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NB: This article has now been updated and superceded by a 2022 version, available at Forbes.com.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.
The amount of cap room teams have remaining
July 17th, 2014
The bulk of free agency is behind us, maybe, but we’re far from done. There follows a look at how much cap space NBA teams still have outstanding, which, with the exception of the occasions I blatantly do the opposite, will be presented without analysis as to how the situation came about. All the teams that have cap space, or have had cap space this offseason, are included in the list. That is a total of fifteen teams and half the league. The other fifteen – Boston, Brooklyn, Denver, Golden State, Indiana, L.A. Clippers, Memphis, Minnesota, New York, Oklahoma City, Portland, Sacramento, San Antonio, Toronto and Washington – are not mentioned at all. All salary information is taken from this website’s own salary pages. All figures taken from the day of publication – if subsequent trades/signings are made, then adjust accordingly. It is vital – VITAL – that you understand what a “cap hold” is before you read this. An explanation can be found here. Players with asterisks by their names are not under contract with the team, and cap holds are separated from active contracts by the use of a simple link break. Atlanta Hawks Committed salary for 2014/15: $48,416,058 (view full forecast) Remaining cap space: $10,839,436 Atlanta has made only one signing in free agency, facilitated by one trade, and the money jointly spent on Thabo Sefolosha and John Salmons is actually less than the money they were due to spend on Louis Williams. They started with cap space, added more possibly unnecessarily, and still haven’t used up the extra bit, let alone dip into the reserves. I say “possibly unnecessarily” because it does not appear as though they have looked to do much with it, got shot down when they did, and the list of candidates is […]
“Consideration In Trades And Trade Structure” – a league instruction manual
July 11th, 2014
At the end of the July Moratorium each year, the league sends out a memo containing all of the findings from the audit it conducted during it. That audit is what the moratorium period is for – the moratorium is one long end-of-season book-keep in which it crunches all the numbers related to revenue, BRI, escrow, tax and the like, and makes determinations on both the past and the future. That memo generally filters through to the mainstream media – it has to, because it contains all the things that will make the league work next year, such as the salary cap numbers and exact size of the luxury tax threshold. It also contains things such as the latest projection of the season after next ($66.3 million salary cap, $80.7 million luxury tax threshold) and the sizes of next year’s exceptions. This year, however, the league sent out a second memo. Entitled “Consideration in Trades and Trade Structure”, it is a reminder and/or clarifier to teams about some of the specifics of what they can and cannot do in trades. Seemingly, they felt this was necessary Considering the presence of this memo suggests that some teams do not entirely understand the rules (or, perhaps, have been intent on pushing them back a bit), it is self-evidently the case that those of us outside of the league will not fully know them either. So, here goes. The memo is divided into two parts. The first part of the memo deals with what constitutes ‘consideration’ in trades, and is itself split into two parts. Part two of this first section concerns consideration in trades for non-playing personnel. Seemingly, in light of recent de facto coaching trades (whereby a team receives compensation for letting a non-playing member of staff out of their contract […]
Complete History Of NBA Luxury Tax Payments, 2001-2014
July 10th, 2014
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 13 seasons since the luxury tax was created, it has been applicable in eleven seasons; in those eleven seasons, 24 NBA franchises have paid over $1 billion in payroll excess. The exact details can be found here. (Sorted alphabetically – click to enhance.) (Sorted by expenditure – click to enhance.) (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.
The amount of cap room teams actually have, updated
July 25th, 2013
The previous post attempted to explain how much cap room all NBA teams would (or wouldn’t) actually have in this upcoming free agency period. It was a bit presumptuous. It had to be. Now, we can be reflective. Here’s what’s left. All salary information is taken from this website’s own salary pages. All figures taken from the day of publication – if subsequent trades/signings are made, then adjust accordingly. No trades are assumed to be taking place here. Guesswork and speculation aren’t helpful. It is vital – VITAL – that you understand what a “cap hold” is before you read this. An explanation can be found here. Atlanta Hawks Committed salary for 2013/14: $53,314,578 (view full forecast) Possible cap space: $6,878,477. Committed salaries: Al Horford: $12,000,000 Paul Millsap: $9,500,000 Jeff Teague: $8,000,000 Kyle Korver: $6,760,563 Lou Williams: $5,225,000 Elton Brand: $4,000,000 DeShawn Stevenson: $2,240,450 Dennis Schroder: $1,348,200 John Jenkins: $1,258,800 Jared Cunningham: $1,208,400 Shelvin Mack: $884,293 Mike Scott: $788,872 Jeremy Tyler: $100,000 Cap holds: Lucas Nogeira: $1,419,200 Ivan Johnson: $1,250,854 Anthony Tolliver: $884,293 Total: $56,868,925 = $1,810,075 in cap room. This amount can be increased. Stevenson is unguaranteed with no guarantee date, as is Mack, and Scott can be waived for no cost before August 15th. Waive them three, renounce Johnson and Tolliver, and, after adding two roster charges, Atlanta now has cap space of $6,878,477. With a cap room MLE to spend after that. Note, however, that DeMarre Carroll is to be factored in. His signing is agreed upon but not yet finalised, and when it happens, figures are to be adjusted accordingly. Charlotte Bobcats Committed salary for 2013/14: $52,392,131 (view full forecast) Possible cap space: $6,222,408 Committed salary: Al Jefferson: $13,500,000 Ben Gordon: $13,200,000 Ramon Sessions: $5,000,000 Michael Kidd-Gilchrist: $4,809,840 Cody Zeller: $3,857,040 Bismack Biyombo: $3,049,920 Josh McRoberts: […]
It’s official – Keith Bogans will earn $5,058,198 next year. All guaranteed. Keith Bogans.
