NBA Season Preview: 5 best asset collections
By John Buhler
Here are the NBA five teams that have the best collections of assets in terms of cap space, picks, tradable players, and expiring contracts.
In the NBA, the teams with the best superstar players usually win. However, those superstars are scarce resources in and not every team is lucky enough to have one. Where teams devoid of transcendent talent can close the gap on the court is by having an elite front office.
For teams that don’t have a superstar, it’s important to run a tight ship. Teams that make smart moves with the salary cap and future NBA drafts tend to have brighter futures as organizations, giving themselves a leg up in the race for the next big star.
What we’re going to do here is rank the five best teams in the NBA in terms of asset collections. The four criteria are cap space, future draft picks (including those from other teams coming in), tradable players, and expiring contracts. Here are the five teams that have given themselves the best chance for a great future with asset allocation.
5. Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks just edge out the Utah Jazz for the No. 5 spot in the best collection of assets entering the 2016-17 NBA season. Both teams have more future picks coming in than out. Utah actually has more cap room ($11,781,904). Where Atlanta beats up Utah is in the tradable players and expiring contracts components of this exercise.
Atlanta is slightly over the 2016-17 NBA salary cap at -$4,660,242, according to Spotrac.com. The Hawks have 17 players under contract, three players invited to training camp, and only 15 players on guaranteed contracts.
Atlanta will likely get under the cap before the Hawks’ first regular season game. They also have plenty of luxury tax space ($14,483,758) should owner Tony Ressler want to beef up his playoff-caliber team at some point.
Looking at the Hawks’ multi-year cap situation, they only have four, maybe five un-tradable contracts. Dwight Howard and Kent Bazemore just signed new deals in free agency. They will be on Atlanta’s books at least until 2019. Bazemore has a player option in 2019. Howard hits unrestricted free agency that same summer.
Malcolm Delaney hits restricted free agency in 2018, but will only make $2.5 million guaranteed the next two seasons. With the new NBA television money coming in, that $5 million guaranteed for the Hawks is nothing, but would be dead money for the Hawks if he doesn’t make the team either of the next two seasons.
Atlanta’s two first-round rookies from the 2016 NBA Draft aren’t exactly tradable either. Taurean Prince and DeAndre’ Bembry have guaranteed contracts the next two years, but have team options in 2019 and 2020 before hitting restricted free agency in 2021. Neither will make more than $3.5 million in any season through 2020-21.
The Hawks have nine players hitting unrestricted free agency this summer including Tiago Splitter, Kyle Korver, Thabo Sefolosha, and Kris Humphries. Dennis Schroder and Tim Hardaway, Jr. hit restricted free agency this summer. Atlanta will likely keep Schroder. Hardaway, Jr., who knows?
Atlanta has three future second-round picks coming in from various teams and a first-round pick from the Minnesota Timberwolves that is lottery protected (No. 1-14) coming in the one of the next three drafts. The only pick Atlanta has to give away in the foreseeable future is a 2017 second-round pick to the San Antonio Spurs as part of the Splitter trade of summer 2015.
What puts Atlanta over the top as a top-five team in terms of assets collecting is that it has maybe the best potential trade chip of any team this season: three-time All-Star power forward Paul Millsap.
Millsap signed a favorable three-year deal with the Hawks in summer 2015, with a player option for 2017-18. He can opt out, and probably will, to get a bigger deal with Atlanta or one of the other 29 NBA teams. Atlanta can dangle a top-20 player in the NBA on an expiring deal because of the player option to a contending team for more assets should the Hawks stumble in 2016-17.
The Hawks aren’t a championship caliber team in 2016-17, but have put themselves in a position to succeed long term thanks to great work by head coach Mike Budenholzer and general manager Wes Wilcox. What other team could afford to sign an enigmatic player like Howard to a massive multi-year deal and still have wiggle room for future growth opportunities?