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Our off-season salary cap situation

Primetime

Primetime

Active Member
With the current Kanter trade and all the discussions going on about who we should get in free agency I decided to make this salary cap thread so people have a better understanding where we are at and what actually is or is not possible.

#1: The situation we will start free agency including our 2015 1st round draft pick.

Z7EDKV.jpg


For cap flexibility purposes we can just straight cut Millsap(even though I can see us keeping him) and Jerrett because we have team options for both players.

#2: So then what it comes down to is our cap hit w/ and w/o Trevor. For that I made this little table which shows how much cap space we have dependent on our draft position.

WBT9Y8.jpg


In the scenario w/o Trevor he was traded if we weren't able to trade him and we had to cut him you would have to subtract 250K from the cap space.

The max money for next year will be around $15.534.090(my estimation).

As you can see unless we "get rid of" Trevor we don't have anything close to max money. And quite frankly I don't see that happening. I mean why should we? Just a couple of days ago our big positions were a strenght and within 4 month we'll destroy it? I don't tink so.

So yeah there is no available max money. We will have have money to spend between $8.662.787 and $11.884.667! The first figure would be awesome because that would mean we just won the lottery but that's not that realistic. So the most realitic amount would be between $10.624.907 and $11.884.667!
Isn't that bad also is not what people thought. That definitly is not enough for the Butlers and Leonards out there(unrealistic anyways) and I think it's not enough for Matthews and Middleton either.
 
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Maybe Butler and Leonard will take pay cuts to build a super team in Utah. That would be sweet cuz then we wouldn't have to fire DL.
 
(edit: you can ignore the following, my understanding of how qualifying for MLE works was flawed, Primetime's numbers should be better representation of the situation)

I don't know by what time we can choose to extend Booker. If we can choose to extend him after we're done with our business in free agency/trade market, we can probably use our MLE on him(correct me if I'm wrong).

Also, you don't need to count our 1st round rookies towards our cap. We can sign them using rookie exceptions. Those are made for teams that are around or above the max salary cap so they wouldn't lose their rookies. In general what we can do is - draft them, but not sign them right away. Get into the free agency/trade market, sign players for as much as we want/can, then sign the rookies using the rookie exception.

DL said the other day that the Millers have given them green light to go up to the luxury tax, so that wouldn't be a problem.

So (if we can sign Booker to MLE) that would make for about 18M to spend in free agency... and that won't depend on the pick we get.
 
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stitches said:
I don't know by what time we can choose to extend Booker. If we can choose to extend him after we're done with our business in free agency/trade market, we can probably use our MLE on him(correct me if I'm wrong).

Also, you don't need to count our 1st round rookies towards our cap. We can sign them using rookie exceptions. Those are made for teams that are around or above the max salary so they wouldn't lose their rookies. In general what we can do is - draft them, but not sign them right away. Get into the free agency/trade market, sign players for as much as we want/can, then sign the rookies using the rookie exception.

DL said the other day that the Millers have given them green light to go up to the luxury tax, so that wouldn't be a problem.

So (if we can sign Booker to MLE) that would make for about 18M to spend in free agency... and that won't depend on the pick we get.
Click to expand...

Once we operate under the cap(cap space) we lose the non tax player MLE. The only exceptions we can use are the room MLE or the bi-anual exception. There is no chance Trevor falls for that. Why shoud he? That is considerably less money. So once you cut him he is gone.

Yeah there is no $18M to spend. There rookie exception is the amount which is given in the rookie scale. You would have a little more money because I falsely counted 120% of the rookie scale but it's not that much.

E.g. 6th pick:
I should have used this figure $2.831.900 but instead used 120% of it. So $3.398.280! There is like 500K to $1M difference.
 
You didn't even mention what the cap will be which at this point we don't know. It's projected to be at 66.3M. Are your projections based off of that?
 
