Lakers/NBA Salary Cap Thread

Hahaha...of course. But it's a 2way street.

Speaking of 2way, if the FO doesn't get a legit 3&D player this summer, maybe y'all will have a point to how bumbling they are. There will be options tho...alot of options.



But make no mistake...good agents will make the 1+1 deal a very real thing this summer...I can sense how giddy some of you guys are at the possibility of a 2020plan. Let's just hope we already have a massive caphold (that we want to hold onto) on our books at that time.

 

Add a #4 pick 7.1m caphold to our salary sheet (Bron, Zo, BI, Kuz, Hart, Moe, Bonga, Jones), along with Deng's dead money and a 3 position incomplete roster charge and we now have 32m in cap space. If we want to get a complete 30%max of 32.7m, we can just waive Jones's unguaranteed contract and get there. Also we would have to renounce Reggie's 4.8m caphold.

 

Projected cap space for the teams that have a meaningful amount of it this summer.

Our space of 32.5m is triggered only if we waive Jones's unguaranteed contract. If we decide to keep him (which would help in salary matching towards potential trades) then our cap space would be exactly 32m (700k off the true max we can offer guys like Kawhi and Ky).

 

I don't think anybody anticipated we would jump up and have a good chunk of our cap taken from us with a top 4 pick, but it really works in our favor that the remaining cap is right around the 30%max amount for free agents like the 4K's and Butler.

But let's say it comes down to money, Kawhi did active his 15% trade kicker to Toronto while Kyrie didn't when he was routed to Boston.

So I'm not sure who would value 700k among the free agents, but I think it's worth sacrificing since a follow up trade for AD or Beal would need Jones's contract and they could spare guys like Kuz, Hart or Bonga.

Also if these guys all opt out (instead of the opt in and trade route) to become UFAs I think they'll go the 1+1 route this summer anyways, since they can get payed more the following summer as 35%max players. Remember, KD did something similar when he first joined the dubs, by taking less than his true max 3 years in a row to gain a full 35%/8%escalator type of bag....only to possibly walk away from it this summer. In KD's case, it cost him millions.

So what's 700k to these guys anyway?

 

CUT THEM ALL.

 

Kent Bazemore for a mere 1mill lol

 

Since @pound4pound wanted to @ me, let me give your Laker group a little more meat to the cap implications this summer revolving around a max player and/or an AD trade.

First some book-keeping, Kawhi, Kyrie, Klay, Kemba, Butler are all 30% max players by being 8 year pros going into their 9th year this coming year. That means next summer, they will be entering their 10th season and as a result are eligible to be 35% max players. All these dudes can make more money by signing a 1+1 deal this summer to opt out for the summer of 2020 to cash in.

Lakers have 32m in cap space and can waive Jones's nonguaranteed deal to get to 32.5m in cap space. All 30% max players this summer will max out at 32.7m.

My hypothetical scenarios below don't account for what I believe is a fair/likely trade so don't @ me about it (I'm looking at you TIME). Under these hypotheticals, I will be using AD as a trade target and Kawhi as the max free agent target, but you can substitute Beal for AD and any other free agent for Kawhi.

Zo, BI, #4 pick each make about 7-9m; Moe, Kuz, Hart each make about 2m; Bonga, Jones make 1.4m each; if we sign the 4th pick it will be for 7.1m and their salary cannot be aggregated into a deal till 30 days from when ink hits paper on their new deal

Scenario: Trading for AD before we sign our 4th pick
Dude has a 15% trade kicker and if he doesn't exercise it, then you will only need 21.6m in outgoing salary to bring him in. If he does exercise his trade kicker, then you need 24.9m in outgoing salary.

If we trade for AD using our unsigned 4th pick, that pick will count as zero when we aggregate salary to match AD. However, we can absorb all of AD's contract (even with the 15% trade kicker exercised) into the 32m of cap space we have. So hypothetically an unsigned 4th pick and several future picks could be a legal trade.

Scenario: Trade for AD first and grab a max guy in free agency
We would have to literally trade everybody except Bron to have 30.5m in cap space. So we would be about 2m short in offering a 30% max guy their true max. Also, lets say AD activates his trade kicker, then that means we have only 26.4m in cap space (which is in the ballpark but still not enough for a 25% max player where their true max is 27.3m).