July 15th, 2013
Happy? You should be. Keith Bogans has an uncanny knack for being in the right place at the right time. He has become throughout his NBA career the archetypal three-and-D wing role player, the kind of piece you want around star point guards or big men (or both), who’ll defend opposing stars for a few pesky minutes a night and not risk anything more offensively than taking some open threes. Yet despite not being significantly above average at either, and in no way any more of a stand-out talent in relation to the dozens of other suitable candidates for the role, Bogans’s medicority is nonetheless a sure thing, a known commodity, a risk-free contributor who’ll neither say nor do nothing confrontational. Teams like that, and, because of this, he has time and again landed starting roles, often on competitive teams. In a talent vacuum, he’s not worth this opportunity or luxury, yet by continuing to land these gigs, Bogans is doing something right. Normally, of course, this role doesn’t earn very much. Keith has mostly been a minimum salary player throughout his career, only rarely exceeding it, and this reflect his minimal contributions. None of this is meant pejoratively – Bogans plays a role, plays it fairly well, and yet the role is small and replacable, so so is its salary. This, however, is all change in light of Keith’s new contract. The rebuilding Boston Celtics insisted upon Jason Terry (and, primarily, his salary) being included in the Paul Pierce/Kevin Garnett trade with the Nets. Either he or Courtney Lee. Brooklyn could afford it and were prepared to pay it, but, in light of all their recent roster turnover, they didn’t have the necessarily medium-size expiring contracts that are so useful in trade scenarios that would have facilitated it. In […]
Complete History of Luxury Tax Payments, Updated for 2012/13
July 10th, 2013
This website and its sole proprietor keep a spreadsheet containing to-the-dollar information on all luxury tax paid to date. In the 12 seasons since the luxury tax was created, it has been applicable in ten seasons; in those ten seasons, 24 NBA franchises have paid over $920 million in payroll excess. The exact details can be found here. (Sorted alphabetically – click to enhance.) (Sorted by expenditure – click to enhance.) 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 for that. Thank you.
There IS a difference between “team option” and “unguaranteed”, and it DOES matter
July 3rd, 2013
Several years ago, I wrote a piece called Creative Financing in the NBA, that sought to address and highlight a few quirky salaries and salaries mechanisms handed about that season. In that piece, I also spent a long time addressing the difference between team options and unguaranteed salaries. Often times, unguaranteed salaries are reported in the mainstream press as being team options, even though the two mechanisms are different. And often times, this is fine, because the differences don’t really matter. Not to the casual fan, at least. Nevertheless, differences do exist. Some of the initial post is quoted below that explains these differences: Unguaranteed or partially guaranteed final seasons are becoming quite the trend in the NBA, and they are quickly replacing team options. In fact, there are only 11 team options in the entire league […] There are very few instances in which contracts must be guaranteed. In fact, there are only two; the first year of a signed-and-traded contract, and the first two years of a rookie scale contract (which must be guaranteed for a minimum of 80% of the scale amount). Nothing else has to be guaranteed, but it is self-evident that almost all are. Would you accept an unguaranteed contract as a player? Not without incentive to do so, no. It is self evident why so many contracts are fully guaranteed. Yet the unguaranteed contract fad has its basis in logic. In a lot of cases, unguaranteed contracts function much like team options do. However, there are some significant advantages to doing it in this way, which is why it happens. The differences: 1) Team options have to be decided upon by the final day of the previous season. Seasons change over on July 1st, and thus team options must be decided upon by June […]
Salary Bookkeeping, 2013
July 1st, 2013
July 1st is (the date on which one season ends and the next one begins, and thus June 30th (and the week preceding it) is an important cut-off date for certain transactions. Players with player or early termination options had to decide if they were coming back; the few players with team options awaited an uncertain future; players eligible for QO’s had to see if they got them. All the results are in now, and there follows a list of who did what before July 1st. NB: free agent statuses taken as of April 22nd 2013. The following players opted in: – Charlotte = Ben Gordon – Dallas = Shawn Marion – Detroit = Charlie Villanueva – Golden State = Richard Jefferson, Andris Biedrins and Brandon Rush – L.A. Lakers = Metta World Peace – Memphis = Jerryd Bayless – Miami = Ray Allen, James Jones and Rashard Lewis – Philadelphia = Kwame Brown – San Antonio = Patrick Mills and Boris Diaw – Toronto = Aaron Gray and Linas Kleiza – Utah = Marvin Williams – Washington = Trevor Ariza and Emeka Okafor The following players opted out: – Brooklyn = C.J. Watson – Cleveland = Marreese Speights – Dallas = O.J. Mayo – Denver = Andre Iguodala – Golden State = Carl Landry – Milwaukee = Monta Ellis – Minnesota = Andrei Kirilenko – New York = J.R. Smith The following players had their 2013/14 team options exercised: – L.A. Lakers = Jodie Meeks – Miami = Mario Chakmers – Milwaukee = Gustavo Ayon – Minnesota = Dante Cunningham The following players had their team options declined: – Houston = Francisco Garcia – Toronto = John Lucas III (No one really gives out team options any more. For an explanation as to why, read the opening of this.) […]
Mavericks to sign Gal Mekel to three year guaranteed deal
July 1st, 2013
It was actually three, but close enough. Looking to reinvent their point guard rotation, the Dallas Mavericks have looked to the overseas market, and will sign Israeli national team point guard Gal Mekel. Mekel has been named in NBA circles in recent times, as he has participated in a series of workouts and free agent camps for teams around the league, hoping to catch on. Recently, this culminated into accepting an offer to join the Milwaukee Bucks’ summer league team. Yet in signing a three year, fully guaranteed deal, Mekel has done much more than merely catch on. Mekel played for Wichita State between 2006 and 2008, establishing himself as a solid but unspectacular point guard who shot too much and had absolutely no NBA prospects. However, after leaving college after his sophomore season and returning to his native Israel, Mekel (who also has a Polish passport) has improved markedly and emerged as one of the best floor generals on the continent. In winning last year’s Israel Premier League MVP award, the 6’3 Mekel recorded per game averages of 13.3 points and 5.4 assists (good for second in the league), including a 21 point 7 assist 3 steal outing in the deciding championship game. Mekel commands games with passing vision, ball handling, high basketball IQ, genuine leadership skills and a deadly pick-and-roll game, and, while he’s not fast and lacks a good outside jump shot, he nonetheless brings a wealth of transferrable skills to the NBA. Last year, Mekel impressed the Utah Jazz so much that they extended him a training camp offer, one he was only prevented from taking due to visa problems. This year, he’s done a lot better than that. Mekel’s three year guaranteed minimum salary contract will pay him $490,180, $816,482 and $947,276 over the next […]
The amount of cap room teams will actually have
June 8th, 2013
All salary information is taken from this website’s own salary pages. All figures taken from the day of publication – if subsequent trades/signings are made, then adjust accordingly. NOTE: All cap space amounts are calculated to an estimated salary cap of $58.5 million. This inexact figure is the most recent (and thus accurate) projection released yet, and will suffice for now. When the actual amount is calculated/announced, the sums below will be altered accordingly. It is vital – VITAL – that you understand what a “cap hold” is before you read this. An explanation can be found here. Atlanta Hawks Committed salary for 2013/14: $22,497,415 (view full forecast) Projected cap space: At most, $35,504,580, but not really. If Atlanta renounce (or lose) Josh Smith, and renounce their remaining free agents (Kyle Korver, Devin Harris, Zaza Pachulia, Johan Petro, Ivan Johnson, Jeff Teague, Dahntay Jones, Hilton Armstrong, Erick Dampier, Etan Thomas, Randolph Morris and Anthony Tolliver), waive DeShawn Stevenson ($2,240,450, fully unguaranteed with no guarantee date), Shelvin Mack ($884,293, fully unguaranteed with no guarantee date) and Mike Scott ($788,872, fully unguaranteed until August 15th, thereafter $100,000 guaranteed) and sell or renounce their first-round draft picks (#17 and #18, cap holds of $1,348,200 and $1,280,800), they will have a cap number of $22,995,420 (the committed salary plus nine minimum salary roster charges of $490,180 for having less than twelve things on the cap). (If you want to get really absurd, they could even amnesty Al Horford. Hypotheticals are fun.) This is, however, a maximum amount. And it’s not a realistic one. Smith’s cap hold will be equal to the maximum amount for a nine year veteran, and, while this amount will not be known until the new salary cap figure is determined, a slight increase in the cap will mean a slight […]
What Happened Prior to July 1st Other Than A Bunch Of Ultimately Unproductive CBA Negotiations
July 2nd, 2011
