Raptors Salary Cap Situation (and planning for the future)

[KeonClark]

https://www.raptorshq.com/2018/7/18/...-demar-derozan

You're a good man DanH. We should pay you for keeping track of this stuff

[DanH]

https://www.raptorshq.com/2018/7/18/...-demar-derozan

Kyle Lowry $31,200,000
Kawhi Leonard $23,114,067
Serge Ibaka $21,666,666
Jonas Valanciunas $16,539,326
Danny Green $10,000,000
Norman Powell $9,367,200
Fred VanVleet $8,879,850
C.J. Miles $8,333,333
Delon Wright $2,536,898
OG Anunoby $1,952,760
Malachi Richardson $1,569,360
Pascal Siakam $1,544,951
Lorenzo Brown $1,512,601
Justin Hamilton $1,000,000

Importantly for the Raptors, this trade increases their committed salary to $140.7 million, and their tax bill to $35.2 million, when you consider adding minimum salary players to fill out the roster. The Raptors also have their tax-payer’s mid-level exception ($5.3 million starting salary, up to three years in length) to add a player, but with the tax bill so high, the minimum is far more likely.

As we’ve noted in the past, the Raptors were already lined up for an even more significant tax bill in 2019-20 than this year, and this move does not change that. If we assume the players on the roster now stay there, Kawhi gets his max, and the Raptors fill any holes with minimum salary players, they are currently projected at $150.2 million in team salary. The tax line next summer is projected at $132.4 million, so that puts the team well into the tax with a tax bill of $37.9 million.

There are several complicating factors, such as which free agents the Raptors re-sign (both Delon Wright and Danny Green walk in the above numbers), and whether Jonas Valanciunas opts into his player option for that season (I would expect he would with the way centre markets have gone), but that at least gives us an idea.

[sanyo]

Powell killing us... as is Ibaka...as is Demar... as is kyle.

[DanH]

FYI:

https://www.raptorshq.com/2018/5/11/...p-sheet-review

Current Salary Picture
Kyle Lowry $28,703,704
DeMar DeRozan $27,739,975
Serge Ibaka $20,061,729
Jonas Valanciunas $15,460,675
C.J. Miles $7,936,508
Lucas Nogueira $2,947,305
Jakob Poeltl $2,825,640
Delon Wright $1,645,200
OG Anunoby $1,645,200
Malachi Richardson $1,504,560
Norman Powell $1,471,382
Alfonzo McKinnie $1,471,382
Fred VanVleet $1,471,382
Pascal Siakam $1,312,611
Justin Hamilton $1,000,000
Nigel Hayes $166,258
K.J. McDaniels $100,000
Lorenzo Brown $8,313

The values are shown as they apply to the tax calculation (which uses slightly different values for some minimum salaries). In addition, Kyle Lowry (assuming he is not selected to the All-NBA or All-Defense teams) only achieved one of his salary bonuses, the All-Star bonus worth roughly $200,000, so the team’s total salary obligation for tax purposes is $117.6 million. That’s $1.66 million shy of the tax threshold.

The tax is calculated on the last day of the regular season, so there is no downside to making trades to move above that tax threshold now that the season is over. But the team is still hard capped until July 1st rolls around. Keep in mind that the hard cap rules mean that Lowry’s incentives still count for that calculation even though we know they won’t be fulfilled, so the team salary counts as $119.7 million, with the hard cap set at $125.3 million, meaning the Raptors have about $5.5 million in trade flexibility prior to July 1st.

2018-19 Salary Picture
Kyle Lowry $31,200,000
DeMar DeRozan $27,739,975
Serge Ibaka $21,666,666
Jonas Valanciunas $16,539,326
Norman Powell $9,367,200
C.J. Miles $8,333,333
Jakob Poeltl $2,947,320
Delon Wright $2,536,898
OG Anunoby $1,952,760
Malachi Richardson $1,569,360
Pascal Siakam $1,544,951
Alfonzo McKinnie $1,499,698
Justin Hamilton $1,000,000

The values here, just as above, are shown as they apply to the tax calculation, as the team is in no danger of having any cap room, and the tax line is more relevant to this coming year.

Lowry’s base salary of $31 million is increased by his roughly $200,000 All-Star incentive, as it becomes “likely” with him having achieved it this year. We may or may not get more accurate information on his incentives in coming months.

In all, the team has 12 players signed to a total of $127.9 million. The tax line next season is projected at $123 million. Which means the team is currently projected to be at least $7.9 million above the tax line (as they need to sign at least two minimum salary deals to hit the roster minimum of 14 players).

Much more detail at the link if interested.

[DanH]

Holy shit this is awesome:

http://www.shamsports.com/capulator

I'll post it to one of the active threads too so people can see it.

Yep. Deeks is still working on some bugs, but it's already obviously infinitely better than the ESPN trade machine, and is capable of way more.

[Scraptor]

Holy shit this is awesome:

http://www.shamsports.com/capulator

I'll post it to one of the active threads too so people can see it.

