Since the NBA season ended with another warriors championship, it’s time NBA fans starting gearing up for the off season. Here is the 2018 offseason Power Rankings. 1. The Salary Cap The perennial champion, always dominant. Coming off a rough 2016 year that saw teams tossing money away, salary cap rebounded strong in 2017 going 29-1, only taking an L to the GS Warriors and their players inept ability to take less money. Even still Salary Cap finished with a .967 winning percentage, earning the top spot in 2018. 2. Daryl Two Chins Muary Daryl has been quietly putting together quality outings. 2017 saw the move of the year with the CP3 trade. He also been excellent at avoiding a direct confrontation with his most feared opponent, Salary Cap. But 2018 appears to be the year where these two offseason titans will collide in winner take all cage match that will prove to keep clutchfans sleepless this summer. On a serious note: I would like to dedicate a thread to theorycrafting ways DM will manipulate our salary cap this summer. This is not a trade thread, simply ways DM could take down the Salary Cap. Ideally this thread will be centered around numbers and cap rules and less to do with “omg dump Ryan Anderson”. Here is the all encompossing CBA. http://cbafaq.com/ Here is a basic summation of the NBA cap. Cap Maximum: $101,000,000 Luxury Tax Threshold: $123,000,000 Teams that are under the cap will have their cap holds applied to their overall cap while teams that are over the cap will not have their cap holds applied but must use any exceptions they possess. If a team uses their Bi-Annual, Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level, Taxpayer Mid-Level exceptions, or Sign-and-Trade they will be considered to be hard-capped and must keept below the Luxury Tax Apron ($129,000,000). Source: Spotrac Here is the current Rockets Roster. http://www.spotrac.com/nba/houston-rockets/cap/2018/ The way I read this, since were over the cap with our FA cap holds, there isn’t an advantage to renouncing their rights, as it doesn’t make cap space available to us. Unless we go under the cap by trashing our entire roster while taking nothing in return. So my first question and theory is this, what do we really gain by trading away guys like Anderson and Gordon? We clear 34mil in cap space, but our current cap hold is 69mil. Hardens contract alone is 30. It’s almost impossible to clear enough space to get our cap hold, + active roster salary to be under 101 million. We could only do this by literally clearing everyone but Harden(30). After that would we then be eligible to renounce everyone but cp3 (35) and Capela (7) This brings us to 72mil. Or 29 under the cap. We would then need to have cp3 quickly take a pay cut, which would then lower his cap hit down from 35, creating more room in cap space to offer a FA. Maybe we can hook another “big fish” for around this 30m. Then we would have to hope Clint does not sign his offer sheet until after we have gotten Chris and a FA to take paycuts. The good news is if Clint were to sign for ~21Mil or less, we would be under the Apron, and could use a better version of the exceptions to fill out our roster. If his offer breaks the 123m mark we then have less potent exceptions to fill out the roster. TLDR; We must clear everyone, then renounce all but cp3, and Clint. CP3 will need to take a pay cut quick, lowering his cap hold to help increase our available funds for a marquee FA who would also need to take a pay cut. All this has to happen before the offer sheet gets matched for Clint. This is very hard, if not impossible. Clearing Ryan Anderson off the books isn’t nearly the solution we think it will be.
I took the liberty of doing the math for below the cap and above the cap scenarios here: http://bbs.clutchfans.net/index.php...on-recruiting-cap-magic.291285/#post-11797284
I was looking through your post, when I read through the CBA rules it came across to me as, if we are over 101 million, then resending our FA doesn’t actually clear room for us to sign other FA unless our total active salary + total cap holds is less then 101. Is this interpreting wrong?
I’m assuming by “resending” you meant to say renouncing, if so when you renounce FA’s like CP3 and Ariza you remove their caphold and create more cap space below $101m, but lose their bird rights. You can still sign them with that cap space but you can’t go over the cap to sign them unless it’s with exception money. You’d need their bird rights to do that but renouncing them you lose that ability. I’m pretty sure that’s what I’ve read from others research but I’m not a cap expert. There’s an SBnation article posted in one of these other threads that discusses the scorched earth scenario and releasing the caphold for CP3 . Then having LBJ and CP3 split the some $50m in cap space. I think that assumed keep Ariza’s rights and caphold though.
I hope you are correct, that was what I used to think before I looked through the CBA and ran across the part about how being over the cap works with renouncing FA. I’m hoping I am wrong though as it’s a much more complex situation.
Thanks! I read it over and I think it’s saying what I thought it said when making my calculations for below the cap scenarios. One thing I did miss in reading that though is not including the “incomplete roster charges” in the team salary. So if Harden, Tucker and Zhou are the only ones with salary on the roster then 9 incomplete roster charges at the rookie Min salary is included. So less $5m in that scenario. I’ll update the info. Thanks for that.... If you can reference the specific point in that section I can reread it but my initial read says releasing capholds does the trick.
