NBA Salary Cap Chat With Larry Coon 11/16/12

1. Jon

   Do you see Carmelo wearing down this season if he continues to log heavy minutes at the four? The spurs strategy last night was to get physical with him early with Blair. Should Coach Woodson be giving him more time at his natural 3 spot to give his body a rest against physical teams/defenders?

   • Larry Coon

     Yes, this is why I think the Knicks’ start is somewhat of a facade. I don’t see how they keep it up for a full season.

2. Tj

   Why is it that teams constantly give out these bad contracts to guys who are all of a sudden playing well in a contract year so many bad contracts take amare for instance he probably deserve his boozer too maybe hibbert but ersan from Milwaukee Lin asik derozan comes back too hurt teams

   • Larry Coon

     The law of supply and demand, and the lack of functional crystal balls.

3. Devonte

   If anybody, you can come up with some sencerios that work perfectly salary wise and benefit both teams when it comes to finding a way to trade amare?

   • Larry Coon

     I think the Knicks are okay with the idea of Amar`e staying with the team — they aren’t actively looking to trade him.

     If he ever does get traded, I think it’ll be after he’s proved he can stay healthy, and later in his contract (at least another year).

4. Matty

   Do you feel that the new CBA is becoming Laker friendly and ‘all-the-other-teams’ unfriendly, thereby negating one of the reasons why there was a lockout in the first place; Competitive balance? Case in point: James Harden to Houston because they can’t afford the luxury tax of paying him a max contract.

   Or was it really all about money from top to bottom and “competitive balance” was just a phrase the owners used to not look bad in the eye of the public?

   • Larry Coon

     No, competitive balance was one of the motivating factors, but remember, each owner is representing his own team’s interests in the Board of Governors, and after that an agreement is a negotiation with the players association. Remember, the owners originally wanted a low hard cap, which WOULD have brought competitive balance. They lost that battle, so the result was a system that went some of the way, but didn’t fix all the problems.

     But yes, given the revenue streams of some teams and caps on contributions to revenue sharing, some teams will be able to absorb huge tax bills with the new CBA. The Lakers are one team that can conceivably afford to continue outspending other teams, as are the Knicks and a couple others.

5. JP

   Larry,
   Love the chats– here’s one- Knicks send Amare to Phoenix- Phoenix sends Channing Frye and Wes Johnson to Knicks (this would only work after December of course).
   Suns get their Star back and Knicks get some depth and young talent. Plus -knicks don’t have to worry about messing up their chemistry when Amare comes back.

   • Larry Coon

     I don’t think any team willingly takes on Amare’s massive non-guaranteed contract.

6. niko

   Do Knicks have bird rights on JR Smith?

   • Larry Coon

     Depends. If he opts out this summer (which he will probably do) they will have Early Bird rights, which are the two-year version of Bird rights. If he plays out his option season the Knicks will have full Bird rights in 2014.

7. Bryan

   If, as many suspect, LA can’t reach the full potential of D’Antoni’s offense playing two centers, wouldn’t Pau look awfully good in a Kings uniform?

   He immediately adds much needed sanity and selflessness to that roster, and Sacto both has and can afford to lose the pieces LA needs. I’m thinking Thornton, Robinson or Thompson, and either Salmons or Garcia for cap filler. Thoughts?

   • Larry Coon

     I think it’s possible that Pau will turn out to be an awkward fit in D’Antoni’s system — and an aging and expensive one at that. This opens up the possibility that he will be moved for a stretch four who’s cheaper and a better fit. But I’m not sure I see Sacto taking on Gasol at his age and salary.

8. Ercan

   Greetings from Germany! Are the Rockets allowed to void Royce White`s guaranteed contract? From a business view it is clear that the employee is not willing to do the job he is signed for, thus the Team does not have to pay him. Am I right?

   • Larry Coon

     No. In fact, employers are required to accommodate employee disabilities unless it’s an undue burden. White could certainly argue that while travel is required for his employment, the mode of travel isn’t an essential component, and he can perform his essential job functions given certain travel accommodations.

9. Ethan s.

   Considering the hire of D’antoni do you see pau staying or being traded? Are there anyother moves lakers could be thinking about

   • Larry Coon

     I think the Lakers could use someone who’s more of a stretch four (although I think D’Antoni will be able to make it work well with Pau) and needs better outside shooting.

10. Michal

    How do you see the Grizzlies get below the luxury tax threshold?

    • Larry Coon

      They’re 6-1 right now. If they keep this up, maybe they bite the bullet this year and pay it. They’re only $4M over right now.

11. jason

    Ric Bucher is saying that for restricted free agents, the poision pill 3rd year can be spread out for all years in contract. For example Asik is getting $8 million a year for three years, not the 5m, 5m,14m as written in the offer sheet the Bulls had to match. If the Bulls did match they had to pay Asik 5,5,14.

