Salary Cap Chat With Larry Coon 2/8/12

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. jhay_e

    j.mac to memphis

    mo wil. to Lakers

    mayo to clips

    :) tnx

  2. Chris

    I read in one of your recent twitter responses that Jeremy Lin would be eligible for the Early Bird Exception. Could you explain how that would be possible? From what I understand, Lin was waived and then signed by the Knicks to a 1-year deal, making him ineligible for the Early Bird exception. Wouldn’t the Knicks have to dip into their MLE if a team signs him to a large enough offer sheet?

    • Larry Coon

      It was a waiver claim, so he didn’t re-sign as a free agent. The league treats waiver claims as changing teams by assignment — i.e., like a trade.

      But, of the people I’ve talked to about it, nobody is 100% sure. You can interpret it either way, depending on how you read the CBA. I think this exact situation has never come up before, so the league may not have made a formal ruling on it yet. I’m still trying to get to the bottom of it.

  3. Kevin

    Hi Larry,

    If you were to change one thing about the new CBA, what would it be??

    • Larry Coon

      The thing I thought was a mistake was shortening extensions to four years (including the remaining years on the current contract).

      A potential free agent on the last year of his contract can extend, which would only add three new seasons to his contract (on top of the one that’s already there), or he can opt-out, become a free agent, and re-sign a five year deal (or leave and sign for four). It becomes a no-brainer for guys to opt-out rather than extend. They should have allowed longer extensions, so it’d become a wash with free agency. It’d promote teams’ ability to keep their own players. Or at the very least, they should stop counting the current season as one of those seasons, starting on a certain date (like the last day of the regular season).

  4. Diddy

    How’s it going Larry, first time chatting with you. You’re probably tired of hearing about Dwight-mania, but humor me here. I hated the notion of a Brook Lopez package (especially with the foot surgery now), but the emergence of MarShon Brooks has moved my position a little. Do you think the Nets would be willing to offer a package of Lopez, Brooks, draft picks + taking Hedo’s contract? Could this even work..?

    • Larry Coon

      The Nets are over the cap now, so it’s not quite as easy as it was before. It looks like the Nets would have to send about $23.2 million away in order to acquire both Dwight and Hedo. Lopez and Brooks add up to about $4.1 million, so they’d need to send another $19.1 million, which Orlando would want in ending salaries. They have Okur at $10.9 million and Humphries at $8 million, so they’re just about there. It looks like it could be tweaked to work, as soon as the trade restrictions expire.

      If your question is whether they’d throw Brooks into a deal, then I think the answer is yes. They won’t let Brooks stand in the way if it means the difference between having both Dwight & Deron or having neither.

  5. Mark

    JR Smith wants a real salary and playing time. Could the Lakers convince a East team with Cap room (Indiana) to sign JR and trade him into the Lakers Trade Exception with the payoff obviously be creating their own exception?

    • Larry Coon

      No, for a few reasons. One is that only a player’s most recent team can do a sign-and-trade. The only team that could have done it was Denver.

      But with the new CBA, sign-and-trade deals are no longer allowed once the season starts. Also, the player now has to have finished the MOST RECENT season with the team — so even if Smith goes unsigned for the remainder of the season, the Nuggets can’t sign-and-trade him.

      So the only way Smith is going to get to the Lakers is if he’s willing to take the minimum salary.

  6. HoopsNationCA

    Hi Larry. We’ve already seen Cuban make some hard financial decisions in Dallas about payroll going forward. How are teams like Atlanta, Detroit, Orlando and the Lakers going to shed payroll and get under the salary cap with no large expiring salaries for the next 3 years?

    • Larry Coon

      The Lakers are the most interesting case. They’ll have so much money coming in — even after revenue sharing — that they may just bite the bullet and pay the exorbitant tax for as long as Kobe is productive. If Kobe isn’t productive (say he has a serious injury or drop-off in his production), then they haven’t used their amnesty yet, and if Kobe isn’t justifying his $30.5 million salary in 2013-14, they could use it on him.

      But even with everyone on their books, right now the Lakers have zero salary committed past 2013. At worst, they’d have to eat the tax for one year, unless they re-load by then. Note also that Pau Gasol ($19.3 million in 2013-14) was almost moved once already, and could easily be gone by 2013.

      Detroit’s pretty safe right now — the only big salary they have in 2013-14 is Ben Gordon, and that’s his last year. They could easily be not just below the tax line, but also under the salary cap by then.

      Orlando is all about Dwight, of course. But right now they have just $32 million committed for 2013-14, and could leverage the Dwight situation to unload a big contract like Hedo’s. So they’ll be okay as well — they’ll probably be in the middle of their rebuilding process by then.

      Atlanta doesn’t have a lot of salary committed in 2013-14 either — just $42 million. Josh Smith will be off the books by then, and it’s long been assumed that he would be the odd man out if the Hawks need to make tough financial choices.

  7. Mike

    Sixers sure have given themselves a lot of options for this offseason. Let’s assume they amnesty Brand and want to resign Hawes. Can the sixers use the full ‘Brand’ cap space to sign a Free Agent (ie. Eric Gordon) then go over the cap to resign Hawes because they have his bird rights?