Scenario: Grab a max guy and stand pat
We have 32m in cap space so a 35% max guy like KD and Boogie would be out of the question if they seek their true max of 38.2m. We can make up the 6m we need in cap space by trading 1 or some of our kiddies into another team's space for future picks. However when it comes to a 30% max player, we would have just enough cap to bring them in, even with the 4th overall pick on our payroll.

Scenario: Grab a max guy and trade for AD after
This should be the route to take if we want a 3 star alignment all while sparing as many kids as possible.

-Spare Zo: The most effective way to do it is to have a deal agreed upon, draft the 4th pick for the Pels and then sign that player and have them rerouted to the Pels after 30 days since we could aggregate their salary into the package. BI/4th would make roughly 14.4m, so we would need roughly 7.2m more to make the deal work. That literally means all of Kuz, Hart, Moe would HAVE to be included along with either Bonga or JJ. So in the end Zo and either Bonga or JJ would be spared
-Spare BI: Zo and the 4th aggregate to 15.8m so we only need 5.8m in additional salary. That means that either Kuz, Hart or Moe can be spared or both Bonga and JJ can
-Spare 4th pick: Zo and BI aggregate to 16m, so you would need only 5.6m in additional salary. So same as above.
-Spare Kuz, Hart, Moe, Bonga and JJ: you obviously HAVE to trade Zo, BI, 4th

Scenario: Grab a max guy and trade for AD & his trade kicker after
AD's trade kicker would lead us to adding 3.3m in additional salary and it necessarily wouldn't kill a trade, but if we trade for AD (and his traded kicker) after we sign our max guy, we would not be allowed to spare Zo, BI or the 4th under any scenario. All 3 would HAVE to be part of the package for the salary matching to work.

Hope that helps and please let me know if there are any present scenarios that need further clarifying or other scenarios I possibly missed.

Btw, I count 5 scenarios, but I'm sure TIME will tell yall different.

 

that's how i read it. and it's odd, but i don't think it's unprecedented. weird situation for those involved in the trade, though. and in this case, there's lots of them. what if you slip in the shower?

 

Thx Chief...the 30 day wait time is exactly what happened in the Wiggins for Love trade.

So lets just say Bron/Klutch is aware and comfortable with that particular scenario.

 

You got that right. My boy Lonzo ain't gonna stayin' in no NO. He a star and we gone for sure.

 

AD&THT trade/possible 3rd max primer:

Bron 37.4
Zo 8.7
BI 7.3
#4 caphold 7.1
Deng dead cap 5
Moe 2.1
Kuz 2
Hart 1.9
Bonga 1.4
JJ 1.4
3 incomplete roster charges 2.7
= 77m in team salary (32m in cap space)

Our cap space could be up to 32.5m if we waive JJ's non-guaranteed deal (1.4m salary - 900k incomplete roster charge = 500k)

The thing is, we can't waive JJ cause we may need his salary later to trade for AD's 27.1m. You need to aggregate at least 21.6m worth of salary to trade for AD.

Trading the 4th pick unsigned means it counts as $0 in an aggregated trade. However the 7.1m caphold comes off our books when the 4th gets dealt. So Zo, BI, Hart, unsigned 4th only aggregates to about 18m, which means we're 3.6m short in trading for AD.

What about taking some of AD's salary into our 32m of cap space? Well that's a no go cause you need all that space for a near max offer (32.7m). So we have to add Moe and Bonga...but that only adds 3.5m in aggregated salary and we need 3.6m.

So how about taking at least 100k of AD's deal into our cap space so that way we spare JJ or Bonga in the deal and that way we still have 31.9m in cap space, right? Not exactly.

Bron 37.4
AD 27.1
Kuz 2
Bonga or JJ 1.4
Deng dead cap 5
8 incomplete roster charges 7.2
= 80.1m in team salary (28.9m in cap space)

Wait what? Wasnt it supposed to be 31.9m in cap space? Well if it's JJ and we waive him, then his 1.4m comes off and gets replaced with a 900k incomplete roster charge....but that just leads to 29.4m in cap space.

