Erik Murphy

Chicago - D.J. Augustin and Erik Murphy: Despite consecutive terrible seasons, Augustin has been given every opportunity to play amidst the Bulls's decimated point guard rotation, and has had enough moments in his 9.7 points and 5.7 assists averages thus far to stick for the season. Meanwhile, Murphy has hardly taken the court, but waiving him isn't financially prudent.

After signing Erik Murphy to a $250,000 guaranteed deal and waiving Richard Hamilton and Malcolm Thomas, the Chicago Bulls had only 12 players under contract. They wanted to bring in veterans Mike James, Dexter Pittman, D.J. White and Dahntay Jones to fight for roster spots. They did not, however, want to pay them anything to do so.

The Bulls thus sought to sign those four to deals incorporating Exhibit 9. But they could not do so until they had 14 contracts. They thus signed undrafted rookie guards Kalin Lucas and Patrick Christopher to unguaranteed yet exhibit 9-less deals before signing those four veterans, thereby meeting the threshold for being able to give out exhibit 9?s, and subsequently signed the vet quartet to four deals containing them.

Lucas and Christopher were waived on the second day of camp. They never stood a chance of making it. An unconfirmed report further suggests that the duo did not even partake in practice – had they done so, they might have gotten hurt. And had they done so, the taxpaying Bulls might have been liable for a hefty bill. As cutthroat as it is, this is business – if someone was going to get hurt in camp, the Bulls wanted it to happen as cheaply as possible. So they protected themselves.

In the end, it has mattered not. White, Pittman and Jones have all been waived – the only surviving unguaranteed contracts are the partially guaranteed deal of Murphy and the Exhibit 9 of James. James seems to have made the team, even without a trade of Marquis Teaque, due in part to the Bulls’s need to meet the minimum roster requirement of 13 players. (They may waive James later when Kurt Thomas is fit to play again, yet he survives for now.)

Nonetheless, even though the finagling ultimately didn’t save the Bulls anything, it was engineered in such a way that it could have done. This is either shrewd asset management and smart business savvy, or an overly callous piece of manipulation by a habitually cheap franchise, depending on your perspective.

[O]n a more simplistic level, second-round picks simply cost less. In an era where so many more teams have cap room than in the recent past, this trend is developing further, and being pushed further down. Teams are selling second-round picks less because they are valued internally ever more, for multiple reasons, both in raw salary and luxury tax calculations.

Players with more than two years of NBA experience count as only a two-year veteran against both salary cap and luxury tax calculations if they are signed to only a one-year minimum salary contract. For this reason, they are almost always signed to that, and only rarely does a veteran on a minimum salary contract get a second year. Meanwhile, rookies and sophomores signed to the minimum count against the salary cap as their respective minimum salaries, but only against the cap.

For luxury tax calculations, any player signed as a free agent who earns less than the two-year veteran's minimum salary counts as the two-year veteran's minimum salary, unless he was drafted. If he was drafted, he counts only for what he was signed for. Simply put, you can't sign undrafted rookies instead of veterans to pinch some pennies on the luxury tax. You can, however, sign drafted ones. This, then, is where extra value from a late second-round pick can be found.

If you're faced with the choice between a fringe NBA veteran getting a roster spot, or your second-round pick, then any luxury tax concerns the team may have will play a factor in the decision. For example, Erik Murphy with Chicago has only a $250,000 guarantee on his $490,180 salary this season, yet he is surely extremely likely to survive the whole season, as a replacement player (whom the Bulls would likely have to sign just to meet the minimum roster size) will cost about double that.

An undrafted rookie signed to the rookie minimum would cost Chicago $490,180 in salary but $1,514,573 in luxury tax (Chicago currently resides in the $1.75-$1 tax bracket), plus the $250,000 in Murphy's guaranteed portion should he be waived. Murphy, a drafted rookie minimum, would in contrast cost only $857,815 in tax, the same in salary, and without the cost of the guaranteed portion of someone else. That is a saving of as-near-as-is $1 million. And that is significant.

Florida are led by those six, although they can go with as many as ten players at times. When he enters the game, freshman Casey Prather likes to look for threes and long twos, both off the dribble and off of catch-and-shoot situations, without looking to do a whole lot else. He has attempted zero free throws this season. Freshman Frenchman Will Yeguete (6'7, 210) likes to throw himself wildly at the offensive glass, and by my troth, he gets them. Backup point guard Scottie Wilbekin is still only 17 years old, and gets quite a lot of minutes for one so young, having a decent impact defensively. And backup big man Erik Murphy showed up with a three point stroke this year, giving him a fairly reliable offensive tool to go along with his agility, effort and rebounding. He'll play a much bigger role next season, once Tyus and Macklin have both signed in Israel.