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 […]