[DanH]

It's been a while since this go-to reference thread has been updated. So I am going to write out what I understand about our current financial position and ask for corrections (then edit here for clarity).

1. While we are under the hard cap this year, we will not be under the hard cap next year unless we make a move which triggers it again.
2. After the Caboclo trade, we can bring on a player on the vet minimum without triggering the luxury tax.
3. We have a trade exception from the Carroll trade which we will have just under two weeks to use at the start of July.
4. Fred Van Vleet is a restricted free agent, meaning we can match offer sheets for him if the price is right.
5. We will be able to use the mid-level exception next year.
6. Despite the flexibility we have due to the combination of items 3, 4, and 5, taking full advantage of even two of these opportunities will be EXPENSIVE. Unless there is a pretty major opportunity that presents itself to us, it is unlikely we take advantage of more than one of these options without making a trade to clear salary (if that's even possible in the current salary environment).

My thanks to those more knowledgeable than I am, whose knowledge stated elsewhere I am relying on for this.

Unfortunately, the full MLE initiates a hard cap, and since we will be over that line in all likelihood, we will likely be restricted to the tax-payer's MLE, which is just over half as valuable ($5.3M or so, only 3 seasons, not 4) as the full MLE.

We have a trade exception from the Carroll trade (11.8M) that is good until July 13th this summer. We also have a Cory Joseph exception (originally worth 7.63M) which expires one day later. I believe the Raptors used part of that CoJo exception in the Bruno trade, so now it is only worth 6.125M, and they created a new 2.45M exception that expires on the 8th of February next season.

Yes, the Raptors are currently lined up with the current roster, letting all FA's walk, and filling out the 14 roster spots with minimum salaries, to have a total team salary of 131M, which comes with a tax bill of 15M, making for a total roster cost of 146M. If, for example, FVV gets a full MLE offer and the Raptors match that offer, those numbers would increase to 138M, 33M in tax, and a total bill of 171M. So FVV at the MLE costs the team 25M. Similarly, a tax-MLE signing (5.3M) would actually cost the team 14M.

[TheWaterboy]

It's been a while since this go-to reference thread has been updated. So I am going to write out what I understand about our current financial position and ask for corrections (then edit here for clarity).

1. While we are under the hard cap this year, we will not be under the hard cap next year unless we make a move which triggers it again.
2. After the Caboclo trade, we can bring on a player on the vet minimum without triggering the luxury tax.
3. We have a trade exception from the Carroll trade which we will have just under two weeks to use at the start of July.
4. Fred Van Vleet is a restricted free agent, meaning we can match offer sheets for him if the price is right.
5. We will be able to use the mid-level exception next year.
6. Despite the flexibility we have due to the combination of items 3, 4, and 5, taking full advantage of even two of these opportunities will be EXPENSIVE. Unless there is a pretty major opportunity that presents itself to us, it is unlikely we take advantage of more than one of these options without making a trade to clear salary (if that's even possible in the current salary environment).

My thanks to those more knowledgeable than I am, whose knowledge stated elsewhere I am relying on for this.

[DanH]

Now.... I heard that if we restructure Miles deal to be 4 years with the 4th year as the PO, we can still use the MLE. Is this true, Dan?

Also, we do have the Bi-Annual Exception to use as well, right?

Yes, to do a sign and trade, there must be 3 regular years before any option year. So a 3+1 deal would work. Question is if Masai wants to commit money beyond this 3 year window. The options are: give Miles a simple 3 year contract, no option; give him a 3+1 deal, which puts the organization at risk of carrying that 4th year cost; give him a 3+1 deal where the player option year is partially guaranteed (for a couple million or something), allowing the team to shed most of that salary if he opts in, and giving him the control to get out, just a year later than he wanted.

In any of those cases, the MLE would be freed up. And yes, we do have the BAE. But the real restrictor is the hard cap - we only have somewhere between 3-4.5M to offer under the hard cap even if we do keep the MLE to use. Moving a guy like Nogueira for nothing could free up that number to 6-7.5M, most of the MLE, but not enough to match offers from other MLE-using teams.

[Cody73]

Now.... I heard that if we restructure Miles deal to be 4 years with the 4th year as the PO, we can still use the MLE. Is this true, Dan?

Also, we do have the Bi-Annual Exception to use as well, right?

[DanH]

It's a hard cap. You can't go above it. Period.

[SkywalkerAC]

Now the big question will be whether we spend up to the hard cap or whether we try to stay below the tax. What happens with the hard cap and player incentives? Can we go above the hard cap once the season is underway (ie by trading the player exception at the deadline)?

[lewro]

Oops, didn't refresh sorry

[lewro]

ok i missed something... why are we hard-capped?

S&t

[KHD]

We are receiving Miles in a sign and trade. Teams that a) receive a player in a sign and trade or b) use the full MLE or BAE, are hard capped for the year.

oh.