rights to Sofoklis Schortsanitis. Agreed upon but not yet completed transactions: Re-signing Shevlin Mack. Re-signing Mike Scott Signing Kent Bazemore. In: Adreian Payne, Thabo Sefolosha, Kent Bazemore Out: Lou Williams, Gustayo Ayon, Elton Brand, Cartier Martin Words: On the face of it, Atlanta improved their team. Those incoming players are, or will be, slightly better than those outgoing. Brand is a shell of what he was, Ayon needed upgrading, Williams was not the right fit, and Martin is highly replacable. On the simplest of evaluations, then, things are OK. The bulk of the Hawks’s offseason business was conducted in one fell swoop with the trade dated 30th June. Williams, a once prolific scorer who has never developed as a point guard and who rather compounded a size problem found throughout Atlanta’s roster, still had his moments as a high-usage volume scorer, but he was eminently replacable on a team prioritising efficient players. Using the rights to Nogueira (a sprightly big with potential but also concerns about his knees) as a crux for dumping Williams’s $5.45 million salary for only the $1 million cap hit of a waived Salmons was deemed an acceptable cost for the cap space gamble. In return, they receive Sefolosha, a sizeable wing who can guard all comers at two positions, but not without his […]
Josh Huestis’s D-League adventure, a misplaced exercise in loyalty
July 23rd, 2014
(originally published elsewhere) A few days ago, Darnell Mayberry broke the story that Oklahoma City Thunder draft pick Josh Huestis might spend next year in the D-League, collecting a mere $25,000 or so salary, rather than sign in the NBA. This would be groundbreaking, not as the first first rounder to not sign immediately in the NBA (this happens quite often), but as the first to do so who instead signs in the D-League. It also makes absolutely no sense on the face of it. As useful as the D-League can be, its salaries are extremely uncompetitive. Players are paid by the league in one of three salary brackets, determined by their ability, and even though Huestis would no doubt be worthy of the highest D-League salary possible, that figure is still paltry. It will be comparable before tax with what an NBA 10 day contract pays, and when I say ‘comparable with’, I mean ‘slightly lower than’. Huestis would be doing so because the Thunder asked him to, in a pre-arranged deal running unnervingly close to the line. Tom Ziller speculated it, and Zach Lowe confirmed it. The projected second round or undrafted player going in the first round was indeed a eye opener, and it follows that, given that they may have been alone in wanting to take him that high, the Thunder felt they had the leverage to lean on him in this way. Apparently, to agent Mitchell Butler, the fact that it is the Thunder makes it all worthwhile. An analogous situation here is that of George Hill with the San Antonio Spurs in 2008. The Spurs took the IUPUI guard in the first round when no one expected them to, and used this as a means of leveraging him into accepting less than the customary […]
The Following Players Are Untradeable
July 21st, 2014
‘Traditional’ no-trade clauses in the NBA are possible, but rare, with only six of them currently in existence. They belong to Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Dirk Nowitzki, Carmelo Anthony and Dwyane Wade, the latter three all getting one in the contracts they signed this summer. These vetos apply to any trades throughout the life of the contract, and are not lost if one trade goes through – Garnett, for example, keeps his no-trade clause for any future trades he might be in, despite his acquiescence to the trade to Brooklyn last year. To be eligible for one, a player has to have spent eight seasons in the league, four of which must have been with the team with whom he is signing the new contract containing the clause. They don’t have to have been the four years immediately prior to the signing, however – Cleveland, for example, could have put a no-trade clause in the maximum contract LeBron James signed with them this summer, due to the service time he spent there between 2003 and 2010. They didn’t, however, and so only those six ‘traditional’ no-trade clauses exist. (It also matters not how long the contract is, as long as the criteria in the opening are met.) Devin Harris could also have done so with Dallas, which would have been a laugh, yet it is apparent why these devices are rare and reserved only for the best. There also however exist some slightly more funky no-trade provisions, born out of salary cap technicalities, that give certain players no-trade powers that you would not be expecting. Cole Aldrich, for example, can veto any trade he is in, while LeBron cannot. And this probably needs explaining. Aldrich et al have their rights to veto come from a technicality of Bird rights. Named […]