    • Larry Coon

      To an extend. Free agents continue to count against their prior team’s cap, for just the reason you suggest. They don’t want teams using their cap room to sign other teams’ free agents, and then turning around & re-signing their own guys. So while Hawes is unsigned, he will continue to count against the Sixers’ cap. The amount will be either 150% or 190% of his current $4.05 million salary — depending on whether this amount ends up being above or below the estimated average player salary for next year. I think it will be below, but it’s close enough that I’m not positive. If it’s 190%, then he will count around $8 million on the Sixers’ cap. So if they amnesty Brand they will have about $12 million in cap room.

      They could regain the $8 million from Hawes’ cap hold as well, but they’d have to give up their Bird rights to him.

  8. Reed

    I know that Cleveland typically isn’t a free agent destination, but are the Cavs better off keeping Antawn Jamison through the deadline, letting his deal expire and getting his $15M in cap space this summer?

    • Larry Coon

      So your question is, which is better: What they can get in trade, or the flexibility that comes from having more cap room. The answer is, it all depends on what they can get in trade, compared to what they can get in the free agent market. As you say, Cleveland isn’t typically regarded as a free agent destination. For example, if they free up the cap room, can they get Dwight and/or Deron? Doubtful. So what are they preserving the cap room for? Jamison’s expiring $15M contract could be a valuable commodity — a team looking to unload long-term salary could be willing to give up a lot for him. The first team that comes to mind is Dallas, who’d want to unload Shawn Marion to free enough cap room to sign both Howard and Williams. The Cavs could probably ask for & receive anyone not named Dirk.

      There’s also a “best of both worlds” situation, where the Cavs could find a team with their own ending salary, but thinks Jamison would help them in a playoff run. The Cavs might be able to parlay that into another ending contract plus draft considerations — so they’d get assets in return AND the cap room.

  9. Wolvesfan

    How does the QO necessarily work? I will use Beas for my example, if the wolves offer him say a 5 mil per over 3 years does that automatically make the QO available to him? If so would this be the same if they matched another teams offer sheet?

    • Larry Coon

      A qualifying offer is a trade-off for restricted free agency. Teams can’t make a player a free agent without offering the player a contract themselves — in other words, they can’t refuse to give the player an offer, and just wait for him to sign with another team before swooping in to match. The qualifying offer is a pro forma offer the team must make to go along with restricted free agency. The team & player are free to ignore the QO and sign whatever deal they can negotiate.

      So if the Wolves did what you said, they’d submit a QO (to make him restricted), and also offer him a three-year contract. Beasley could accept the QO (maybe because he just wants to play with them one more year and become unrestricted), accept the longer offer, negotiate something else with the Wolves, or negotiate with another team (and the Wolves would have the opportunity to match any deal he signs with another team).

  10. Ron

    Based on how the cap looks like next season, which situation is better for the Nets as a team to sign and/or trade for other players. Trading for Dwight before the deadline or him opting out and then signing with them in the offseason? Would they be able to get a guy like Gerald Wallace if he opts out in either situation? If he signs with the Nets instead of getting traded here, could we trade Lopez and other people/picks to for Granger or Josh Smith?

    • Larry Coon

      If I’m the Nets, I’m weighing the following:

      * Trade for Dwight now, give up some assets, take on Hedo, and have both in the fold already as they potentially enter free agency;

      OR

      * Don’t trade for Dwight now, preserve my assets, and hope that Dwight comes here and Deron stays, rather than both going someplace like Dallas.

      If I’m the Nets I like the idea of being the incumbent this summer.

      It also looks to me like if they want to sign Dwight in the off-season, they’ll have to strip down to the bare minimum to afford a max offer. I don’t know if they’d be able to flip Lopez for someone else and still offer Dwight his max.

  11. Craig

    Several Orlando beat writers, along with some others, believe the Magic would rather let Dwight walk for nothing than take the Nets deal, mostly citing how the Magic do not like Lopez. Can you please explain how assanine this viewpoint is. People keep looking at it merely as a Dwight for Brook swap, which it clearly is not.

    • Larry Coon

      Right. A Howard trade to the Nets would get the Magic several things:

      * The chance to unload another contract, presumably Hedo Turkoglu’s. That’s another $11.8 million off their cap this summer, and nearly $34 million total.

      * At least one NJ draft pick, likely their lottery pick this summer in a deep draft, and possibly/probably more picks.

      * Most likely Marshon Brooks.

      And if they don’t like Lopez, then guess what — he’s a free agent this summer. They could walk away from him this summer just as easily as Dwight can walk away from them.

      So if they let Brooks walk, they’re potentially left with either:

      Brooks, extra draft picks, and $11.8 million extra cap room;

      OR

      Hedo.

      Seems like a no-brainer to me.

  12. SS

    If Chandler and/or Brooks leave China after March 1, and sign back with their respective teams (Denver/Phoenix) for the rest of the year, are they still restricted free agents in the summer, or do they become UFA’s?

    • Larry Coon

      If they re-sign they will be unrestricted free agents at the end of the year. If they don’t re-sign, then both teams can make qualifying offers, and they’d remain restricted. In other words, you can’t get out of restricted free agency by playing overseas for a year.

  13. Randy

    I’ve seen you post a few places that sign-and-trades aren’t permitted during the season under the new CBA. But I haven’t seen this anywhere else, including in comparisons of the old and new CBAs. Have you read the new agreement, and is there anywhere that the public can access it?

    • Larry Coon

      Yes, I’ve read the new agreement. It’s in there — I’m sure.

      The NBPA will put the new CBA online at some point. I don’t know when.