Even though a lockout is upon us, one which might last us through until the very end of existence in late 2012, there’s still some bookkeeping to be done. July 1st is (or should be) the date on which one season ends and the next one begins, and thus June 30th is an important cut-off date for certain transactions. Players with player or early termination options had to decide if they were coming back; the few players with team options awaited an uncertain future; players eligible for QO’s had to see if they got them. We also had the added bonus of 2012/13 team options for rookie scale contracts being decided considerably earlier than usual – after all, when the usual end of October deadline comes around, the lockout may still be going on. All the results are in now, however, and there follows a list of who did what before July 1st. The following players opted in: – Boston = Ray Allen – Charlotte = Boris Diaw – Cleveland = Ryan Hollins – Golden State = Charlie Bell and Louis Amundson – L.A. Clippers = Brian Cook – L.A. Lakers = Matt Barnes – Miami = Eddie House and Zydrunas Ilgauskas – New York = Ronny Turiaf – Phoenix = Mickael Pietrus – San Antonio = Tim Duncan – Toronto = Leandro Barbosa The following players opted out: – Denver = Nene – L.A. Lakers = Shannon Brown (who has now completed the rare achievement of doing this in consecutive seasons) – Miami = James Jones – New Orleans = Aaron Gray and David West The following players had their 2011/12 team options exercised: – Houston = Goran Dragic – Memphis = Sam Young – Utah = C.J. Miles The following players had their team options declined: – Sacramento […]
Chicago's Meticulously Crafted 2011 Offseason Plan That Relies An Awful Lot Upon Guesswork
June 9th, 2011
Nothing cheers me up more than heavily contrived and extremely implausible hypothetical transactions for the Chicago Bulls.1 Taking a team’s cap situation, and attempting to maximize the basketball assets that they can get from using it, is what I wish to spend my life doing. It is this love of salary cap manipulation and amateurish talent evaluation that has in the past produced seminal works such as the four team 16 player trade that intended to bring Carmelo Anthony to Chicago whilst getting Denver under the luxury tax in the process2, as well as last offseason’s equally well-intended multi-faceted shake-up that sought only to avoid signing Joe Johnson, and which bizarrely predicted that the Bulls would end up with half of the previous season’s Utah Jazz rotation, but not the half that they actually wound up with. These are my hobbies. Ironically, Joe Johnson would be a somewhat perfect fit for Chicago right now. But unfortunately, Joe Johnson still has five years and $107,333,589 remaining on his maximum salary contract given to him by the Hawks, whom he just led to 44 wins and an ultimately rather purposeless second round exit. When the 29 year old fourth best player at his position gets the fifth biggest contract in the history of the sport, consider yourselves outbid.3 It’s a shame, in a way, for a player of Joe Johnson’s type and talent level would now be an exact fit to the major problem Chicago faces. Chicago isn’t exactly a team awash with strife. They just made it to the Eastern Conference Finals, had the best regular season record in the league, won 62 games, won the Most Valuable Player award, won the Coach Of The Year award, and somehow managed to come both first and third in the Executive Of The […]
…..Third Prize Is You're Fired
October 6th, 2010
Continuing the lengthy look at training camp invitees league wide, here’s part three. Part one can be found here, and part two is here. Oklahoma City – View Thunder roster– View Thunder salary information With a full roster, Oklahoma City saw fit to bring in four more. They signed undrafted point/combo guards Jerome Dyson of UConn and Tweety (Demond) Carter of Baylor, as well as fellow undrafted swingman Elijah Millsap of UAB. They later brought in former University of Oklahoma centre Longar Longar to round up the numbers and complete a roster of 19. Curiously, but probably rightly, they did not bring in any of their currently unsigned second rounders. 2009 pick Robert Vaden was rumoured to be a candidate, but eventually did not come over, and 2010 picks Latavious Williams and Ryan Reid also did not sign, despite currently not being under contract elsewhere. Dyson played for the Cavaliers in summer league, at which time I wrote this about him: There was a time when averaging 20/5/5 at UConn meant a guarantee to be drafted. Not so for Dyson. For all the scoring numbers, Dyson is far from a complete scorer; for all the assist numbers, Dyson is far from a point guard. And at 6’3, he’ll struggle to be a shooting guard as well. Much of his production comes from the fast break, where he is unbelievably good. He can snake his way to the basket with blistering speed, and finish with athleticism despite his small size. In the half court, however, he can’t get to the basket as readily. This is due in no small part to his jump shot, which doesn’t really exist. And while Dyson has the athletic tools for perimeter defence, he lapses. If he goes to the D-League – and he should, because […]
Anybody Wanna See Second Prize? Second Prize Is A Set Of Steak Knives…..