Primetime said:
Once we operate under the cap(cap space) we lose the non tax player MLE. The only exceptions we can use are the room MLE or the bi-anual exception. There is no chance Trevor falls for that. Why shoud he? That is considerably less money. So once you cut him he is gone.
Click to expand...
(edit: you can ignore the following, my understanding of how qualifying for MLE works was flawed, Primetime's numbers should be better representation of the situation)
Right now yes, because we are under cap. But what if we get above(or right under) the salary cap? Then we can use the standard non-taxpayer MLE(which is about 5.45M this year). My idea relies on us being able to postpone the decision about Booker past free agency. For example, if the deadline for extending Booker is August 1 and FA starts on July 10, we have 20 days to sign free agents and get above the soft salary cap. At which point we can get the 5M MLE and sign Booker with it. I don't know if that makes sense.

Primetime said:
Yeah there is no $18M to spend. There rookie exception is the amount which is given in the rookie scale. You would have a little more money because I falsely counted 120% of the rookie scale but it's not that much.

E.g. 6th pick:
I should have used this figure $2.831.900 but instead used 120% of it. So $3.398.280! There is like 500K to $1M difference.
Click to expand...
(edit: you can ignore the following, my understanding of how qualifying for MLE works was flawed, Primetime's numbers should be better representation of the situation)
Again, I'm relying that we would be close to or past the salary cap, at which point we can sign our rookies using the rookie exception. And I'm relying on signing them AFTER we are done with whatever free agency activity we have.

In general the plan is:
1. Go into free agency with 66.3M cap and about 50.3M tied in contracts.
2. Sign free agents for about 16M(so yah, my bad, it's not 18M, it's 16M)...
3. Activate non-taxpayer MLE and use it on Booker
4. Activate rookie exceptions and sign the new rookies with the rookie exceptions.

This whole thing relies on us being able to postpone giving Booker his contract until after we are done with free agency/trades. If not, we will have about 11M to spend in free agency if we extend him and about 16M if we don't...
 
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stitches said:
Right now yes, because we are under cap. But what if we get above(or right under) the salary cap? Then we can use the standard non-taxpayer MLE(which is about 5.45M this year). My idea relies on us being able to postpone the decision about Booker past free agency. For example, if the deadline for extending Booker is August 1 and FA starts on July 10, we have 20 days to sign free agents and get above the soft salary cap. At which point we can get the 5M MLE and sign Booker with it. I don't know if that makes sense.



Again, I'm relying that we would be close to or past the salary cap, at which point we can sign our rookies using the rookie exception. And I'm relying on signing them AFTER we are done with whatever free agency activity we have.

In general the plan is:
1. Go into free agency with 66.3M cap and about 50.3M tied in contracts.
2. Sign free agents for about 16M(so yah, my bad, it's not 18M, it's 16M)...
3. Activate non-taxpayer MLE and use it on Booker
4. Activate rookie exceptions and sign the new rookies with the rookie exceptions.

This whole thing relies on us being able to postpone giving Booker his contract until after we are done with free agency/trades. If not, we will have about 11M to spend in free agency if we extend him and about 16M if we don't...
Click to expand...

It's like this. You either have the MLE or you have cap space. Not both. It doesn't work like that. You can't sign free agents and after that act like you are over the cap. If you start FA as a team w/ cap space it stays that way.

About rookies:
1. Draft a player.
2. You don't have to sign the player directly.
3. But even though you did not sign the player he still has a cap hit(rookie scale).
4. You can then sign the player for as much as 120% and as little as 80% of the rookie scale. (120% for top 10 draft picks almost every time)
 
Primetime said:
It's like this. You either have the MLE or you have cap space. Not both. It doesn't work like that. You can't sign free agents and after that act like you are over the cap. If you start FA as a team w/ cap space it stays that way.

About rookies:
1. Draft a player.
2. You don't have to sign the player directly.
3. But even though you did not sign the player he still has a cap hit(rookie scale).
4. You can then sign the player for as much as 120% and as little as 80% of the rookie scale. (120% for top 10 draft picks almost every time)
Click to expand...