i'm not exactly sure how you're interpreting the section that you quoted but here's what it means. It's just saying that if you have Bird Rights on a player, you can't treat it as if they count nothing against your cap and then go out and use your cap space and once you're done spending then resign your free agent with Bird Rights. For example: If you are $20M below the cap in committed salaries and you have a FA who you have Bird Rights on. You can't go sign another teams FA for $20 and then turn around and resign your own FA using Bird Rights. The CBA doesn't let you double dip that way. You don't get to treat the FA as $0 salary for cap purposes and still retain their Bird Rights. Bird Rights are very useful and they allow you to exceed the cap to sign the player but that player doesn't count as $0 against the cap until resigned. The CBA assigns a cap hold for that free agent that you own Bird Rights on, that's the amount the unsigned FA counts against your cap. The amount of the cap hold depends on the FA players salary and years of service. If the player is coming off of a small contract then the cap hold might still be minimal compared to his market value so it could be advantageous to sign outside free agents before resigning your own FA. In the opposite case, where a FAs cap hold is actually higher than their market value then you'd likely resign your own guy before signing outside free agents. . Cap Hold is only relevant if you're under the cap. It's simply preventing the scenario that I described above. That's what the section you quoted meant by you don't count cap hold if you are over the cap. It really should say that cap hold is irrelevant if you are over the cap. The mention of being hard capped is just the result of using certain options. Doing a sign and trade is one of those. If you acquire a player via a sign and trade then you are hard capped and can't exceed the Luxury tax apron for any reason. Same for MLE. The Rockets used their MLE on PJ Tucker last summer and that hard-capped them for 2018. Hope this helps.
2018-19 Houston Rockets Salary Cap Totals The Rockets are currently over the league salary cap. This means Cap Holds & Exceptions are NOT included in their Total Cap Allocations, and renouncing these figures will not afford them any cap space. The team may only sign outside players using any available exceptions or at league minimum salaries. How does this read to you all? I take this as we can’t sign outside FA because we’re over the cap, and it’s says that renouncing figures will not afford us cap space.
Hoping to get the annual @BimaThug analysis of what the Rockets can do with their cap situation this offseason. It looks to me, reading this and thinking for two minutes, that gutting and rebuilding the roster isn't a great plan. It relies too much on players accepting contracts they're under no obligation to accept, and losing guys I'd rather not lose. Maybe you do it if Lebron definitely wants to come, but you don't do it just to have a chance to court big FAs. So, I'm going to start with the assumption that we're just going to play above the cap. It also looks like a real long shot to actually acquire Lebron James. He wants to be paid what he's worth, as does Chris Paul, as we will already have big money staked out for Harden and Capela, plus a bit for Gordon. I would ditch Paul or Gordon or Capela to make Lebron happen. But all three? And, he'd have to really want to come here specifically. So, I am more interested in what is possible assuming we keep the roster mostly intact and just focus on upgrading a position. The point of shedding Anderson's contract is to stay under the luxury tax apron. If we do that, we can still use the MLE, biannual, etc. Then, knock on wood, we aren't playing a 6-man rotation in the WCF.
That's interesting.....where did that come from? (I'm assuming it's not from the CBA since it's referencing the Rockets specifically). I've never read that before, but you could read that also as the team would have to move under the cap first and then renounce the hold. i.e. move Ryno and Ego to get under the cap and then be able to clear the holds. I know at least a couple reputable articles reference the scorched earth approach by renouncing cap holds to create cap space aggressively, but that would mean CP3 not getting the super max.
Comes from Spotrec, which essentially snapshots everyone’s cap situation. It’s also from section 13 in the CBA FAQ.
My observation has been that most media members don't really spend time to understand the CBA. I can't tell you how many times I listen to ESPN and news radio only to hear obvious mistakes regarding the CBA. There's lots of misinformation out there due to lazy "journalism".
The more I look at the numbers it's clear, above the cap is the best way. Here are my updated numbers for two scenarios (1st keep capela and using the Tax-Payer MLE, 2nd losing Capela and using the Full MLE - triggering a hard cap) __________________________________________________________ Spoiler Above the Cap Route (Trade w/ Cleveland) + Match Capela + Using Taxpayer MLE Requirements: - Using 2019 & 2021 1st Rounders - CP3 & Ariza take pay cuts - Cleveland engaging Opt-in & Trade with LBJ Trade Out - Eric Gordon: Get back Early 2nd + expiring or NGT’d - PJ Tucker: Get back Early 2nd + expiring or NGT’d - Ryan Anderson attached (Picks from Ego & Tucker Trade + Hou 2019 1st) for expiring of NGT’d - Nene, Onuaku: Attach Hou 2nd Rounders + No Salary Back - NGT’d + Expiring + Hou 2021 1st Rounder for (LBJ) + Option to take PJ or Ego Starting 5 Roster - James Harden ($30,421,854) - LBJ ($35,607,968) - CP3 ($28m) - Ariza ($8m using bird rights) - Capela ($25m) Bench Roster - LMM (5.45m - Tax PayerMLE) - Zhou Qi ($1,378,242) - Gerald Green ($1.6 - Vet Min) - 4 More Required Roster Spots (Vet Mins & Buyout Candidates - $3-5m) Total Salary $138-140m -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Above the Cap Route (Trade w/ Cleveland) + Let Capela Go/Sign another Center using Non-Tax MLE (Triggering Hard capping at $129m) * If you assume we don’t match Capela and let him walk or trade him for an asset Starting 5 Roster - James Harden ($30,421,854) - LBJ ($35,607,968) - CP3 ($35.6m) - PJ Tucker ($7,969,537) - DJ (or other Center) - $8m MLE Bench Roster - Ariza ($5m) - Zhou Qi ($1,378,242) - Gerald Green ($1.6 - Vet Min) - 4 More Required Roster Spots (Vet Mins & Buyout Candidates - $3.3m) Total Salary $129m Hard Cap (Luxury Tax Line + $6m)
If LeBron decides to leave . .. . . Cleveland will be in ReBuild Mode and Will probably be open to Sign and Trade Sign and Trades is how you handle Salary cap hell it helps to have a team players want to come too Rocket River
Yes I agree, the cap is pretty dire. Without the SnT it’s near impossible. But besides LeBron it’s going to be tough to do something here besides keeping the band together.
