Before the next, "We gotta get *insert near max salary here*" thread, ask yourself:

[planetmars]

Oops.. also forgot the cap hold on the 2014 first round pick.. The #19 pick has a cap hold value of $1.2M

[BobLoblaw]

Doing some math work, this is what I have:

DD/Amir/Novak/JV/Tyler/Ross, Salmon's buyout ($1M), Camby's buyout ($0.6). That totals $31.3M

Lowry's caphold is $9.3M. That totals $40.3M

Patterson's caphold is $7.7M. His QO is $4.3M.
GV's caphold is $5.3M. His QO is $3.2M.

I personally would want to keep Patterson over GV but I could see both coming back as well. Especially if Lowry walks. This is where the math is fuzzy because both can be extended and for less than their caphold amount. I believe GV will get his QO, and Patterson will be extended. I'm going to go with $5M per year for Patterson (this is what Budinger got with Minny so it's probably a fair estimate). That leaves us with $5.0+$3.2+$40.3 = $48.5M

At this point they still have Fields and Hayes.

Fields is at $6.25 - if waived it becomes $2.1M
Hayes is at $6M - if waived it becomes $2M

If we add $12.25M (both guys) to the total we have $60.75M
If Fields is stretched the total becomes $56.6M
If Fields and Hayes are both stretched the total becomes $52.6M

*Stone/Daye/Bucyks would also have to be waived, but they have minimum contracts so they don't really have any bearing to this discussion.

The salary cap last year was at $58.7M. With my calculation that's only $6M of monopoly money to work with. If Tyler is waived.. that can give us more money to work with but not much more ($3.3M).. but then we have no front court depth (Hayes/Tyler would both be gone). And wing depth would hurt (Salmons is gone).

The salary cap could go up (although they said it would last year too).. if it does they have more money to work with.. but it is still fairly tight. I personally don't like the idea of stretching Hayes as he's a serviceable big and has a good contract for his position.

If MU is able to trade Novak for a 2nd rounder then that could add even more flexibility but not sure how easy that would be to do. Novak has had no playing time this year and his numbers pretty much suck, but a team looking to contend could call for him.. they would just need enough cap space to not give any assets back to Toronto in a trade.

So bottom line for me.. even though the stretch is available as an option, I don't think it makes sense. There will be enough money left in 2015 to go for a free agent then. If the team is to improve it should be with trades and/or hope the draft picks turn into plutonium.

EDIT: I misread part of your post (about cap holds). Anyway, all those role players are expendable. Patterson etc may be likable, but there's no reason why they should stand in the way of adding a foundational piece.

The cap is projected at over 62 mil.

[Superjudge]

1. Los Angeles Lakers

$99,140,731
2. Brooklyn Nets

$84,486,162
3. Miami Heat

$82,629,170
4. Philadelphia 76ers

$79,211,528
5. Chicago Bulls

$74,809,630
6. Orlando Magic

$73,312,267
7. New York Knicks

$72,989,028
8. Portland Trail Blazers

$71,584,641
9. Golden State Warriors

$70,699,736
10. Los Angeles Clippers


get over it. Teams make zillions, they make the salary thing seem like such an issue publicly, but it isn't. Toronto is like 21rst in Team salary.... the team, the darlings of NBA prudence and well thought out everything, the Spurs, are 10 million higher than toronto.

So ask yourself this, you wanna win, or do you wanna lose?

Its so lame when fans bitch about what players make, and what teams pay out. Toronto makes money hand over fist, they never go anywhere close to the Tax, and the team is fucking horrible, always..... so next time I think about signing player X for the max, i wont think, I will sign the stupid fuck before he has a chance to come to his senses.

[JawsGT]

get over it. Teams make zillions, they make the salary thing seem like such an issue publicly, but it isn't. Toronto is like 21rst in Team salary.... the team, the darlings of NBA prudence and well thought out everything, the Spurs, are 10 million higher than toronto.

So ask yourself this, you wanna win, or do you wanna lose?

Its so lame when fans bitch about what players make, and what teams pay out. Toronto makes money hand over fist, they never go anywhere close to the Tax, and the team is fucking horrible, always..... so next time I think about signing player X for the max, i wont think, I will sign the stupid fuck before he has a chance to come to his senses.

Nobody cares about the total salary paid out. Most are concerned about cap space because a team needs it to sign FA's. If you don't have the space, you can't sign the guy unless you have Bird Rights, like we have with Patterson and GV. It's not about total salary, it's about what's leftover to sign the guy that takes you over the top.

[Superjudge]

ahh.

Fair enough, I agree there.

[mcHAPPY]

Nobody cares about the total salary paid out. Most are concerned about cap space because a team needs it to sign FA's. If you don't have the space, you can't sign the guy unless you have Bird Rights, like we have with Patterson and GV. It's not about total salary, it's about what's leftover to sign the guy that takes you over the top.

Even more simple: CBA

[Jamshid]

MU did a good job of moving big contracts of AB and Gay for some smaller easier to move contracts. Now is the hard part that takes real talent to do:

Converting these smaller contracts into assets ( picks or ...)

Question is that is it good if we let all these little contracts expire on their own and don't get anything back for them or should a good GM try to make something happen from these pieces ?

[mcHAPPY]

MU did a good job of moving big contracts of AB and Gay for some smaller easier to move contracts. Now is the hard part that takes real talent to do:

Converting these smaller contracts into assets ( picks or ...)

Question is that is it good if we let all these little contracts expire on their own and don't get anything back for them or should a good GM try to make something happen from these pieces ?

I think you have this backwards.

[imanshumpert]

I don't think these types of players are going to be in play for us until the 2014-15 season/offseason.

[ceez]

All I want (is Po)

[Jamshid]

I think you have this backwards.

You will be surprised Just wait and see what we will get for all those small contracts.

[Balls of Steel]

All I want (is Po)

All I want (is Pho). Sorry, that was my stomach talking.

[golden]

Hence such a strong pro-tank movement at the start of the season. The anti-tankers got what they wanted and now we are all scratching our heads of how to move forward.

That's why MU gets paid $5M/year and we don't. lol.

[phdmac]

You will be surprised Just wait and see what we will get for all those small contracts.

He meant the hardest was moving those big contracts. Not the deals to come

[Jamshid]

He meant the hardest was moving those big contracts. Not the deals to come

No, There is always some idiot GM with who is willing to risk it all on some player with potential and so called "talent" and big contract to save his ass. BC was one of those idiots and NY is another one and ... There are always few of them in the league. These idiots are willing to package their garbage players and smaller contracts because they think they can always get these garbage players anyway.

Our GM got bunch of those garbage deals, Vas, Hayes, ... now he either have to let them all walk which means get nothing or make them into some sort of future asset.

I think MU will take the easy way and will just let these deals expire this year and next. Fans are happy right now so why risk it !!!
I think there will be no trade for raptors before trade deadline.