I have two questions regarding our ability to add more talent before the season begins. 1. Do the rockets still have full access to the remainder of the NTP MLE after signing House or were they forced to decide which MLE they wanted to use and just ended up using the TP MLE? This is important because its possible they have a wink wink agreement with Iggy after he gets bought out for the remainder of the NTP MLE? 2. Also, is your salary number when calculating for Luxury Tax based on the amount of salary you have on the books at the end of the NBA regular season or is a based on the amount of money the team actually spent? For instance if we traded for someone and ended up shipping him off at the trade deadline, does the amount of money he got paid from the beginning of the season until the trade deadline count towards the luxury tax or is his salary completely wiped when he gets traded? If so, the rockets could have traded for an expiring, for instance Marvin and also potentially get a second round pick in return for absorbing the contract, then reroute that contract at the deadline with that 2rd round pick to duck the tax if they can't use that contract in a bigger trade
Irrespective of cap Cheapskate Tilman doesn't wanna spend and pay the luxury tax. All about costs savings $$$$ End Thread.
1. It's still available. And I can see it possibly being used. More so on maybe a couple euros than on Iggy. 5.785 of MLE and 3.625 of BAE. We'd have to clear out non-guaranteeds to use it though. I think we either release some n/g's or we trade them out and create a sliver of space to sign somebody for $2.1 million now. Which is the balance of the Taxpayer MLE...while still staying under the tax line. And then we'd have the BAE and the remaining 3.6 million of the taxpayer MLE to use for buyout guys later. Better be scanning the market for salary reducing trades to create TPE's and a little more cap room under the tax line. 2. Tax is determined on day of last game. Salary on the books. But if a trade is made after the season that involves a trade kicker...that is added to the salary as of game 82.
There's only 1 MLE. If you're a non-taxpayer,then you have a higher amount but if you use more than the tax-payer MLE amount then you;'re hardcapped. So , for the Rockets their MLE is for the higher amount. They have used a portion of the MLE but haven't exceeded the tax player MLE level so they are not hardcapped. To answer you question, yes they still have the remainder of the MLE but if they use much more then they are hardcapped. Also, even if you have money left on the MLE above the tax payer amount, you can't use it all if it would leave you above the hard cap after the signing. Taxes are calculated off of your salaries at the end of the season. This, of course, includes any dead money that you may be carrying on the payroll.
Here's some real numbers, that may make things simpler. The current Luxury Tax Threshold is $132.63M Right now the Rockets are $193.73K over the Tax Threshold. Our MLE is the NTP variety and it's worth $9.258M. If we use more than $5.718M of that exception then we immediately become hard capped at $138.92M. If hardcapped, you can't exceed that amount for any reason (even including exceptions). So far, we've used $3.493M of the MLE to sign House. That means that we have $5.766M of the MLE still available but if we use more than $2.225M of that remaining amount then we are hardcapped. Even if we use only $2.225M of the remaining MLE amount, we wouldn't be hard capped but since we are over the tax line, using that money pushes us that much farther over the luxury tax line. That's what bbholic was refering to when he mentioned getting rid of contracts before using any more of the MLE. That would be done to keep us under the tax line. We also have a $3.623M Bi-Annual exception available but if we use that exception then we are hardcapped ( $138.92M). Not sure if that makes things clearer or more confusing.
What is the difference between "Active Roster Cap" and "Total Taxable Salaries?" The apron space at spotrac looks like it keys off of Active Roster Cap, but the hypothetical tax bill looks like its generated from Total Taxable Salaries, and the two numbers are not identical. That said, the space between the apron and luxury tax threshold is roughly 6.2 million. Going right up to the hard cap would generate a tax bill of (carry the one...) 7.5 million + 2.1 million, or roughly 9.6 million. Does paying even an extra 9.6 million seem like something this management team will do? (I believe I first read this point here from @smoothie )
No, the two figures differ by 1,757,341, and Dead Money is listed as only being 122,741. Dead money does get combined with Active Roster Cap to form the sum "Total Cap Allocations." https://www.spotrac.com/nba/houston-rockets/cap/ Not a big deal, just curious if anyone knew off the top of their head. Not worth digging for the 15 minutes it'd probably take me to find out. Thanks. Though, I'll ask this of you: do you think the Rockets are likely to hit the apron, and so end up spending 9.6 million or so in tax money? I don't. Maybe if "a star" were to be available. Love's the only one I think would be realistic to think of coming here, and he probably means at least two of the Capela-Gordon-Tucker group have to be sent out.
No wink-wink deal with Iggy. The deal is the Rockets have to trade for Iggy or he goes to Lakers or Clippers after buyout. Maybe back to Philly.
They can still decide to use either MLE pending they don't go over the apron at any point. Go over that and you lost the NT-MLE and are stuck with the T-MLE. The tax is calculated based on the last day of the league year. You could be above it all season and dip below it on the last day and you are under the tax.
tl;dr Cheapman won't go to the hardcap no matter what. We'll likely pick up a buyout target and will only offer them pennies so they'll either choose us or go to the LA teams (pretty sure all the good buyout targets will head to LA first)
Don't forget taking advantage of the veteran player minimum salary rule. For 10+ year veterans, the NBA pays the difference between the 2 year vet minimum salary and the 10-year veteran salary. The current roster has the NBA paying almost $2M of Rocket's players salaries.
its nice to have a little control over the NBAs money. you want to fine me? i'll sign another 10 year to a vet minimum. who pays more? i swear to god if you let the warriors cheat again i'll fill my whole ****ing roster with nene's and chandlers and noah's and vince carters and fine YOU!
i think i saw a bima tweet that said after all of our FA signings we have just enough room under the tax fill all 15 spots, with remaining spots being signed for the minimum. i think last year we only had 13 or 14 players? so that's a plus. right now we have: capela-chandler-harty tucker-clark-bennet gordon-house harden-green rus-rivers-clemons i assume clemons makes the cut. looks like a perfect fit with our style. clark and bennet will battle for the stretch 4 minutes. i'd like to add 1 more guy to the wing and one more backup center who can play when chandler rests. harty's spot on the team is not a given since chandler only played 55 games last year and we may need a 3rd center who is rotation worthy. since we've been resigning our own guys i imagine shumpert and faried are in talks to return for the minimum. holiday and sefalosha are possibilities too. as are noah, gortat and koufos. then we'll cut harty, and keep 2 spots open for buyout candidates.
