Why Lauri Will Be Here a While - Renegotiate and Extend

[checkbookdoc]

I`ve been thinking about this for a few days and tried crunching some numbers. Next season`s salary cap is projected to be $134 million. Projections for future years vary wildly, but with the new cap smoothing regulations in the CBA, I use fixed 10% raises for these calculations.

If Lauri plays out his current contract and signs a new 4 year max deal with max raises with us, his total salary for the five seasons after the next will be $237 million (Option A below). If we renogotiate and extend by giving him the full max in 2024-2025 (Option B) we can match this total salary while still going a lot lower in the following years.

A: 18,05 - 48,6 - 52,5 - 56,7 - 61,3
B: 44,22 - 47,8 - 51,6 - 47,8 - 46

With option A, Lauri will take up 28,9% of the salary cap in 2027-2028. With option B, he will take up 24,3%. In 2028-2029, the percentages are 28,4 and 21,3.

These differences are huge and may be the difference between us avoiding the 2nd apron or not if - or when - we get our next very good team. With the descending salary he should also be a very nice trade piece if he have to pivot again, as long as he plays well and avoids injuries. He also very well might take a bit less as we help him earn more money earlier. a 5/$200 renegotiation and extension would be a fantastic deal for the Jazz.

If this is accurate it would be amazing. Keeping Lauri on this type of deal would be a real advantage from a cap perspective.

 

[NUMBERICA]

If this is accurate it would be amazing. Keeping Lauri on this type of deal would be a real advantage from a cap perspective.

It's why I'm fairly keen on taking on bad expiring salary, and maybe a ton of it depending on what the overall market looks like; get something for cap-space this year but cap-space for the renegotiate and extend. Could put the Jazz in special position to contend if they keep making good progress by having a pristine cap sheet and the ability to continuously add talent by extension (rather than be forced to offload talent in the face of the new rules, conversely).

 

[Shad]

EXTEND HIM.

 

[Hedda Gambler]

It's why I'm fairly keen on taking on bad expiring salary, and maybe a ton of it depending on what the overall market looks like; get something for cap-space this year but cap-space for the renegotiate and extend. Could put the Jazz in special position to contend if they keep making good progress by having a pristine cap sheet and the ability to continuously add talent by extension (rather than be forced to offload talent in the face of the new rules, conversely).

We have so much cap space for 2024/25 that we could easily fit in another max if we wanted. I could actually see us giving Clarkson a huge short term contract just to have him as matching salary. 2/$50 with only the first year being fully guaranteed and maybe $5 million guaranteed for the second year would give him a very nice pay day and give us matching salary that isn`t toxic. We never know which next very good player becomes digruntled and wants to leave his current team. We have all the picks required to give in a trade, but would need matching salary if we don`t have the cap space for a max slot outright.