NBA Salary Cap Chat With Larry Coon 4/11/12

Larry Coon the noted author of the CBAFAQ, will answer your Salary Cap and Collective Bargaining Agreement questions. Larry will answers your questions about the Salary Cap, NBA trades and the new CBA at 3:00pm

  1. Deven

    Hi Mr. Coon. Can the Lakers sign Lamar Odom again in the offseason or are they over the cap?

    • Larry Coon

      The Lakers are WAY over the cap, but that’s not their biggest concern. First of all, Odom won’t be a free agent — he’s signed through next season. Yes, they may reach a buyout with him or otherwise waive him, but to presume that this will happen is assuming facts not in evidence.

      Second, they changed the rules with the new CBA, and teams can no longer re-sign players after 30 days from the date they traded them away. Now they have to wait either one year, or until the contract would have ended, whichever comes first. So the Lakers are prohibited from signing Odom (assuming he becomes a free agent) until next December.

      Third, the Lakers traded Odom for a reason. Is there anything about his current situation in Dallas or about his wanting to be traded from LA in the first place that would make you think he’d have a career renaissance if he came back to LA? I certainly don’t think so. I think the Lamar Odom book on the Lakers is closed.

  2. Harvey

    If (and when) Elton Brand opts in to the final year of his contract, can he be traded by Philadelphia at any point after than opt in even if it is before July 1st?

    • Larry Coon

      Teams can start making trades as soon as their season ends — i.e., when they’re eliminated from the playoffs (or after the regular season, for teams that don’t make the playoffs). But as you implied, the fact that Brand can opt-out means he can’t be traded, since players who will be free agents, or who even MIGHT be free agents due to an option can’t be moved after the season.

      Brand has a version of an opt-out called an ETO, where he has to invoke it to leave, but he stays by default. There’s no official way to officially opt-in with an ETO. Their only option would be to do what Dwight Howard and the Magic did — amend his contract to take out the ETO. I doubt something like this happens.

  3. Charlie

    In his last chat, Derek Page said “LA is better off just keeping Bynum – who may be a better center than Howard in the future with some seasoning….” Really?? Do experts truly believe LA would be better off with an injury prone center vs. a three time defensive player of the year? Can everyone please take their Laker goggles off. Justify someone preferring Bynum over Howard.

    • Larry Coon

      I think the gap between Bynum and Howard has narrowed considerably, and Bynum is proving he can stay healthy (partly due to better management of his knees, and partly due to some of his injuries being flukish). That’s not to say that Howard isn’t the better player — he certainly is. But he’s not, say, Pau Gasol better, if rumors that the Magic were asking for Bynum AND Gasol were true. I think Dwight will continue to be the better player (the age difference right now is insignificant), even though Bynum is continuing to improve and has some abilities/attributes that Dwight doesn’t/won’t have.

      If it was a straight-up trade, for players of the same salary, then I’d rather have Dwight, even though Bynum certainly isn’t a bad consolation prize. But it won’t be a straight-up trade, and they won’t make the same salary. These are all factors that weigh into how the Lakers would perceive such a deal.

  4. chuck

    Did the CBA change any of the draft process (ping-pong balls, etc)?

    • Larry Coon

      Surprisingly little about the draft (and nothing about the lottery) is in the CBA. The bulk of the section on the draft deals with player eligibility — i.e., who is eligible to play in the NBA. There was talk about changing this, but they ran out of time and decided to table the discussion for another year. The section of the CBA on the draft changed very, very little. But as I said, it doesn’t deal with how they run the lottery — they can still change the lottery process without needing to wait for a new CBA.

  5. chuck

    What would the Thunder have to do to keep Maynor, Harden, and Ibaka? Do you think they will let Mohammed go?

    • Larry Coon

      The worry in OKC has always been with their ability to keep guys like Harden and Ibaka, after maxing-out Durant and Westbrook, given that they are playing in a small market. I think the new CBA (and the new revenue sharing program) will do a lot to help them. The thought is that the new agreement will help to drive down prices — although lots of teams having cap room will tend to have the opposite effect. The Thunder are going to be the big test case for whether the new system is successful. If they are able to keep guys like Harden and Ibaka, then the new system did its job.

  6. Deven

    In your mind Larry, where is the best spot for Deron Williams long-term: Brooklyn or Dallas?

