Anarchy99 said:
No one really has touched on my inquiries about how they could go about extending George (and when). Once the C's acquired him, could they go beyond the cap by way of the Bird Exception? I assume he would qualify (having at least a 3 year contract with Bird rights traded to BOS).
Basketball capology is not my thing, but if they were able to exceed the cap to keep George and IT around, does that matter in terms of how they calculate the luxury tax? Or is over the cap a universal penalty no matter what the situation?
If they were to get to the point where they had Horford, IT, George, and Hayward all on the same roster, could they offer max or super max deals to all of them and jump leaps and bounds over the cap? They would be $20 million over the cap just on those 4 guys. I never fully grasped the soft salary cap rules.
Here's my understanding of the NBA salary cap.
There's two cap numbers to remember...
1) Salary Cap = $99 million
2) Luxury Tax = $119 million (I think this is the latest, can change)
So when you look at a team's salary situation you look at theory their total salary heading into the season with contracts and cap holds for rookies and free agents. Where they are impacts how much the roster costs the owner(s), how they can sign FAs, and what exceptions they have.
ROSTER COST: Teams have to spend 90% of the salary cap. Anything below that the difference is spilt amongst the players on the roster. Any roster UP TO the luxury tax is the actual cost. So NBA rosters can cost between $90-$118,999,999. Any roster ABOVE the luxury tax pays a graduated tax for every dollar over that ranges from 1.5:1 to 3.75+:1. If a team is over the luxury tax in 3/4 previous seasons then they pay the repeater tax rate that stars at 2.5:1-4.75+:1.
FREE AGENTS: A team under the cap has that much space to sign free agents. A team over the cap can go over the cap if they: resign their own free agents with Bird Rights (2 years service), use a mid level exception, or sign a minimum deal.
EXCEPTIONS: Used to sign free agents to non-minimum deals. Teams get 1 per off-season. Previous CBA levels (these were upped in the new CBA)....
- Over the cap, but under luxury tax: 5 millionish
- Over the cap, over the luxury tax: 3 millionish
- Under the cap, but signing will go over: 2 millionish
So that's my rough understanding. So that's why Boston needs to sign Hayward and any free agents first and then trade for George (who would exercise his player option for next year and then the Celtics can resign to a max with Bird Rights in 2 years). It's also why it was huge Durant will take a little less via extension (vs GSW clearing cap space for a max), so they can have the middle level exception AND Bird Rights to Igoudala, Livingston, and the rest. It's also why Twolves swapped Levine for Butler and will chase a big FA this year because they won't have anymore room with Wiggins and KAT extensions looming. Simple right?