So how do we get that 32m in cap space back, offer it to a free agent and still trade for AD? Well the order of sequence is what's key.

You take the max guy into your 32m of space and then and only then do you trade for AD.

Bron 37.4
Kawhi 32
Zo 8.7
BI 7.3
#4 caphold 7.1
Deng dead cap 5
Moe 2.1
Kuz 2
Hart 1.9
Bonga 1.4
JJ 1.4
2 incomplete roster charges 1.8
=108.1m in team salary (900k in cap space)

NOW let's trade for AD... And let's do it, first taking his 27.1m into our 900k of remaining cap space making it a 26.2m contract that we need to aggregate a minimum of 20.9m to trade for. Zo, Bi, Hart, Moe, Bonga aggregate to 21.4m meaning that we can trade for AD and still give him roughly 700k of his 4.1m trade kicker. Note: You can also replace Bonga with JJ to get the same result since both make the same salary. Also you can add both JJ and Bonga to offer AD a majority of his trade kicker, but under no situation wild we be able to offer him a full trade kicker option while retaining Kuz and having a max slot and the deal getting done on July 6th (ie 4th pick counts as $0)

Bron 37.4
Kawhi 32
AD (w/700k trade kicker) 27.8
Kuz 2
JJ or Bonga 1.4
Deng dead cap 5
46th pick (rights to THT) 900k
6 incomplete roster charges 5.4
=112m on team salary (20m away till hitting the 132m tax theshold)

So even with the room exception and let's say 8 vet min contracts, we would still be 5m away from hitting the tax. Also Caruso and Williams can be signed with these vet min deals.

 

Moe/Bonga/JJ/2022 2nd rounder looped into potential LA/Pel/Atl/Wiz/BK multiteam AD trade primer

First thing is first...too much confusion on how the media is wording this trade. We didn't clear a max slot of 32m...we preserved it.

We ALWAYS had 32m in cap space before the AD trade.

The only reason we needed to send at least Moe and either Bonga or JJ out is cause we needed to preserve our cap by not taking any of AD's contract into it, so instead we would need to salary match it.

Zo/Bi/Hart/unsigned 4th leads to 17.9m in aggregated salary which is not enough to bring in AD's 27.1m salary. So either we use some of our 32m to absorb a portion of his contract to make the salaries work or we preserve that entire 32m in cap and instead add more salary to make the deal work.

Adding Moe/Bonga/JJ's 4.9m to the original package would now lead to 22.8m in aggregated outgoing salary which brings in a max of 28.6m in incoming salary, which is more than enough for AD's 27.1m.

The most efficient way tho is if we spared JJ or Bonga's 1.4m contracts, since signing Kawhi first would open up 900k in salary cap by having one incomplete roster spot come off the books. Now you can take AD + 700k of his trade kicker into that 900k cap space and only need Zo/Bi/Hart/Moe/Bonga's 21.4m in aggregated salary to get the deal done.

Anyways, I'm going to miss the potential of JJ but looking at Bron/AD/Kawhi will allow me to quickly get over it.

One other wrinkle that doesn't really add up for me tho is Caruso's 1.6m QO...cause with that on the books we won't have 32m in cap... We'll only have 30.4m. I'm expecting he gets renounced very soon and then brought back on a minimum vet deal so that his bird rights are preserved till next summer where we can finally offer him a nice bag.

#Preserve

 

I'm sure we can renounce Caruso once we get a max FA on board correct?

Or, I think we'll renounce him either way and then sign him to vet min, right?

 

We will for sure renounce him, unless a max guy is willing to take even more of a haircut by accepting 30.4m as opposed to the 32.7m they would have got as their true max.

We will never have a true max if 32.7m unless we trade Bron (haha). So best case scenario is that Kawhi or any other max guy sacrifices 700k cause we would only max out at 32m now since JJ had been included in the trade. Had we spared JJ and instead waived him, then we could have opened up 32.5m in cap space so that a max guy only "sacrifices" 200k of his true max.

Btw, after we renounce Caruso we can sign him to a vet min deal and still preserve his bird rights to carry into next summer where we can give him a larger bag.