Clarkson has a player option for $14.2 million that he is likely to decline and hit unrestricted free agency … that is, unless the
Jazz decide to get funky.
Because Utah is so far below the salary cap for the coming season, one option for the Jazz would be to have Clarkson opt in and then immediately renegotiate and extend his deal to put a large cap number on the books for 2023-24 and much smaller ones in the extension years. At Clarkson’s age, a two-year extension probably makes more sense than three years, but they could get the number low enough that even three would be a huge positive (not to mention highly tradeable).
For instance, let’s say the Jazz and Clarkson determine he’s worth $65 million over the next four years. The standard way to do this might be to sign a contract that starts at roughly $15 million and contains 8 percent raises.
The more creative way to do this, however, would be for Clarkson to opt in then wait until the third anniversary of his contact signing, which because of the COVID-19 year isn’t until Nov. 23. He would then be renegotiate-and-extend eligible.
At that point, the Jazz would use $10 million of their cap room to boost his 2023-24 salary to $24.2 million. It would be tough to use much more than this; the Jazz need to at least spend up to the salary floor by opening day or face additional penalties in the new CBA, so the maximum amount they would want to stay under for the purposes of this contract is $13.4 million.
By rule, his salary for 2024-25 is allowed to drop by a maximum of 40 percent, to $14.5 million. Then they would decrease it by the maximum allowable 8 percent the next two seasons, to $13.4 million in 2025-26 and $12.2 million in 2026-27. Over the four years, Clarkson would make his $65 million, but Utah would have front-loaded the money to minimize the impact on its cap.
Or, Clarkson could just opt out and sign someplace else.