September 30th, 2010
Continuing the lengthy look at training camp invitees league wide, here’s part two. Part one can be found here. Indiana – View Pacers roster– View Pacers salary information Indiana already has 15 guaranteed contracts, so they didn’t bring in many for camp. The only two players they signed were D-League veteran centre Lance Allred, and their second second-round draft pick from this summer, Magnum Rolle. Additionally, the contracts of both A.J. Price ($175,000 of $762,195 guaranteed) and Josh McRoberts ($500,000 of $885,120) are not fully unguaranteed, although you can pretty much guarantee McBizzles is making the team since Pacers coach Jim O’Brien has already said he’s considering him at starting power forward.Weber State graduate Allred played briefly with the Cavaliers down the stretch of the 2007/08 season, his only NBA experience thus far. Cleveland called him up on account of the 16.2 points and 10.0 rebounds he had averaged during the season for the Idaho Stampede; in the ten minutes of NBA playing time he received, Allred put up a negative PER (admittedly a far from reprehensible act in only 10 minutes). Allred has spent most of the last four seasons with the Stampede, and has not had much luck on the occasions that he’s chosen to leave. Last year, for example, Allred signed with Italian team Napoli, only for this to happen. He stayed in Italy to play four games with Scavolini Pesaro, averaging 5.3 points and 4.0 rebounds, before returning to the Stampede again and averaging 13/9. Allred, perhaps most famous for being legally deaf (although not fully deaf), signed this summer for Ukrainian team Khimik, but left there to try to make this team instead. Now aged 29, this might be his last NBA chance. Rolle’s draft rights were acquired by the Pacers for those of Ryan […]
We're Adding A Little Something To This Month's Sales Contest. As You All Know, First Prize Is A Cadillac El Dorado.
September 28th, 2010
No matter how much you may think you know, NBA training camp always offers an opportunity to learn more. In that respect, it rivals summer league and draft night; all three present chances to learn more about players about whom you previously did not know about, and you get to try to understand what the NBA sees in them. If a player makes it as far as training camp, after all, then they must be doing something right, because all these players have signed valid NBA contracts. They’re no longer just here for show; they’re under contract, and even being paid a small stipend. In some cases, the player’s presence is for no reason other than convenience and/or practice purposes, and some are there purely as fodder. Yet even then, it’s intriguing. A contract is a contract. And as Jason Richards has proved in the past, even unguaranteed contracts can be lucrative. There follows both predictions and analysis, if you will, of the upcoming training camp battles in October 2010. This post is so named because I like to imagine that this NSFW speech by Alec Baldwin in Glengarry Glen Ross actually takes place at every team’s media day. If it doesn’t, don’t tell me otherwise. Atlanta – View Hawks roster– View Hawks salary information The Hawks have already taken the purpose out of any training camp signings. They have already emphatically stated that the 14 man roster they already have is the 14 man roster that they will begin the season with; their three signings (Evan Brock, Ricardo Marsh and Richard Delk) serve only to prove that. Additionally, of those 14 contracts, only one (that of Etan Thomas) is unguaranteed. And the only way Thomas doesn’t make it is if he’s in some way unhealthy. Considering Thomas has played […]
Training camp signings thus far
September 23rd, 2010
There follows a compendium of all players who have signed, or agreed to sign, for 2010 training camp. I could not find such a compendium elsewhere and thus decided to make one. This list also includes earlier signings of players with unguaranteed or partially guaranteed deals. In some cases, such as with Cucumber, certain players will obviously make it, yet they are included for the sake of uniformity. There exists the possibility that any of these signings could yet change – nothing is certain until the date that the contract is signed. This was recently proven to be the case with Jon Scheyer, who was going to camp with Utah as recently as last week, even seen saying so himself here. But then Utah signed Earl Watson and Scheyer/his agent changed their minds. However, with so little time left until camp starts, most of the signings can be assumed to happening now. Some already have. Atlanta: Etan ThomasEvan BrockRicardo MarshRichard Delk Boston: Oliver LafayetteTony GaffneyDelonte WestVon WaferJamar SmithChris JohnsonStephane LasmeMario West Charlotte: Javaris CrittentonSherron CollinsDerrick BrownDarius Miles Chicago: John LucasBrian ScalabrineRoger PowellKyle WeaverChris Richard Cleveland: Samardo SamuelsDanny GreenJawad WilliamsDidier Ilunga-MbengaManny HarrisGreg StiemsmaTasmin MitchellLoren WoodsCedric Jackson Dallas: Steve NovakDee BrownBrian CardinalAdam Haluska Denver: Shane EdwardsGary ForbesCourtney SimsEric BoatengMelvin Ely Detroit: Ike DioguVernon Hamilton Golden State: Jeff AdrienJeremy LinVernon GoodridgeCheyne GadsonAaron MilesJames Mays Houston: Jordan EglsederIshmael SmithAntonio AndersonMike HarrisAlexander JohnsonPatrick Sullivan Indiana: Lance AllredA.J. PriceJosh McRobertsMagnum Rolle L.A. Clippers: Jon ScheyerJake VoskuhlWillie WarrenMarqus BlakelyJarron CollinsStephen Dennis L.A. Lakers: Russell HicksAnthony RobersonTrey JohnsonDrew Naymick Memphis: Kenny ThomasTre KelleyDamien WilkinsAcie LawLuke Jackson Miami: Da’Sean ButlerShavlik RandolphKenny HasbrouckMickell GladnessAnthony Mason Jr Milwaukee: Billy RushTory JacksonChris KramerTiny GallonLuc Richard Mbah A Moute Minnesota: Maurice AgerDerMarr JohnsonJohn ThomasJason Hart New Jersey: Ben UzohBrian ZoubekJoe SmithStephen GrahamEddie GillAndre Brown New Orleans: D.J. StrawberryDarryl WatkinsPops Mensah-BonsuMustafa ShakurJoe AlexanderMichael Washington […]
Where Are They Now, 2010 Summer League
September 17th, 2010
The transfer markets are pretty much closed. In many places, pre-season has already begun. EuroLeague qualifiers begin next week, as does the mighty British Basketball League regular season, and while signings continue to go down, most are done by now. By this time, if you’re still a free agent without a training camp invite, you’re struggling. Unless you’re going to the D-League, of course. There follows a list of the whereabouts of all the players featured on NBA summer league rosters this year. Summer league is a terrific catalyst for the worldwide basketball market; it’s not just NBA teams who find their next players here. GM’s, scouts and agents the world over find players here, and thus these moves often form the basis of the international import market. With that in mind, here’s who has gone where. In the instances of players quite obviously under NBA contracts, I’ve tried to write something really interesting instead. No attribution is given for these transactions for the simple reason that there’s too damn many of them. Atlanta – Boston – Charlotte – Chicago – Cleveland – Dallas – Denver – Detroit – Golden State – Houston – Indiana – L.A. Clippers – L.A. Lakers – Memphis – Miami – Milwaukee – Minnesota – New Jersey – New Orleans – New York – Oklahoma City – Orlando – Philadelphia – Phoenix – Portland – Sacramento – San Antonio – Toronto – Utah – Washington – D-League select Atlanta – View Hawks summer league roster preview (July) – View Hawks salary information. – View Hawks summer league statistics – Alade Aminu – Signed with French ProA team Chalon. Aminu signed with Chalon before summer league started, yet played for two SL teams anyway looking for an NBA offer. – James Augustine – Moved from Spanish […]
The best of what's left after what was the best of what's left has gone and is no longer left
August 21st, 2010
It’s weird that Ben Wallace is the only one of these four with a contract. This snappily titled post is, in essence, an update to the earlier similarly titled one that detailed the best remaining free agents in the world of basketball. The list was designed to be comprehensive – which is why Greg Buckner was in it – yet it wasn’t perfect. Some players should have been listed on it before, and are listed now. Some others who should have been listed before, but weren’t, have now signed elsewhere and are once again not listed (as is the case with Ishmael Smith, who has signed a two year deal with the Rockets, and Artsiom Parakhouski, who signed with Latvian team VEF Riga.) And these players need removing from the list, as they have now signed contracts: Jason Williams re-signed with Orlando.Acie Law signed with Memphis.Eddie House signed with Miami.Travis Diener signed in Italy with Dinamo Sassari.Marcus Williams signed with BC Enisey Krasnoyarsk in Russia.Sherron Collins signed with Charlotte.Lester Hudson agreed to go to training camp with Washington.Jerome Randle signed with Aliaga Petkim in Turkey.Shannon Brown re-signed with the L.A. Lakers.Roger Mason signed with New York.Jaycee Carroll will stay with Gran Canaria in Spain.Blake Ahearn signed with Bancas Teramo in Italy.Louis Bullock signed with Cajasol Sevilla in Spain.Donell Taylor signed with Fastweb Casale Monferrato in Italy.Ryan Thompson agreed to go to training camp with Utah.Tracy McGrady signed with Detroit.Linton Johnson signed with Air Avellino in Italy.Keith Bogans signed with Chicago.Taylor Griffin was waived by the Suns and then immediately signed in Belgium with Belgacom Liege.Raymar Morgan signed in Israel with Maccabi Rishon.Lee Nailon also signed in Israel with Bnei Hasharon.Alando Tucker signed in Russia with Lokomotiv Kuban.Pops Mensah-Bonsu signed in Spain with Caja Laboral.Sean May signed with New Jersey.Rob Kurz […]
The best of what’s left
July 30th, 2010
