Clippers’ Eric Gordon Salary Dump Just Part Of New NBA Trend

In all, guard Eric Gordon appeared in 27 games for the L.A. Clippers last season, 22 in the regular season and just five in the playoffs. The Clippers acquired him at the trade deadline last year, sending away sharpshooter Luke Kennard and point guard John Wall, as well as a first-round pick swap in this year’s draft that helped Houston land top prospect Cam Whitmore at No. 20, with the Clippers picking Kobe Brown at 30.

Gordon could have come back to the Clippers again for next season, a depth piece for a team that, despite its persistent rash of injuries, is still hoping to remain a title contender. Instead, the team decided not to pick up the option on Gordon’s contract for next season, cutting him loose and saving more than $100 million in luxury tax payments.

L.A. was widely pilloried for making the Gordon trade only to cut him loose, but they are only taking the same action that has been rampant in the NBA in the last 10 days. They wriggled out of paying Gordon and also wriggled out of paying Kennard, who is owed $15.4 million for next season.

The trend in the NBA this month has been the return of the salary-dump trade, a popular maneuver back when creating space and signing free agents was a popular means of team-building. Now, though, the goal is not to create space to sign expensive new guys—it is to dodge the new luxury-tax penalties that prevent teams from signing even relatively cheap new guys.

Wizards, Hawks & Warriors Are All Doing It, Too

The Wizards did it with their shocking trade of Bradley Beal to Phoenix, which yielded Landry Shamet, waivable point guard Chris Paul and zero first-round picks (only future swaps and second-rounders). Yet, Washington felt it needed to make the deal just to get out of the remaining four years and $207 million on Beal’s contract, a payout that by itself accounted for getting the Wizards nearly a third of the way to the second apron.

The Wizards then shipped Paul to Golden State, which was looking to get out of the contract of Jordan Poole (four years and $128 million), signed nine months ago. For the Warriors, the addition of Paul comes with the opportunity to waive him outright next summer—it’s a savings trade.

This week, too, saw a salary-dump whopper. The Hawks sent long-rumored trade bait John Collins to Utah for 36-year-old Rudy Gay. Atlanta had much better offers for Collins, but the team showed its priorities in choosing to take back Gay, who makes just a bit more than $6 million. The goal was not to get better as a team, it was to avoid the second luxury-tax apron, and sending out Collins’ remaining three years and $78 million helps Atlanta do just that.

There is concern around the NBA that the new CBA’s restrictive apron rules, which are being phased in over the next two seasons, will continue to create trades based far more on finances than on team-building and talent. The apron kicks in at $17.5 million above the luxury tax threshold, and teams above it will face severe restrictions—the loss of all mid-level exceptions, including the taxpayer exception, as well the inability to aggregate salaries in trades or include cash in deals.

There are draft-pick consequences, too. Teams that remain above the apron for multiple years, could see a pick automatically drop to the end of the first round.

The penalties are tough, and teams are still gauging how future salaries will be affected—including how much teams will be willing to pay players in this year’s free agency go-round. There is a sense among league executives that things will normalize going forward, but for now, there is some panic for teams sitting on a excess of bloated salaries.

We’ve seen some surprising salary dumps as a result. And in the coming days and weeks, we could yet see more.