    • Larry Coon

      Either city would be great for him — either NYC or back home in Texas. With the Nets the premise is that the team would be re-built around him, including having plenty of cap space to land another superstar (with Dwight Howard being their obvious dream scenario). With Dallas the idea is that they’d clear most of their roster and give him an opportunity to play with Dirk (and perhaps another big free agent, again with Dwight being their first choice).

      Dirk is more of a known quantity, and is signed for two more seasons after this one. The Nets are more of a blank slate — no matter what happens with Gerald Wallace. I’d call the two a coin flip long-term, because either team would be able to significantly re-tool for the long term.

  7. MikeF

    Hey Larry,
    How come we aren’t hearing more about teams using the stretch provision? It seems like it could be useful? Could you also quickly review what it is because it’s a bit unclear to me?
    -thanks

    • Larry Coon

      The stretch provision is a new rule for paying the player guaranteed salary after he is waived, and for how the team’s cap is charged in these circumstances. Under the previous CBA, when a team waives a player, his remaining guaranteed salary continues to be charged to the team’s cap in the same years as the original contract. If they arranged for a different amount to be paid via a buyout, then the buyout amount is charged against the team’s cap. If they arranged a different payment schedule (even a lump-sum payoff of the entire amount) it didn’t matter, because it was still charged to the cap in the same years as the original contract.

      With the stretch provision the salary is paid off over a longer period of time — twice the number of years, plus one. So if a player is waived with two years remaining, his remaining guaranteed salary is paid off over five years. If the player is waived Sept 1 or later, then the current season is paid normally, and any subsequent years are stretched.

      If the salary is stretched, the team can elect to have the cap hit stretched as well. So, for example, if a player is waived with $20 million remaining over the next two years ($10 million per season), the stretch provision could make it $20 million over five years ($4 million per season) instead. That’s a lot of money off the team’s cap in the short term, and teams might be able to utilize that money on free agents.

      But here’s the big catch, and the reason you don’t hear people talk about it very much — it applies only to contracts signed under the current CBA — i.e., signed December 2011 or later. Any contracts signed under the previous CBA can’t be stretched.

      We’ll be hearing more about the strategic uses of the stretch provision after another season or two, when more contracts are signed under the current CBA.

  8. Alex

    Hi Larry,

    can Phoenix sign&trade Aaron Brooks this offseason?

    • Larry Coon

      No. One of the new rules for a sign-and-trade is that the player must have played the previous season with the team. If they go through the season without signing him he’ll still be a restricted free agent, but a sign-and-trade won’t be available. If he signed a rest-of-season contract before the end of the regular season (i.e., in the next few days), they’d be able to sign-and-trade him after the season (when his contract expires) but at that point he’d no longer be a restricted free agent, and could leave on his own.

  9. MikeF

    I think there is a chance the Suns go all in to bring Nash and Hill back for another run. If they were to amnesty Josh Chilldress, could they afford OJ Mayo and George Hill while still resigning Nash, Hill, Michael Redd(cheap depth)?

    • Larry Coon

      It’s certainly possible. Nash is still playing at a high level, and unless he wants to go elsewhere to chase that elusive ring, doesn’t have any problems with the Suns. They could decide they’re fine with their identity as an older veteran team, and that will last as long as Nash is still there & playing well. I don’t think they’re competing for a title any more, but that’s not such a bad thing either — once Nash finally does retire, they blow it up completely & start over.

      Right now they’re at $26.4 million with the players who are signed right now. They could still keep Nash, Amnesty Childress as you say, hang onto Hill at a reasonable salary, and still chase a couple free agents who can help them now and possibly fit into their eventual rebuild. Nash is so popular in Phoenix that they have to give this idea serious consideration.

  10. Ap

    Hey you read up on the 40% reduction and extention rule in the new CBA?

    • Larry Coon

      Yeah. It’s practically meaningless. I don’t think the final rule reflected what they originally talked about.

  11. o2cats

    If Gasol is traded, will he get his full 15% trade kicker, or does the new CBA limit him, because his salary is near the max?

    • Larry Coon

      He wouldn’t get the full kicker, but he’d get some of it. There’s a little extra room before he hits the max (defined, in this case, as 105% of what he made in the previous season), and the kicker would get spread out over the remaining years of his contract. For example, if he’s traded after July 1 his kicker would be $5.75 million, but because of the max salary rule and with proration he’d really get about $1.3 million of it.