Shaq and LeBron in a twat-off The international basketball market is incredibly dry right now, and there’s a lot more produce than buyers. The whole nation of Greece is broke, and Spanish clubs are running into financial barriers they’re not normally known for. Even Italian teams, including four time defending champion Montepaschi Siena, are facing budget cuts. In the NBA, most of the big stuff has been done. Of the 280 or so rotation spots in the league, most have been filled, and rosters in general are starting to fill up. That said, there’s still a lot of players out there looking for work, ranging from the meh to the intriguing. This excessively long list attempts to chronicle them all. The following is written with an eye on NBA signings; however, these players are of course open to the world at large. Hardened readers will note that a lot of these blurbs are jacked from other places where I have written them before…..but, you know, whatever. Travis Diener, aged about 12 Point guards Earl Watson – Watson played with the Pacers on a one year contract last season, and averaged 7.8 points and 5.1 assists alongside a PER of only 10.9. His jump shot, which is inconsistent from season to season, decided to be particularly bad for the second season in a row; it probably didn’t help that Watson started 52 games, when he’s overmatched as a starter. Watson is a capable backup, however, and should find a home in the NBA next year. Anthony Johnson – Johnson fell out of the rotation last year, losing his spot as the Magic’s backup point guard to a man with no sideburns that we’ll mention in a minute. He actually put up his best season for four years, putting up a PER […]
Changes In 2010/11 Salaries Due To Performance Incentives
July 10th, 2010
The worst part about maintaining the internet’s premier NBA salary information resource is that the information is never static. It is ever-changing. Due to things such as conditional guarantees, trade kickers and the like, rarely do contracts ever stay the same. This is particularly true because of the science of performance incentives. Performance incentives can be included in contracts for almost any reason, including (but not limited to) All-Star selections, championship, or team wins. The only rules are that any numerical definitions are specific, and that they are for positive achievements only (although God knows why you’d want it otherwise). For example, Kirk Hinrich has performance incentives based on any First Team All-Defensive placements that he gets, and Matt Bonner’s just-expired contract was based around his three point and free throw percentages. These incentives are deemed by the league to be either “likely” or “unlikely”. If they are deemed “likely”, then they appear on a team’s cap number for the upcoming season; if they are deemed “unlikely”, then they are not. This is why this information is important to cap space calculations and the like. The likehood of incentives is decided by the league using one simple criterion; whether the player achieved the incentive last year or not. In the case of team-based incentives such as team win totals, this can be changed when a player is traded to a new team; this is perhaps most famously demonstrated by the case of Devean George, whose team win-based incentive went from “likely” to “unlikely” when he was traded from Dallas to Golden State, thereby costing him $200,000. Such is the risk. Cap hits based on performance incentives are modified during the moratorium, due to a re-evaluation of their incentives. (That’s what the moratorium is for – bookkeeping.) Some previously deemed “unlikely” […]
The amount of cap room teams will actually have, updated, again
July 8th, 2010
This is an update of the update of the earlier post that detailed the amount of cap room teams will have. It is updated to reflect everything that happened at the draft, including, in the case of the Kirk Hinrich trade, things that haven’t happened that soon will. More importantly, it is updated to reflect the fact that we now know where the salary cap is going to be; with the calculations all down, the NBA has announced that the salary cap for the 2010/11 season will be higher that expected, coming in at $58,044,000. After all that, it went up from last year. Other than those things, this is a carbon copy of the initial post. In this edition, there are no entries for teams irrelevant to cap space, because I can’t be bothered. If those teams make moves to become relevant, they will get mentioned later. Chicago Bulls Committed salary for 2010/11: $31,850,976 (view full forecast) Projected cap space: $19,420,366 The projected figure is based around the as-yet-uncompleted trade that will send Kirk Hinrich and the #17 pick to Washington, in exchange for pretty much nothing. That trade will leave the Bulls with only five players under contract – Luol Deng, Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah, James Johnson, Taj Gibson – with no cap holds from draft picks. If we assume that that move goes down unchanged and that all free agents are renounced, the Bulls salary situation then looks like this; Luol Deng = $11,345,000Derrick Rose = $5,546,160Joakim Noah = $3,128,536James Johnson = $1,713,600Taj Gibson = $1,117,680 Seven roster charges = $473,604 * 7 = $3,788,832. Total = $26,166,204 Cap space to $58.044 million cap = $31,877,796 The Bulls have already agreed to sign Carlos Boozer to a deal reportedly worth $75 million. How they will structure that […]
2010 Free Agency, Preliminary Round
July 1st, 2010
