HOOPSWORLD Week In Review
Breaking Down the “Derrick Rose Provision”
By Jason Fleming
One of the aspects of the new CBA is the ability to give players who grossly outplay their rookie scale contracts – the typical four-year deal given to first-round picks based on a sliding scale – more money. Under the old deal the extensions teams could offer that kicked in for the fifth season were set at a maximum of 25% of the cap, but under the new deal if a player meets certain benchmarks that number can be 30%. This is being called the “Derrick Rose Provision” after the Chicago Bulls point guard who won the league MVP last year, in just his third season in the NBA.
Typically players with 0-6 years of experience are limited to a maximum salary of 25% of the cap, but after that they can earn 30% of the cap for a deal signed with 7-9 years of experience, or 35% of the cap for 10 or more years of experience. This is exactly why players like LeBron James, Chris Paul, Deron Williams, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and others didn’t sign contracts of maximum length coming off their rookie deals. Instead they signed three-year extensions (plus a Player Option, or a four-year deal with the fourth being an Early Termination Option) in order to time their free agency to coincide with this seventh year of experience and thus a 30% of the cap max contract.
This new provision allows a team to pay their own very successful player that amount earlier and increase the likelihood the player spends his best years with the team who drafted him.
Brandon Roy May Consider Retirement
By Alex Kennedy
If the Portland Trail Blazers decide to use the amnesty clause on Brandon Roy, there will be plenty of teams interested in signing the veteran shooting guard. However, league sources say that Roy may consider retirement if the Blazers decide to waive him.
Roy has been weighing his options and asking a number of people if he would still be able to collect his amnesty money if he chooses to retire. The 27-year-old has had arthroscopic surgery on both of his knees and played in just 47 games last season.
The Blazers haven’t indicated whether or not they’ll use the amnesty provision on Roy, but it’s certainly something they’ll consider. Roy has four years and $68,278,526 remaining on his contract.
Yesterday, team president Larry Miller held a press conference and discussed Roy’s future among other things.
Six Moves The Chicago Bulls Should Make
By Joel Brigham
In about two weeks, teams are simultaneously going to open up training camps and free agency, which means we’re a mere twelve days away from finally getting the opportunity to see all those roster moves we’ve been waiting nearly half a year to see. We’ve wanted trades, we’ve wanted free agency signings, and most importantly we’ve wanted to see how our favorite teams would address their most pressing roster needs.
Well, the time has come, and as we gear up for what promises to be a crazy and compacted free agency period, various writers on-site will tackle different teams by offering suggestions for logical moves teams could make if and when things open up on December 9th.
We’re starting with the Chicago Bulls, who really only have one seriously pressing need, and that’s to find a starting shooting guard. That being the case, most (but not all) of Chicago’s “Six Things” are going to center around possibilities along those lines. There are other things to discuss, and you can count on us discussing them at length sometime in the coming month. For now, however, here are six things the Bulls could do in December to make themselves a better team:
Six Moves The Houston Rockets Should Make
By Bill Ingram
Normally teams try to play somewhat coy when it comes to what they’re looking for in free agency. Like a new car buyer, they don’t want to appear too desperate, as a desperate buyer is nearly guaranteed to be worked over by the marketplace. In the case of the Houston Rockets, what they need is the worst kept secret in the NBA. If they don’t land a starting center in free agency or via trade before the 2011-12 season starts, it’s going to be a blue Christmas in Houston for sure.
Sign/Acquire Marc Gasol
The homerun for Houston would be to add Marc Gasol to the mix, preferably via sign-and-trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. They could make him a front-loaded offer outright and hope the Grizzlies don’t match, as Gasol is a restricted free agent, but the reality is Houston needs to unload some of their redundant frontcourt talent. The Grizzlies have said they will only re-sign Gasol if he wants to be there, and sources close to the situation have told HOOPSWORLD on a number of occasions that Gasol is ready to move on.
