The Nets cut (waive) Jevon Carter to make a roster open. The Nets then signed Goran Dragic, who had previously made a buyout deal with the Spurs.
As a result, Dragic left the buyout market, the Nets became the biggest winner, and the strength of the backcourt was improved. Veteran Carter suddenly entered the free market, the Bucks once again successfully picked up leaks, and the depth of the backcourt was strengthened.
The buyout market enters the last 8 days of sprinting, before March 2, Beijing time, there will inevitably be players who will enter the free market in the form of layoffs or buyouts, and they are the object of fierce competition. What other players are likely to enter the free market? Which teams will be able to complete the final reinforcement in the regular season sprint?
Layoffs and buyouts
After the annual trading deadline, after the teams lose the option of "trading" reinforcement, they can only focus on the buyout market. After the buyout market is opened, there will often be two professional terms of "layoff" and "buyout", both of which are ways of layoffs, but the implementation methods are different.
Layoffs are when the team terminates the contract directly with the player, which is simple and crude, and the team does not need to communicate with the player in advance, but they must pay the guaranteed salary of the player for the remaining contract.
For example, Carter, who was suddenly laid off by the Nets, although Carter, who earned an annual salary of $3.83 million this season, was laid off, he should take a lot of money, and next season his annual salary of $4.12 million Nets also had to pay. Although Carter has left the Nets, he still accounts for $4.12 million on the Nets' salary bill next season. If the Nets choose to lay off Carter in installments and pay Carter's salary for next season in 3 years, then Carter will account for less than $1.4 million per season for the next 3 years.
The buyout is not so simple and crude, the team needs to negotiate with the players to negotiate a buyout amount. Players who are bought out often have to give up some money, such as Dragic gave up $820,000 when he reached a buyout agreement with the Spurs, because as long as he re-employs and signs a new contract, the part of the money he gave up can be recovered. Kemba Walker gave up about $20 million, and then signed the Knicks to a two-year, $18 million contract, with an actual loss of only $2 million.
The more tragic is Blake Griffin, who gave up $13 million to buy out the contract, but joined the Nets last season and renewed the Nets this season with only a base salary.
The two sides enter a 48-hour clarification period after reaching a buyout agreement, during which the player will be reinstated as free reinstatement if no team claims the player. According to the regulations, only players who were bought out before March 2, Beijing time, can represent the new owners in the playoffs. The signing deadline for bought-out players is the last matchday of each team's regular season, such as the Lakers on April 10, Beijing time. For example, if a player is bought out before March 2 and signs with the Lakers before April 10, they can play the playoffs for the Lakers.
Buy out what fish are in the market
After the trade deadline, not many players enter the free market. Previously, the Nets cut Bemburi in order to complete the big deal for James Harden, and then Bemburi signed the Bucks. Tristan Thompson was bought out after being traded to the Pacers, and he subsequently joined the Bulls. The Nets cut Carter and signed Dragic, who was bought out. The Blazers cut Smith with an elbow injury, regularized two-way contract player Watford, and gave him a four-year, $5.8 million contract (the last 2 years were not guaranteed).
Smith may not be favored in the free agent market, but Carter is different, he just got laid off and signed with the Bucks. Carter didn't do well with the Nets, but he also had seven three-pointers in a single game. Before joining the Nets, Carter shot nearly 40 percent from three-point range in the Suns' two seasons. For the Bucks, who are in an injury crisis in the backcourt, Carter is a reinforcement option.
Theoretically, a famous star like John Wall who has no ball to play could be bought out, but now the Rockets have no plans to buy out Wall, and they still want to wait until the offseason to deal with Wall's contract through a deal.
Relatively speaking, the Magic's Gary Harris and Robin Lopez are more likely to be bought out. As a 3D player with a height of 1.93 meters, Halbanes averaged 11 points per game this season and shot 38% from three-point range, which was remarkable. Harris is in a contract year, and the obstacle is that his annual salary of $20.48 million may not be negotiated in terms of the amount of the buyout. In addition, according to US media reports, Harris did not push the Magic to buy him out, and it seems that he is not the kind of player who is willing to give up some money to pursue the championship.