Oh I see... thanks for explaining that. I thought your cap space and MLE-eligibility are fluid, i.e. as you make signings and trades you may qualify for different types of exceptions. To me it's weird if it isn't so. So when is the next time you can use a MLE? Lets say we go over the cap this summer. When will we be able to use the non-taxpayer MLE? The summer of 2016?
 
stitches said:
Oh I see... thanks for explaining that. I thought your cap space and MLE-eligibility are fluid, i.e. as you make signings and trades you may qualify for different types of exceptions. To me it's weird if it isn't so. So when is the next time you can use a MLE? Lets say we go over the cap this summer. When will we be able to use the non-taxpayer MLE? The summer of 2016?
Click to expand...

Exactly.
 
26. How do exceptions count against the cap? Does being under the cap always mean that a team has room to sign free agents? Do teams ever lose their exceptions?

If a team is below the cap, then its Disabled Player, Bi-Annual, Mid-Level (either the Taxpayer or Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level, whichever applies to the team) and/or trade exceptions are added to their team salary, and the league treats the team as though they are over the cap1. This is to prevent a loophole, in a manner similar to free agent amounts (see question number 39). A team can't act like it's under the cap and sign free agents using cap room, and then use their Disabled Player, Bi-Annual, Mid-Level and/or trade exceptions. Consequently, the exceptions are added to their team salary (putting the team over the cap) if the team is under the cap and adding the exceptions puts them over the cap. If a team is already over the cap, then the exceptions are not added to their team salary. There would be no point in doing so, since there is no cap room for signing free agents.
Click to expand...
https://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm

In order to use cap space, most exceptions must be renounced.
 
Primetime said:
Exactly.
Click to expand...

That's really weird for me.

So when is the decision made about whether or not one qualifies for the 5M or for the 3M MLE? What date? Before the draft? After the draft but before free agency?
I just thought of something. What if we do a draft night trade that puts us above the cap? Would we have the standard MLE exception then?
 
stitches said:
That's really weird for me.

So when is the decision made about whether or not one qualifies for the 5M or for the 3M MLE? What date? Before the draft? After the draft but before free agency?
I just thought of something. What if we do a draft night trade that puts us above the cap? Would we have the standard MLE exception then?
Click to expand...

The new salary cap is set after the July Moratorium. I don't think there is a specific date whether or not one qualifies for the MLE. Could be wrong tho. It should be possible to keep Trevor at first and look for a homerun and after you have an agreement with a FA you call the league office and cut Trevor and renounce all the cap holds and exceptions.
Again not sure but should be.
 
Sadly, I think we'll get something like the 10th pick. I also think we will keep Trevor. Knowing that, and also knowing that deals are typically tiered upward, I think there's a shot we could get Matthews at about 13M per with the first year under that 11.8M threshold. I'd love it. That would be 11 guys and we could sign a couple vets at the minimum and keep our 2nd rounder.

Exum-Burke-vet pg
Matthews-Burks-Millsap
Hayward-Hood-vet
Favors-Booker-Jarrett
Gobert-WCS-Dakari Johnson

That's a hell of a roster potentially. Great defensively.

I doubt DL makes an offer for Wes though. We'd be tight money-wise. But to me, if Millsap or Hood or even Booker developed offensively, Burks to me would become somewhat expendable. Trading him next year for expirings and a pick, and the huge increase cap would then all of a sudden give us a nice cushion with the cap again.
 
I think it's more likely the Jazz use Booker in a trade to a team looking to shed salary to sign free agents than use their space to sign a significant player themselves. The guarantee date on Booker's contract is 7 days after the July moratorium ends (when players can actually sign), and he comes with only a $250k buyout. The Jazz could then use their remaining cap space to bring over Pleiss, Tomic or both to fill out the bigs rotation.

Note: Booker can be traded for players making up to $7,262,500 in the offseason. The receiving team could then waive Booker for $250,000, creating as much as $7,012,500 in cap space. A very crafty signing by DL.
 
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