Raptors Salary Cap Situation (and planning for the future)

[sanyo]

You clearly are not intimately familiar with the NHL or MLB CBA's. NBA is complex but reasonable.

MLB i actually understand and there is no bird rights or MLE or all this nonsense...

Guy's deal ends. You can re-sign him, offer him a qualifying or let him go. Or first six years with the arb and all... and 10 years vet minimum stuff... thats pretty easy to understand...

NHL to be fair I dont watch hockey much but I've heard it's somewhat complicated too with how tight the cap is... but still.

[DanH]

MLB has all sorts of draft pick compensation, options, and other stuff that are more complex than anything in the NBA. But of course their actual cap is fairly nonexistent so salaries don't matter as much.

NHL is a minefield.

[KeonClark]

DanH:

Taking a look at the Warriors for next year; in order to keep Durant when he ops out and resign Curry, by my math they'll have roughly 99 million tied up in their big 4 and rookie contracts (current rookies and next years)...with the cap being 102, does that actually mean they waive bye bye to Iguodala and Livingston and have to fill out the rest of the roster with 3 million dollars and vet mins?

[DanH]

DanH:

Taking a look at the Warriors for next year; in order to keep Durant when he ops out and resign Curry, by my math they'll have roughly 99 million tied up in their big 4 and rookie contracts (current rookies and next years)...with the cap being 102, does that actually mean they waive bye bye to Iguodala and Livingston and have to fill out the rest of the roster with 3 million dollars and vet mins?

To offer Durant his max (assuming nothing changes with the new CBA) they need cap room (his non-Bird Rights don't allow them to offer his max salary). His max is about 34M based on a 103 (new updated projection) cap. That means that can only have 69M on the cap when they sign him. Klay, Draymond, Looney, Jones, McCaw (and Jason Thompson's waived salary) make 38.5M, leaving them with 30.5M. Steph's cap hold is a no-brainer to keep (they can sign him to the max after) at 18.2M, leaving them with 12.3M. That's 6 roster spots spoken for, leaving 6 minimum salary spots. Those are rumoured to go up about double what they are now, so we'll assume 1M per spot. Now down to 6.3M (though each additional kept player takes a roster spot hold off). They have no first round picks next spring.

They can keep Zaza's rights for 3.5M (though can't offer more than that if they do). That costs 2.5M, bringing them down to 3.8M. Can keep McAdoo for a QO of 1.25M, almost no cost (drops to 3.5M). But yeah, they can't fit Livingston or Iggy's cap holds in there.

But, if Durant takes less than his max, and settles for a deal on the order of 4/136M (34M per year)... Then they can keep everyone. Because they can operate over the cap and use his non-Bird Rights to keep him. That's only a 2M per year cut.

All this of course depends what happens with max salaries, Bird Rights, cap holds, etc, in the new CBA. We'll find out soon.

[Chefff]

To offer Durant his max (assuming nothing changes with the new CBA) they need cap room (his non-Bird Rights don't allow them to offer his max salary). His max is about 34M based on a 103 (new updated projection) cap. That means that can only have 69M on the cap when they sign him. Klay, Draymond, Looney, Jones, McCaw (and Jason Thompson's waived salary) make 38.5M, leaving them with 30.5M. Steph's cap hold is a no-brainer to keep (they can sign him to the max after) at 18.2M, leaving them with 12.3M. That's 6 roster spots spoken for, leaving 6 minimum salary spots. Those are rumoured to go up about double what they are now, so we'll assume 1M per spot. Now down to 6.3M (though each additional kept player takes a roster spot hold off). They have no first round picks next spring.

They can keep Zaza's rights for 3.5M (though can't offer more than that if they do). That costs 2.5M, bringing them down to 3.8M. Can keep McAdoo for a QO of 1.25M, almost no cost (drops to 3.5M). But yeah, they can't fit Livingston or Iggy's cap holds in there.

But, if Durant takes less than his max, and settles for a deal on the order of 4/136M (34M per year)... Then they can keep everyone. Because they can operate over the cap and use his non-Bird Rights to keep him. That's only a 2M per year cut.

All this of course depends what happens with max salaries, Bird Rights, cap holds, etc, in the new CBA. We'll find out soon.

wow.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Also read on the vertical that new cba may see cap holds drastically increasing. That could make next year very interesting.

