The Cap Picture:  Most of the free agent money has been spent, and most teams have already exhausted their salary cap exceptions. There are a few teams sitting on interesting assets, but for the most part the spending in free agency is done.

Here is how things look on the salary front now.

If you noticed… the Cleveland Cavaliers are sitting on roughly $13.38 million in cap space, they are by far the team with the most room remaining. When you wonder why they get mentioned in the Dwight Howard rumors, its because they have the room to eat a bad contract, and they have the room to clean up some of the cap issues that severly over the cap teams face in making a major trade.

The Denver Nuggets don’t have much in terms of cap space, but they are sitting on a $13 million Traded Player Exception from their deadline deal sending out Nene. It’s unlikely that Denver uses it, but it’s still a sizable trade chip.

The Chicago Bulls are also sitting on a $5 million Traded Player Exception from the Kyle Korver deal. They are also unlikely to use all of it, but if an interesting players swings their way they have the option to, but with the Bulls sitting on $74 million in salary commits it’s unlikely that they will.

If you are a Salary nut, make sure to check out the UPDATED HOOPSWORLD Salary Pages. All of the details that you’d ever want to know, updated throughout the season.

The Warriors And The Tax:  A lot was made yesterday when the Golden State Warriors made their signings of Carl Landry and Brandon Rush official yesterday pushing them north of the NBA Luxury Tax line this season which is set at $70.307 million for the upcoming season. The Warriors now sit about $400,000 over that line.

Now before we go applauding the spending power of owner Joe Lacob, General Manager Bob Myers and the Warriors, keep in mind Luxury Tax is computed based on what is on the roster at the end of the season, not the beginning. The Warriors have until the February 21st NBA trade deadline to make a tax clearing trade and with the bulk of their deals done, the Warriors look to be just over the tax line enough to believe they’ll dump a contract before the final buzzer in February, especially if they are under achieving.

“We’re into the tax, but we have flexibility,” GM Bob Myers said to Marcus Thompson of the Mercury News. “We can go deeper into the tax if we want to. We can find ways to get out. We’ll keep our eye on that. It will probably depend on how we’re doing (on the court).”

Myers stopped short of guaranteeing a playoff berth for the Warriors when announcing the Carl Landry and Brandon Rush deals, but he did say that the excuses are coming off the board.

When Joe Lacob bought the Warriors in 2010 he promised bold aggressive moves that would get the Warriors into the Playoffs and contending for a championship. – luxury tax is typically the first step in that direction.

Blazers Closing In On A Coach:  The Portland Trail Blazers seem to have narrowed their search for a new head coach down to Dallas Mavericks’ assistant Terry Stotts and incumbent interim coach Kaleb Canales.

The Blazers interviewed almost a dozen candidates and have narrowed it down to two favorites with Canales likely the front runner.

Several of the notable “named” candidates pulled themselves out of the running when it became clear they were not frontrunners, leaving the Blazers to choose between Canales, a young somewhat unproven coach that the bulk of the roster endorsed at seasons’ end. Or Stotts, a career coach that has some head coaching experience, but also and more importantly has a NBA Championship.

Former Magic assistant Steve Clifford and Suns’ assistant Elston Turner were said to have been finalists but Jason Quick of The Oregonian is reporting that both were informed yesterday that they were no longer in the running.

Blazers’ owner Paul Allen is in London for the Olympics, so it’s unclear when he will meet with the finalists, but it does seem like the Blazers will be naming a head coach soon.

More Twitter:  Make sure you are following all of our guys on Twitter to insure you are getting the very latest from our team: @stevekylerNBA, @AlexKennedyNBA, @TheRocketGuy, @EricPincus, @joelbrigham, @alexraskinNYC, @SusanBible, @DPageHoopsWorld , @stevesraptors, @TommyBeer and @YannisHW.

NBA Chats:  There are three NBA chats today starting with my weekly NBA Rumors Chat at 10:30am EST. Get your questions in now as the chats do fill up fast. Senior NBA writer Joel Brigham will host his weekly NBA Chat at 1:30pm EST. Joel covers the Central Division for HOOPSWORLD. You can always find the next chat here: Upcoming NBA Chats. If you are looking for a completed chat, check the Chat Archive.