Claiming a player on waivers

[Garf]

This came up in our fantasy league.

Question 1:
Mr. Coon tells us "If more than one team tries to claim a player on waivers, the team with the worst record gets him."
What happens in July-September? Is it the worst overall record in the previous season?

Question 2:
Coon then names one of the conditions to claim such a player is "The player has a minimum salary contract (one or two seasons at the minimum salary, with no bonuses of any kind)."
As stupid as that sounds, what is "a minimum salary contract" exactly?
In our case it's a player who signed as a 2nd-round rookie a 4y minimum salary contract back in 2019 using the MLE, thus salary is $1,930,681.
However, the yearly minimum salary scale isn't moving up fast enough to cover the difference, so in 2022 a first year minimum salary for a player with 3 years experience is actually only 1,902,133.
Is our player on "a minimum salary contract"?

https://basketball.realgm.com/nba/info/minimum_scale

Many thanks in advance!
Daniel

[DBoys]

Q1 - Yes

Q2 In the situation you describe, a team would need cap room or a TPE/DPE to claim that player on waivers.

If the contract the player signed had either used the Minimum Salary Exception (1-2 years only, starts at minimum, no bonuses of any kind), or used cap room to provide the same contract, then any team can claim him from waivers using Minimum Salary Exception. This contract, as described, did not fit within those parameters.

[Garf]

Thank you so much!