[DanH]

Also read on the vertical that new cba may see cap holds drastically increasing. That could make next year very interesting.

Yeah, RFA cap holds in particular. They've become a loophole. This coming summer the Raps have no RFA's, and are going to be stuck up above the cap anyway, so no real impact on them. But could definitely suppress the market with some teams projecting to have significant cap space taking a hit.

[Rudy Bargnani]

https://sports.yahoo.com/video/verti...212838178.html

[DanH]

Tidbits I'm seeing leak out from various sources about the new CBA agreement. Windhorst, Aldridge, and Albert Nahmad in particular.

-> 45% increase in minimum, rookie scale, MLE, BAE salaries.
-> Increase in maximum salaries relative to cap (about 5% increase)
-> BRI definition might be changing, salary cap could go even higher than predicted
-> Minimum roster size increasing to 14 players. Max to 17, but two need to be two-way D-League deals.
-> Cap holds increasing as well (no confirmation on how much, rumour was ~50% more than previous holds)
-> Over 36 deals becoming over 38 deals - no real impact on Raps (or 99% of contracts signed)
-> Veteran extensions will actually be a thing - can be signed 2 years after contract signed, can be 4 years in length (or longer for some players who've been with a team for a while) and in special cases (quaifiers like all-star appearances, etc) can receive a raise in an extension like a rookie scale guy can.

[DanH]

Hmm, thinking Lowry might be eligible for that DPE extension, which could make this summer interesting. Opens the door to him opting into next year's player option and getting a big extension after that. Would need to make all-NBA this year. And I'm a little unclear on whether he's eligible at all. The description I've seen reported is players either need to be with the team that drafted them, or have to have been traded during their rookie scale deal. Lowry was traded on his rookie scale deal, but not to us, so he's in a gray area, and with nothing official yet I'm not holding out much hope on getting a solid answer on this until January when the deal gets ratified and posted.

[DanH]

Hmm, thinking Lowry might be eligible for that DPE extension, which could make this summer interesting. Opens the door to him opting into next year's player option and getting a big extension after that. Would need to make all-NBA this year. And I'm a little unclear on whether he's eligible at all. The description I've seen reported is players either need to be with the team that drafted them, or have to have been traded during their rookie scale deal. Lowry was traded on his rookie scale deal, but not to us, so he's in a gray area, and with nothing official yet I'm not holding out much hope on getting a solid answer on this until January when the deal gets ratified and posted.

Hey look at that, actually got an answer to this. He's not eligible (having been traded after his rookie scale deal). So, back to plan A, re-signing him in FA to a 4 or 5 year deal.

[Rudy Bargnani]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Do you think it's possible to keep Lowry and Patterson without going into luxury tax?
Like we'd have to trade cojo most likely right to keep both?

[DanH]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing.

Do you think it's possible to keep Lowry and Patterson without going into luxury tax?
Like we'd have to trade cojo most likely right to keep both?

We'd have to lose a lot more than CoJo to avoid the tax if paying both. In all likelihood, we hit the tax just paying Lowry.

[DanH]

Term sheets have leaked - BBall insiders has a breakdown:

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/un...pas-agreement/

Some stuff not previously rumoured:

- increase in cash to be traded
- increased trade disparity allowed (up to 175% from 150% on low salary trades, not clear if the higher salary trade limits are increasing as well)
- shorter moratorium each summer (July 6th noon end)
- rookie scale cap holds now 120%, so no benefit to waiting to sign them
- minimum exception contracts could be longer than 2 years, allowing teams to sign second rounders to 3-year deals (rumour is up to 5 years) with full Bird rights at the end without having cap space to do it with

One more month and the document itself should be available.

[JawsGT]

Term sheets have leaked - BBall insiders has a breakdown:

http://www.basketballinsiders.com/un...pas-agreement/

Some stuff not previously rumoured:

- increase in cash to be traded
- increased trade disparity allowed (up to 175% from 150% on low salary trades, not clear if the higher salary trade limits are increasing as well)
- shorter moratorium each summer (July 6th noon end)
- rookie scale cap holds now 120%, so no benefit to waiting to sign them
- minimum exception contracts could be longer than 2 years, allowing teams to sign second rounders to 3-year deals (rumour is up to 5 years) with full Bird rights at the end without having cap space to do it with

One more month and the document itself should be available.

Dan, wasn't Norm signed to a 3 year term and do we not have his full bird rights.