    • Larry Coon

      For players signed under the “Gilbert Arenas” provision (Lin, Asik & Fields), the team giving the offer sheet has to have a certain amount of cap room in year 1 in order to offer a balloon payment in year 3. Even though it doesn’t go against the year 1 salary, the league “accounts” for this cap room by charging a higher amount to the team’s cap in the first season, and consequently, charging a lower amount in the third season. The mechanism for doing this is to just charge the average amount of the contract in all three seasons.

      The player’s original team doesn’t need the same cap room in order to match an offer sheet, so there’s no need to account for anything extra in the first year. The amount that’s charged to the team’s cap is the actual salary in each season.

      So yes — if the offer sheet is $5M, $5M and $14M, then the player makes this actual salary no matter which team he ends up with. But if the offering team gets him, the cap hit is $8M in each season, but if the original team retains him the cap hit is $5M, $5M and $14M in the same three seasons.

12. James

    Hi Larry:

    David Stern stated BRI would be 5 billion for the upcoming season…

    Given that approx 45% goes to players salaries, can we expect the salary cap to be closer to 70 million in 2014 and the luxury cap to rise also? I am thinking OKC could have easily kept James Harden in this case. I am also thinking the Lakers and other teams over the cap (at this moment) won’t be taking as big a tax hit as people were saying earlier if the luxury caps goes up significantly. What are your thoughts on the higher BRI, salary cap and luxury cap for the next couple of years. Thanks in advance.

    Cheers,
    James

    • Larry Coon

      I’m trying to get to the bottom of Stern’s claim right now. Since some of the principal sources of revenue (national TV) were already set, the league already knew about things like the Lakers’ & Celtics’ new TV deals, and other revenue streams (such as ticket sales) have limited growth potential, I’m not sure where all this new revenue comes from. The league was predicting $4.3 billion as late as July.

      That said, the players get 50% of revenues, plus or minus 60.5% percent of the amount by which revenues exceed or fall short of forecasts. The forecast for 2012-13 is $4.308 billion, so a $5 billion BRI would guarantee the players $2.5 billion plus 60.5% $692 million ($419 million) for a total of $2.919 billion. That’s an insane amount.

      That would work out to a cap of about $73 million, and luxury tax around $88.2 million. Again, this seems insanely high.

      As for your OKC question, a higher cap & tax would help, but I don’t think it’d help enough. With Harden their payroll would be about $100 million next season. Even if the tax threshold went up to $88.2 million, they’d still be paying $20.75 million in tax.

13. Goran

    Hello from Croatia! How do you feel about a trade Pau Gasol for Josh Smith (with fillers), do those teams get better by pulling this trade, do you think it is something that could happen this season?

    • Larry Coon

      I don’t think Atlanta does that deal at this point. Danny Ferry has been retooling the team, and I’m not sure adding a guy in his 30′s with another season at $19+ million is the way to accomplish that.

14. Kobe

    Mitch is a genius!
    Think he can pull off this
    Lakers get
    Lebron, Norris cole,
    Heat get
    Meta, Blake, hill, 1st rnd pick
    Your thoughts?

    • Larry Coon

      Miami might insist the Lakers take an additional big contract or two off their hands — like Bosh & Wade.

15. Walter

    It is well known that the Lakers need some role players that can shoot. Given they have 4 point guards, do you see them trying to move one for a shooter? I believe Duhon’s contract is not guaranteed next season. Do you see them shopping him for a player on a two year fully guaranteed deal for a shooter? Would anyone bite?

    • Larry Coon

      Rumor had it that the Lakers were trying to move either Blake or Duhon. I don’t know if that’s still true, but as you point out, they have four PGs on their roster and their success hinges on Mike D’Antoni getting the most he can out of Steve Nash. But I don’t think either one is good enough to get the Lakers back any assets of value. More likely it’d be more of a salary dump if one is traded.

16. Chris

    Hi Larry,

    Will the rockets make a trade before the deadline? Can they get yet another uprising star or all-star caliber player? Are they Playoff team?

    Ray Allen for Sixth man?

    Thanks.

    • Larry Coon

      I think the Rockets retained enough assets that they could make another trade to add a front-line player in a two-way or three-way deal.

17. Eric

    Do you think Wade’s recent health problems illustrate just how amazing Kobe’s longevity really is?

    • Larry Coon

      Kobe’s a guard who’s still among the top players in the league at age 34. A better illustration is to look at that peer group. Who else of a similar age even comes close?

18. Samster

    How are TV revenues divided among the teams? What about cities, e.g., LA with 2 teams? Do the Lakers and Clippers split revenues 50-50?

    • Larry Coon

      There are two kinds of TV deals — national and local. As far as I’m aware, the national deals (ABC, TNT, etc) are divided equally. Each team makes its own local TV deals, and keeps the revenue it generates from those (although there is revenue sharing).