Getty Langston Galloway
Due to an outbreak of the coronavirus that has seen seven of their players land in health and safety protocols over the last week – along with the continued absence of Kyrie Irving, and an ankle injury for starting wing Joe Harris that has reduced their available roster to only nine players – the Brooklyn Nets have been granted five ‘hardship exceptions’ by the NBA, allowing them to sign up to five extra players beyond the usual maximum roster size.
And the first of those exceptions has been used, with Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN reporting that the team will be calling up veteran shooting guard Langston Galloway from the College Park SkyHawks of the G League.
Nets are signing guard Langston Galloway to a hardship exception, sources tell ESPN.
Galloway had only joined the G League earlier this week, looking to restart a career that had seen him spend the previous six and a half seasons in the NBA. After initially breaking through with the New York Knicks in January 2015, Galloway has had further stints with the New Orleans Pelicans, Sacramento Kings, Detroit Pistons and most recently the Phoenix Suns, appearing in 445 regular season games with 62 starts.
Last season, Galloway helped the Suns run all the way to the NBA Finals, playing 40 regular season games off the bench and averaging 4.8 points in 10.9 minutes per game. Although he was not a part of their playoff rotation, he provided when called upon the veteran off-ball shooting option that they had signed him to be, hitting a career-best 42.4% from three-point range.
A High Price to Pay
Although Galloway’s contract will only be for ten days, it is nevertheless quite the investment for the Nets to make due to the NBA’s punitive luxury tax system.
Galloway himself will earn $128,709 over the short life of the contract, and his contract will count as $95,930 against Brooklyn’s salary cap, yet the Nets will pay a further amount of $503,633 in tax alone for his ten days of work. In being more than $35 million over the luxury tax threshold, they must pay $5.25 in tax for every $1 of salary cap spent above the threshold. The bill for 10 days of Galloway will come in at over $630,000.
Such will also be the case for any other player they sign using one of their four remaining hardship exceptions, as well as if Galloway signs a second 10-day contract after this one. And so even with owner Joe Tsai’s unquestionably deep pockets, it is a lot to pay for what may only be spot minutes of a few mid-season games. Galloway, then, needs to be ready to play.
Who is Langston Galloway?
Turning 30 earlier this month and with the better part of seven NBA seasons under his belt, Galloway brings plenty of experience and a strong understanding of his role. Over the course of his career, his offensive game has become more limited in its variety, yet more efficient in its effectiveness.
As a rookie with the Knicks and given plenty of opportunities on the ball on a moribund 17-65 team trying out new blood, Galloway averaged 11.8 points and 3.3 assists per game in his half-season of work, both career highs. He did so by taking a fair number of turns on the ball – on a team extremely short of primary ball-handlers, Galloway got his chance to be one, and used 23.7% of his possessions as the pick-and-roll ball-handler accordingly, per Synergy Sports.
Over the years, though, that role has evolved to being more exclusively one of an off-ball scorer. Last season with the Suns, 48.2% of Galloway’s possessions were used as a spot-up player, with a further 21.7% coming between hand-offs and off-screen plays combined, also per Synergy. He had only 14 possessions as the pick-and-roll ball-handler all season, scoring 6 points, and while the presence of Chris Paul and Devin Booker on the roster ahead of him were significant factors, it was nevertheless the continuation of a years-long trend that has seen Galloway morph into a shooting specialist.
Shooting is the vogue skill in the contemporary NBA, and with his 42.4% mark from three-point range and efficient points-to-touches ratio, Galloway is a good candidate for the fill-in role required. Over the next few games, he need only hit a few jump shots to fulfil the brief.
Almost 17 years ago to the day, back when the team were still known as New Jersey, a much-depleted Nets team decimated by absence gave a 10-day contract to undrafted 29-year-old guard Billy Thomas. After eating a few minutes and hitting a few shots, Thomas ended up sticking around for the season, and earned the nickname “Off The Street” for his ability to come in and seamlessly play a shooting role with no practice. In signing Galloway, the Nets will be hoping for the same again.