The March 1st deadline is confusing. Here’s the timeline the Lakers are working with.
Let’s go back and go over what Chris Haynes said on the TNT broadcast. Admittedly, it threw a lot of people (Writer included!) off. The meeting according to the report would be after the supposed deadline.
"“League sources have told me that free agent guard Dion Waiters will meet with the Lakers on March the 2nd."
Here’s what the “unofficial” deadline on March 1st really means.
NBA players can still be bought out until the end of the season at any time by their respective teams. Here lies the rub. After the March 1st buyout deadline, those players are not eligible to play in the postseason for a new team. A perfect example of this happening was when the Charlotte Bobcats waited until one day after the deadline to waive Ben Gordon back in 2014. It was rumored that he was being a malcontent in his final days and the Bobcats used the waiver as a parting shot if you will.
Players who were not under contract with any team prior to March 1, however, are postseason eligible as long as they sign before the end of the regular season. Players that fall under that category would be players like Jamal Crawford, J.R. Smith and Joakim Noah, who haven’t played a game all season.
Also, the rules apply to players overseas. Players that fall under that category, for example, are Lance Stephenson and Jeremy Lin, who just ended their season in China.
How much are buyout contracts really worth?
Here’s the disconnect between most NBA fans and the buyout concept. Fans just see the player and forget this entire scenario is about is money. Most buyout contracts are worth the minimum salary. It’s the same situation from a cap perspective as well. Any player that gets signed would probably get a pro-rated portion of the minimum salary (Approximately $1.62 million assuming this is a veteran player). The Los Angeles Lakers are in no real hurry to sign players such as J.R. Smith or Dion Waiters because no one else is interested.
Rob Pelinka can wait because the amount paid to the player signed depends on when the contract is signed. After extensive research by Lake Show Life, we found out some interesting things.
- The regular season is 174 days long.
- The trade deadline falls on the 105th day of the season.
- After the trade deadline, the potential candidate would get about 39% percent of the pro-rated minimum figure if he signed with the Lakers at the trade deadline.
- The salary number decreases with each passing day.
Confused? Don’t feel bad. The staff was too. Basically what all of this says is, don’t be looking for the Lakers front office to be bringing in a player ASAP. They have until the end of the regular season to sign any player that has not played this season or were waived by March 1st.
Patience people.
Enough of the numbers crunching. Let’s go down to the court. Who is Dion Waiters and why in the world would the Los Angeles Lakers want this guy?