Thank you for your patience as we resolve the issues that have plagued this website in recent days. We’re on top of it now. Sort of. The free agency season is upon us, and a lot of housekeeping had to be done before we could get going. Players with player or early termination options had to decide if they were coming back; the few players with team options awaited an uncertain future; players eligible for QO’s had to see if they got them. All the results are in now, however, and there follows a list of who did what before July 1st. The following players opted in: – Atlanta = Maurice Evans– Charlotte = Tyson Chandler and Nazr Mohammed– Cleveland = Sebastian Telfair– Dallas = DeShawn Stevenson– Denver = Kenyon Martin– Detroit = Chris Wilcox– Golden State = Kelenna Azubuike and Vladimir Radmanovic– Houston = Yao Ming and Jared Jeffries– Indiana = T.J. Ford– Milwaukee = Michael Redd– New Jersey = Kris Humphries– New Orleans = Peja Stojakovic and Darius Songaila– New York = Eddy Curry– Philadelphia = Jason Kapono and Willie Green– Phoenix = Grant Hill– Portland = Joel Przybilla– Washington = Quinton Ross (as a part of his trade to New Jersey) The following players opted out: – Boston = Paul Pierce– Cleveland = LeBron James– Dallas = Dirk Nowitzki– L.A. Lakers = Shannon Brown– Miami = Joel Anthony and Dwyane Wade– Milwaukee = John Salmons– Orlando = Matt Barnes– Phoenix = Channing Frye and Amar’e Stoudemire– San Antonio = Richard Jefferson– Toronto = Chris Bosh The following players had their team options exercised: – Cleveland = Leon Powe– Dallas = Jose Barea– Houston = Chuck Hayes– Miami = Mario Chalmers– New Jersey = Chris Douglas-Roberts (as a part of his trade to Milwaukee) The following players had […]
2010 Summer Signings, Part 5
June 19th, 2010
– Not everyone changes teams in the summer. It seems like they do, but some stay on where they are. Those who have signed extensions with their current clubs include Slovakian scoring machine Radoslav Rancik, who has signed a two-year deal with Galatasaray, and ex-San Diego State forward Mohamed Abukar, who signed a two-year deal of his own with the Swiss champion Lugano Tigers. Dimitris Diamantidis snuffed out the <1% possibility of him ever joining the NBA as he signed a three-year extension with Panathinaikos, and Mengke Bateer has re-signed with Xinjiang, staving off his retirement (and inevitable subsequent move into full-time acting) for at least one more year. Ex-Raptors draft pick Roko Ukic took a buyout from Milwaukee part way through last season to join Turkish team Fenerbahce, and he’s just signed for two extra years there. And another Raptors draft pick, Giorgis Printezis, has taken a pay cut in signing a two-year extension with Unicaja Malaga. – Speaking of Malaga; in contrast to previously reported news, it transpires that they did not actually retain the services of Omar Cook after all. Cook is a quality point guard in Europe, and he shouldn’t have problems finding new work. Additionally, as initially reported, David Logan has joined Caja Laboral on a three year deal. He replaces Carl English, who has left the team. And Le Mans quickly found a replacement for Marc Salyers, bringing in former Detroit Mercy forward Ryvon Covile. Ryvon averaged 9.4 points and 4.8 rebounds for Entente Orleans last season. – But the big news here is that of ex-Rider big man, Steve Castleberry, who has moved from Czech Republican team Podebrady to Czech Republican team Basketball Brno. Last year for Podebrady, Castleberry was seventh in the league in scoring, second in rebounds and sixth […]
2010 Summer Signings, Part 4
June 19th, 2010
– In Italy, Bucks draft pick Szymon Szewczyk signed a two-year extension with Air Avellino. He ranked second the team in rebounds last year behind Chevon Troutman, was second in points behind Dee Brown, and also managed not to get arrested in a drunken car wreck unlike the other two. Another NBA draft pick signed in Italy, Petteri Koponen, is to remain in Bologna for at least one more season. And ex-NBA player Jumaine Jones is staying with Pepsi Caserta for at least one more season, which really crippled this otherwise infallible post. – Another ex-NBA draft pick to have signed in Italy is Milovan Rakovic, whose rights are owned by the Magic. Rakovic was one of the best players in the Russian Superleague last year, averaging 15.2 points and 6.4 rebounds in 25 minutes per game for Spartak St Petersburg. He’s cashing in on that and moving to Italy to play for Italian powerhouse Montepaschi Siena. There’s lots of upheaval in Russia at the moment; the Superleague teams have all signed a pact vowing to break away from the current governing body, with whom they are thoroughly disenfranchised, and to begin running operations on their own. Amidst this upheaval, many players have left; Spartak also released James White (14.8/3.7) and Goran Suton (played 94 minutes all season). Additionally, UNICS Kazan have released veteran Lithuanian jump shooter Saulius Štombergas, and Lokomotiv Kuban have released their imports James Gist, Andre Owens and Gerald Green. It’s probably fair to say that Green will not be returning to the Dallas Mavericks. – Not everyone is suffering, though. Khimki have taken advantage of the situation by signing ex-Blazers forward Sergei Monia from cash-strapped rivals Dynamo Moscow, and have also signed ex-Nets guard Zoran Planinic from the other Moscow team, CSKA. CSKA can […]
