The NBA season is on hiatus. NBC Sports is not – even if we have to venture into fantasy.
We’re holding a mock NBA expansion draft. Keith Smith is setting protected lists for existing teams. Kurt Helin and Dan Feldman will run two new teams as this project culminates in an expansion draft.
Current teams can protect up to eight players. Each team must make at least one player available. If selected, restricted free agents become unrestricted free agents. Pending options can be decided before or after the expansion draft at the discretion of the option-holder. Anyone selected in the expansion draft can’t return to his prior team for one year. Players entering unrestricted free agency and players on two-way contracts are essentially ignored.
We’re unveiling protected/unprotected lists by division (here is the Atlantic Division). Players are listed with their 2020-21 salary. Up now, the Central:
Chicago Bulls
Protected – 8
- Otto Porter Jr. - $28,489,239 (Player Option)
- Zach LaVine - $19,500,000
- Thaddeus Young - $13,545,000
- Tomas Satoransky - $10,000,000
- Lauri Markkanen - $6,731,508
- Coby White - $5,572,680
- Wendell Carter Jr. - $5,448,840
- Daniel Gafford - $1,517,981
Unprotected – 7
- Cristiano Felicio - $7,529,020
- Ryan Arcidiacono - $3,000,000
- Chandler Hutchison - $2,443,440
- Luke Kornet - $2,250,000
- Kris Dunn – Restricted Free Agent
- Shaquille Harrison – Restricted Free Agent
- Denzel Valentine – Restricted Free Agent
Ineligible – 0
Analysis: Chicago keeps their young building blocks, as well as the veterans they acquired to support them. In the end, the Bulls hope that this group can finally get healthy and make a playoff push. That means protecting all of them.
Chandler Hutchison was the toughest decision among the unprotected players. He’s still on his rookie scale contract, but he hasn’t been healthy during his first two seasons. That means the Bulls prioritize a veteran or two over him. Kris Dunn is another tough player to leave unprotected, but as a free agent, there is no guarantee he’d be back anyway.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Protected – 8
- Andre Drummond - $28,751,775 (Player Option)
- Dante Exum - $9,600,000
- Cedi Osman - $8,840,580
- Darius Garland - $6,720,720
- Collin Sexton - $4,991,880
- Dylan Windler - $2,137,440
- Alfonzo McKinnie - $1,762,796 (Non-Guaranteed)
- Kevin Porter Jr. - $1,717,981
Unprotected – 2
- Kevin Love - $31,258,256
- Larry Nance Jr. - $11,709,091
Ineligible – 3
- Matthew Dellavedova
- Tristan Thompson
- Ante Zizic
Analysis: The Cavaliers are in a spot to really clean up their cap sheet if either Kevin Love or Larry Nance Jr. are selected. That made the protection decisions pretty easy. Keep all the young guys and the guys on decent contracts. Andre Drummond doesn’t really fit either description there, but Cleveland did just trade for him.
Detroit Pistons
Protected – 8
- Tony Snell - $12,178,571
- Derrick Rose - $7,682,926
- Luke Kennard - $5,273,828
- Sekou Doumbouya - $3,449,400
- Bruce Brown Jr. - $1,663,861 (Non-Guaranteed)
- Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk - $1,663,861 (Non-Guaranteed)
- Khyri Thomas - $1,663,861 ($774,684 Guaranteed)
- Thon Maker – Restricted Free Agent
Unprotected – 1
- Blake Griffin - $36,810,996
Ineligible – 5
- Langston Galloway
- John Henson
- Brandon Knight
- Jordan McRae
- Christian Wood
Analysis: This one has some gamesmanship involved. Because the Pistons have five free agents, they only need to leave the minimum of one player unprotected. It’s that one player that makes the eight protected players easy decisions. Sure, there are young guys in that group Detroit wants to keep. But a handful are players the Pistons wouldn’t lose sleep over seeing get drafted.
On the flip side, by leaving only Blake Griffin unprotected, Detroit opens the possibility of getting that albatross salary off their books. The Pistons don’t have any extra first-round picks, but could be open to moving one of their own to entice and expansion team to take on the remaining $77.8 million in salary over the next two seasons.
Indiana Pacers
Protected – 8
- Victor Oladipo - $21,000,000
- Malcolm Brogdon - $20,700,000
- Domantas Sabonis - $18,500,000
- Myles Turner - $18,000,000
- Doug McDermott - $7,333,333
- T.J. Warren - $11,750,000
- Goga Bitadze - $2,957,520
- Aaron Holiday - $2,345,640
Unprotected – 5
- Jeremy Lamb - $10,500,000
- T.J. Leaf - $4,326,826
- T.J. McConnell - $3,500,000 ($1,000,000 Guaranteed)
- Edmond Sumner - $2,160,000
- Alize Johnson – Restricted Free Agent
Ineligible – 2
- Justin Holiday
- JaKarr Sampson
Analysis: The Pacers protection decisions were fairly easy. Every player they are protecting is a key rotation player or a recent draftee.
It was a little difficult to leave Jeremy Lamb and T.J. McConnell unprotected, but Lamb is coming off a major injury. An expansion team may not want to deal with that. While McConnell has been good for Indiana, he’s a little expendable with Aaron Holiday on the roster.
Milwaukee Bucks
Protected – 8
- Khris Middleton - $33,051,724
- Giannis Antetokounmpo - $27,528,088
- Eric Bledsoe - $16,875,000
- Brook Lopez - $12,697,675
- George Hill - $9,590,602
- Robin Lopez - $5,005,350 (Player Option)
- Donte DiVincenzo - $3,044,160
- Wesley Matthews - $2,692,991 (Player Option)
Unprotected – 4
- Ersan Ilyasova - $7,000,000 (Non-Guaranteed)
- D.J. Wilson - $4,548,281
- Thanasis Antetokounmpo - $1,701,593
- Sterling Brown – Restricted Free Agent
Ineligible – 3
- Pat Connaughton
- Kyle Korver
- Marvin Williams
Analysis: The Bucks deep roster works against them a little bit here. Seven of the protected players were fairly easy decisions. The only one that was tricky was Wesley Matthews. He’s a veteran with a player option, but Milwaukee isn’t taking chances with one of their starters.
On the unprotected front, it came down to Matthews vs D.J. Wilson and Sterling Brown. Ultimately, neither young player has cracked the rotation on a regular basis. That makes it a little more palatable to leave them exposed in the expansion draft.
