The Waive And Stretch: Knicks' G League Draft Haul, Rookie Scale Option Declines, Jay Huff! And More

Nov 03, 2024

Welcome back to another edition of The Waive and Stretch Newsletter. A quick shameless plug to note that I am looking to work in basketball in any capacity and would love to connect with anyone in the industry or trying to break in. Please feel free to share this with anyone who you think might find it interesting. Let's get into it!

What Caught My Attention This Week

Knicks G League Draft Foreshadows Filling Out Their Roster Spots
In the G League draft that took place last Saturday, the Westchester Knicks had the top two draft picks. They took Matt Ryan and Landry Shamet, respectively, two players that the organization has reported interest in signing to the parent club in the future. However, there are complications with that. First, Shamet is still rehabbing a shoulder dislocation. Second, they could not simply just sign both to pro-rated veteran minimum contracts, as that would bring them over the second apron, of which they are hard-capped at. But at only 12 players under contract currently, they have until November 5th to sign two more players to get to 14 players rostered, as teams can only have less than 14 players for no longer than 14 consecutive days and no more than 28 total days in a season.

There is a solution, however. On November 5th, the Knicks could sign Shamet to a pro-rated rest of season deal, convert two-way Ariel Hukporti to a rest of season deal at his pro-rated rookie minimum, and then sign Matt Ryan to the open two-way spot. This would leave the Knicks with a little less than $600,000 in space under the second apron, meaning they could convert Matt Ryan to a rest of season minimum in late February, after using up all of his two-way games. There are other routes that the Knicks could go that could potentially save even more space under the second apron (signing two players and immediately waiving them to burn another 14 days), but the method I mentioned would keep all three of Shamet, Hukporti, and Ryan on the roster through the end of the year, with the ability to re-sign them to longer term deals. A lot of it could depend on the timeline on Shamet’s injury as well, but they should have good insight into what that could look like with Shamet in-house with the Westchester Knicks.

Regardless, I am excited to see just how the Knicks go about navigating the second apron while filling out their roster. The front office in New York has proven their mettle with the new CBA this summer and I have no doubt they already have a plan in place that will maximize their roster spots and second apron space.

Three Things To Keep An Eye On This Season

Jay Huff!
I was going to write about how Jay Huff’s play to start off the year had him as an obvious candidate to have his two-way converted to a standard contract, but the Grizzlies beat me to it. Here are the terms of the deal, per Yossi Gozlan:

This deal gives the Grizzlies a fifth player on a team controlled, minimum deal through at least 2026/2027, with Huff joining Vince Williams Jr, GG Jackson, Jaylen Wells, and Scotty Pippen Jr. This could be huge as both Jaren Jackson Jr and Marcus Smart are potential free agents after next year, with JJJ definitely in line for a raise.

Now to Huff’s play. He’s averaging11 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.3 blocks on 16.6 minutes a game so far. Huff has been extremely effective as a floor spacing big so far this season, as he’s gone 15/27 from three.

He’s also proving himself as a rim protector. He’s allowing 51.7% shooting at the rim, better than Anthony Davis, Myle Turner, and Rudy Gobert.

This combination of shooting plus rim protection from a big could lead to Huff being a solid rotation player for the Grizzlies for years to come. Congrats to Huff on playing so well and earning a new deal, and shout out to the Grizzlies front office by rewarding him with a new deal this early into the season, and not burning all of his two-way days first.

Turned Down Rookie-Scale Team Options
We saw seven players have their rookie-scale team options turned down for the 2025/2026 season. They are:

David Roddy, Atlanta Hawks, Fourth Year
Wendell Moore Jr, Detroit Pistons, Fourth Year
Jalen Hood-Schifino, Los Angeles Lakers, Third Year and Fourth Year
Jake LaRavia, Memphis Grizzlies, Fourth Year
MarJon Beauchamp, Milwaukee Bucks, Fourth Year
Johnny Davis, Washington Wizards, Fourth Year
Patrick Baldwin, Washington Wizards, Fourth Year

Each team has their own reasons for the decisions that were made, but ultimately these can be chalked up to a new front office going away from a guy that they didn’t draft or was acquired as a salary dump (Washington, Detroit, Atlanta), or purely as luxury tax savings / apron room (Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Memphis) or both. Turning down these options also makes it a lot easier to dump their salaries in the current year, as they are all now expiring money. This makes these players a bit more attractive for teams to roll the dice on a reclamation project in a deal. While most of the time players with turned down options don’t stay in the league long after, you could always strike gold like the Pacers did when they trade for Jalen Smith after the Suns had turned down his third and fourth year options. Someone to keep an eye on in this class is Jalen Hood-Schifino, who has only played 21 career games up to this point.

One thing to note is that since these players had their options turned down, they will now be unrestricted free agents come free agency. However, they are not able to re-sign with their current team for more than the turned-down option amount, which carries over to any team that may trade for them.

Pelicans are on #DuckTheTax Watch
As things sit, the New Orleans Pelicans are about $1.56 million into the luxury tax for the current year. However, this includes ~$700,000 in likely incentives for Dejounte Murray, who is currently out nursing a fractured hand. Those incentives are all tied to Murray playing 65 games per Bobby Marks. So assuming that he does not hit that benchmark this season, that would leave the Pelicans roughly $850,000 into the tax line. From there, it would be pretty easy for New Orleans to just dump one salary and get under the tax line, and be in line to receive what would then be a $17.4 million luxury tax distribution by my calculation, assuming no other changes with other tax teams.

Say come the trade deadline, the Pelicans call former New Orleans executive Trajan Langdon and the Detroit Pistons (who still has over $10 million in cap space and an open roster spot) and hammer out a deal where they dump Jeremiah Robinson-Earl’s $2.2 million salary, they would be able to then sign a player to a rest of season veteran minimum to fill out the 14th roster spot and stay under the luxury tax. I think its safe to say that the Pelicans will not be a luxury tax team come season end.