The 33-year-old Lopez Jr. has not played much this season, averaging 7.7 points and 3.6 rebounds per game, and his one-handed hook and basket protection skills are still there. If Lopez Jr. is willing to buy out the contract, the Magic is not difficult to operate, after all, Lopez Jr. is a contract year, with an annual salary of $5 million. Previous media reports have reported that the Bucks, who want to strengthen the depth of the fifth position, and the Warriors with large internal loopholes may chase Lopez Jr.
There are also two speed point guards worth paying attention to, one is Blazers guard Eric Bledsoe, who was traded to the Blazers and was not reused, Anfinni Simmons was strong, and when Lillard returned, Bledsoe had no playing time, his annual salary next season was only $3.9 million guaranteed, and the Blazers may negotiate a buyout agreement with him next.
The other is dennis Schroeder of the Rockets, who, judging by Schroeder's choices over the past two years, tends to join the championship-winning team, and now the Rockets are in a state of flux. According to the latest news, Schroeder now has no plans to buy out the contract to leave the Rockets, and he may stay with the Rockets until the end of the season. But now that there are eight days to go before March 2, Schroeder may also change his mind in the middle.
Other players such as Augustine, Muscala, DeAndre Jordan, Bazemore, Joseph, Millsap and others may also be bought out, but they will not have much impact on the title race.
The big teams are in a big game
Every year, the buyout market opens, which is basically a carnival of strong teams and giant teams. Because since players are willing to give up a part of their salaries, they must have something to pursue, either to pursue the championship or to pursue exposure, then the team with the hope of winning the championship and the big market team are their preferred choices, and many times the big market team also happens to be the championship team.
This year is no exception, from the perspective of Dragic's scramble, this year's buyout market is still the Lakers, Bucks, Nets, Bulls, Warriors, Clippers, these champions, big market teams, as long as there is a strong faction into the buyout market, these teams want to compete. It's no wonder that these teams currently have some problems, the Bulls and Nets have strengthened the interior and backcourt respectively, but the Lakers and Clippers' No. 1 hole, the Warriors' inside hole, and the Bucks' No. 5 depth problem have not been solved.
However, objectively speaking, the buyout market is to watch the hilarity, in fact, the influence of the players who are bought out on the territory of the championship should be marked with a big question mark.
In the buyout market last year, Griffin, LaMarcus Aldridge and Andre Drummond were bought out on the three All-Star interior lines, and then divided by the Lakers and the Nets. Many small market teams are dissatisfied and have asked the league to revise the rules and snipe the strong teams and the giants to strengthen.
But according to statistics, from the 2011-12 season to last season, the quality of the players who were bought out was not high (this is nonsense, how can a player with high quality be bought out), compared with the performance of the bought out players before and after the buyout each season, it can be seen that the players who were bought out rarely improved their performance after the buyout contract, and most of them did not perform as well as before the buyout contract after joining the new owner, including those who were very famous stars.
The reason why the buyout market is so lively every year is mainly because the transaction deadline has just passed, the schedule tends to be flat, and suddenly the buyout market is so lively that it has attracted a lot of attention. But when the playoffs start, these players are quickly forgotten because it's hard to contribute much in the playoffs.
In the past 10 years, only four players who have been bought out have won more than 0.2 in the playoffs, namely Boris Dior of the Spurs in 2012, Chris Humphries of the 2016 Hawks, Iyasova of the 76ers in 2018 and Marvin Williams of the 2020 Bucks, who did not help the team win the championship that season.
And this year's buyout market, the heat is not even as good as in the past few years, the players who may be bought out are not big stars at their peak, among the players who have been bought out, Dragic has only been in the All-Star once, how much role he and Thompson can play in the new owner, whether they can help the Nets and bulls to enhance the hope of winning the championship, these remain to be tested by time.