NBA AM: Players Gambling On Themselves

Professional sports careers typically have a very short trajectory. Therefore most players look to lock up as much guaranteed money as possible in order to secure their financial futures in the event that an untimely injury derails their career.

Heading into the 2015-16 campaign, there are a few guys around the league seemingly willing to take a gamble on themselves instead of securing the guaranteed dollars upfront. Let’s take a look:

Ty Lawson, Houston Rockets

Lawson has 307 career starts since entering the league and has posted averages of 14.2 points, 6.6 assists and 2.9 rebounds in 416 regular season contests. At his best, Lawson is a guy who has the tools to eventually make a run at an All-Star nod. However, Lawson heads into training camp with questions swirling around his off-court activities – particularly his bouts with alcohol abuse.

The Rockets, a team with legitimate title hopes, took a chance on Lawson by acquiring the veteran from Denver in exchange for four role players. The move is essentially a potential low-risk, high-reward situation as Houston already has guard Patrick Beverley in the fold to handle the bulk of the floor general duties if needed.

Lawson’s situation is a bit more risky, as the guard agreed to make the last year of his deal non-guaranteed for the 2016-17 campaign. This is essentially a $13.2 million gamble on Lawson taking advantage of his fresh start. If Lawson falters in his off-court struggles (or on-court production), the Rockets can essentially walk without a financial implication after the season and Lawson could lose a significant amount of previously guaranteed cash.

Tristan Thompson, Cleveland Cavaliers, Restricted Free Agent

Thompson has been productive during his first four seasons in the league, averaging 10.1 points and 8.4 rebounds on 49 percent shooting. The four-year veteran has developed into one of the best offensive rebounders in the league and is currently holding out because of his desire to ink a max contract.

According to a recent ESPN report, Thompson and the Cleveland Cavaliers are still $14 million apart in their contested contract negotiations. Cleveland has held firm with an $80 million offer, while it is reported Thompson’s camp is seeking a deal topping out at $94 million.

The Cavaliers can match any offer received for Thompson’s services, but most of the free agency money has dried up around the league. Thompson can elect to sign the qualifying offer of $6.8 million and look to cash in next summer as an unrestricted free agent when multiple teams will have big bank to spend in free agency.

The prospect of turning down an $80 million deal is a gamble, but Thompson – who hasn’t missed a game the past three seasons – looks prepared to take the big-time risk.

Harrison Barnes, Golden State Warriors

The Golden State Warriors are coming off of an epic championship campaign and now one of their key members, Harrison Barnes, is up for an early contract extension.

According to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports, Barnes reportedly rejected the team’s four-year, $64 million initial offering with an October 31 deadline looming.

The Warriors have some key financial decisions to make with $93 million in guaranteed salaries already on the books this season and $74 million already committed for the 2016-17 campaign. Golden State has five players set to make over $11 million per year the next two seasons and it’s worth noting reigning MVP Stephen Curry will be an unrestricted free agent after the 2016-17 campaign.

Barnes appears to be a big part of the Warriors’ future plans, but with an expanding salary cap and the forward still possessing solid upside, the market will be deep for his services.

Barnes turning down $16 million per season, which would make him the second-highest paid player in Golden State, is a bit risky but the gamble could net the forward $10 million or more for the same contract length by playing the waiting game.

As these negotiations continue and developments occur, Basketball Insiders will keep you updated.

Mark Cuban, Doc Rivers Exchange Words

It’s no secret Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban enters the season still a bit frustrated about losing center DeAndre Jordan back to the Los Angeles Clippers this summer after receiving a verbal commit from the big man in free agency.

Losing Jordan would have been a huge blow to the Los Angeles’ title aspirations and a hit to Clippers executive (and head coach) Doc Rivers’ reputation for team building.

Well, now Rivers and Cuban are sparring through the media.

First, Rivers went on Fox’s Colin Cowherd show and said: “I don’t know Mark well. Did he handle this well? No. To me, he acted very silly. Look at the difference. I coached D.J. D.J. didn’t call me when he left. Did you see me out in front of the cameras screaming and yelling and crying? I didn’t do that. I was disappointed internally and I handled it that way. Mark tends to do things out in the open and that’s fine.

“When you take shots at D.J., the guy you loved two days ago, now you don’t like so much anymore, I think basically all that did was tell D.J. even more that he made the right choice.”

Never one to back down, Cuban responded to Rivers’ comments recently on Cowherd’s show.

“First of all, he obviously didn’t actually hear or see what I said,” Cuban told Cowherd. “I didn’t say a whole lot. I think I responded to D.J.’s Twitter apology, and that was pretty much it. I haven’t said a whole lot about it all. So I don’t know where he’s getting what he’s got.

“But I think the most interesting is it shows what someone will do when their entire future is vanishing in front of them. That’s exactly what Doc did, and I give him credit for it. His professional life was over … if he didn’t get D.J. And so his back was against the wall and he did what he needed to do, so more power to him. But sometimes the deals you don’t do are the best ones, so we’ll see. But Doc obviously hadn’t heard what I said, because I really didn’t say anything.”

The Mavericks responded to the loss by adding veterans JaVale McGee, Samuel Dalembert and Zaza Pachulia on the inside, but viewed Jordan as their next franchise player once future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowitzki retires.