The Rockets could offer up a package that starts with Luis Scola, who wouldn’t be a bad fit next to Zach Randolph in the Grizzlies’ frontcourt, and add the Grizzlies’ pick of backcourt players like Terrence Williams, Courtney Lee, Goran Dragic or Jonny Flynn. They could even include one of the young front court players they drafted over the summer or throw in Jordan Hill, whom they have been looking to move ever since they got him from New York. In short, the Rockets could give the Grizzlies enough pieces to help compensate for the loss of Gasol, while also clearing up some of their own redundant talent issues.
Six Moves The Portland Trail Blazers Should Make
By Jason Fleming
With the NBA lockout almost in the rearview mirror, let’s take a look at the Portland Trail Blazers as part of our series on moves a team should make.
On Thanksgiving Lang Greene wrote a nicely done piece discussing whether or not the Trail Blazers were contenders. In that space I expressed a certain amount of doubt, but there are ways to change my mind. Injuries and the threat of injuries will still loom over Portland’s 2011-12 season like a dark shadow, but there are some moves they can make to mitigate any possible damage.
First, here are some reference points (check out Portland’s salary page). Including rookie point guard Nolan Smith, Portland’s first-round pick last June, Portland has $74.8 million on the books to 13 players. Included in that is a $1 million cap hit for waiving Ryan Gomes after acquiring him in 2009. Earl Barron and Chris Johnson are under contract for this season at minimum salaries, but both deals, totaling $1.9 million, are fully non-guaranteed. That means if they need to create another roster spot it’s fairly easy to do so. In addition they have two Qualifying Offers out, $8.8 million to oft-injured center Greg Oden and $1.2 million to point guard Patty Mills. Mills is under contract in China and couldn’t return to the team until March of next year, if even then.
So what can Portland do to get better?
Six Moves The San Antonio Spurs Should Make
By Yannis Koutroupis
The lockout is finally nearing an end, but the conclusion hasn’t come before 16 regular season games were lost. That’s shortened the 2011-12 season down to 66 games. As many have pointed out, the last time there was an abbreviated season due to a lockout was in 1998-99, when the San Antonio Spurs won the first of their four championships.
While the Spurs don’t enter this season as talented as they were back in 1998, it’s interesting to think how much different things would have been last year had the regular season only been 66 games long. At that point last year they were sitting pretty at 54-12, atop of the league’s standings. By the time the playoffs rolled around 16 games later, though, they were banged up and not playing at the same level that they did for the majority of the season. They were upset in the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs by the Memphis Grizzlies, which has greatly tempered expectations for this season.
Within the next year the Spurs are going to be forced to determine what direction they are going to go in as the face of their franchise, Tim Duncan, enters what could be his final season. A new era is set to begin soon, but for now here’s a look at six moves the Spurs should make in the immediate future that also take the future into consideration.
Six Moves The Toronto Raptors Should Make
By Stephen Brotherston
The Toronto Raptors head into the 66-game lockout shortened 2011-12 season with only 10 players returning from last year’s 22-win effort. Some people might question if the team shouldn’t be making a lot more than six moves.
In Toronto however, the calls to blow the whole team up and start over have begun to die down as it has become obvious Raptors President and general manager Bryan Colangelo started the process last season. An incomplete process that saw a young Raptors team get even younger as injuries decimated the roster creating both needs and opportunities.
“We still have that hole in the middle that we have talked about being the center,” said Colangelo at the end of last season.
The Raptors new head coach Dwane Casey wasted no time confirming the Raptors immediate needs.
“We have umpteen million guards,” said Casey soon after his arrival in Toronto. “What we don’t have is rim protection, length, and athleticism in the middle.”
Casey may as well have said the Raptors don’t have defense, but that is why Colangelo hired the architect of the Mavericks’ defense as the team’s new head coach.
2011 NBA Free Agency Diary
By HOOPSWORLD Staff
Get the very latest news, notes and rumors surrounding 2011 NBA Free Agency.
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