Dakari Johnson rejecting the required tender to play for the Thunder’s D-League team.
Tyler Harvey doing that for the Magic is another.
Oklahoma City has 15 players, the regular-season roster limit, with guaranteed salaries. Plus, the Thunder have a strong developmental track record.
The Magic have just 13 players with guaranteed salaries. Presumably, there’d be room for Harvey, the No. 51 pick out of Eastern Washington.
Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel:
2nd-round pick Tyler Harvey won't be in camp because he'll spend the season w/the Erie BayHawks. Magic will retain his draft rights.
— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) September 24, 2015
To keep Harvey’s rights, the Magic had to offer him a required tender – a one-year contract presumably unguaranteed at the minimum.
Harvey should have accepted it. That would have allowed him to attend training camp and try earning a spot on the regular-season roster. If he made the team, he would’ve gotten an NBA salary. If he got cut, he would’ve at least been an NBA free agent – and he still could have gone to the D-League, as he’s doing now.
Orlando has six players on partially guaranteed or unguaranteed contracts competing for the final two spots:
- Melvin Ejim ($150,000 guaranteed)
- Keith Appling ($100,000 guaranteed)
- Jordan Sibert ($100,000 guaranteed)
- Greg Stiemsma (unguaranteed)
- Devyn Marble (unguaranteed)
- Nnanna Egwu (unguaranteed)
Harvey doesn’t believe he could beat out at least five of that group?
Maybe the Magic promised him a better contract if he waited until next offseason. But, even if they did, should he count on that? Why would they pay him more next summer when they could pretty easily accommodate him onto the roster now?
Perhaps, Harvey agreed to forgo the tender on condition of being drafted. It is cool to hear your name called. But that probably would have been a financial mistake. Being drafted limits a player.
Take Sibert. He went undrafted out of Dayton, and he’s getting $100,000 guaranteed from the Magic. If he makes the regular-season roster, he’ll get even more. Harvey will be limited to about a third of Sibert’s guarantee in the D-League.
Plus, if Sibert gets waived, he becomes an NBA free agent, free to sign with any team that wants him. Harvey can sign in the top league for the next year only if Orlando wants him.
It’s very nice of Harvey to let the Magic keep his rights without paying him or using a roster spot on him. I’m just not sure why he’s letting them do that.