Not sure what the exact rules are, but Miami might have a bit of cap space crunch issue, at least some timing issue, that they need to nail down. Specifically, I think that they need to use cap space to sign Whiteside because they don't have full Bird Rights on him. They also have Wade out there as a free agent. So, even a $5.6M salary cap hit on Johnson might have an impact. Besides, Miami has always been mindful of their luxury tax situation so a couple of high $ years in years 3 and 4 of the deal could scare them some. Yes, the cap is expected to rise again next season, but these are only projections. The one big item that drives the dramatic rise this year is the new TV contract. The TV money won't increase by as much next season. Also, the CBA expires after this season, so there is some uncertainty as to how the next CBA is going to be. In any case, I think it's worth at least throwing some $ at Johnson. The worse that can happen is we spend a couple days waiting and then MIA matches. It's not like any other FA wants to take our money anyway.
i think we can outbid miami. if chicago offers similar money, i imagine johnson would rather go there, right? pretty sure he'd start over calderon/grant/brooks.
Wouldn't Miami just sign Whiteside first? Thus, we are only talking about Johnson's current cap hold, which is his QO of $1.1m btw: Is this tweet from yesterday accurate? <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">At a $94.4M salary cap, if Heat were to sign Hassan Whiteside at a $22.2M starting salary, would leave $19.1M-plus in cap room.</p>— Albert Nahmad (@AlbertRandom1) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlbertRandom1/status/748858752133107712">July 1, 2016</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Something like that, yes. Just depends on Wade. If he takes ~$13 million, then can keep both he and Johnson. If he walks, they probably won't let Johnson go.
technically Miami is over the cap (because of cap holds) even before they even resign Whiteside. Unless Miami moves below the cap they will have their full MLE which as you pointed out, is all they need to ensure they can match any contract offer Tyler Johnson gets. However, if they move below the cap or if they use any part of the MLE then a team can outbid them for Johnson. At least thats my understanding. Of course since the MLE is technically considered as part of the cap, they would have to move 5.7 million below the cap to lose the MLE and then they still have enough money to match any offering Johnson a contract.
Currently Miami has the following salary obligations: 48,227,334 - guaranteed salary 22,200,000 - Hassan Whiteside Salary 30,000,000 - Dwayne Wade cap hold That's 102,427,334 in salary plus an additional ~10 million in cap holds for other players not named Dwayne. Until they get Dwayne Wades situation resolved either by resigning him or renouncing him they only have the MLE to use, which is all they need to match any contract offer for Johnson.
How did I that go over my head in earlier posts? Thanks. So then Dwayne Wade would have to agree to a ~14 million dollar salary (approximately) in order for the Heat to maintain enough cap space to sign Johnson. I guess we will find out soon enough. The Heat are either going to have to sign Wade first or renounce him altogether.
That is not how this works. They CANNOT sign Whiteside given Wades cap hold, and they do not have his bird rights. The have to sign him with cap space, which means they would have to renounce their rights to Wade before signing Whiteside. There is no chance they use the MLE. Committing $22 million per to Whiteside removed this option. They've got $18-19 in cap space to spend beyond Whiteside. That's it (other than minimum contracts and the room MLE)
Yep, read my next post. Your right. I didn't realize the Heat only had early bird rights on Whiteside.
Missed this before I responded. Yes...I believe this is how it will work. Something else to think about...making this a backended loaded contract could really hurt Miami. The cap is supposed to go next year as well, but there is actually talk of it contracting the year after that, which would be the 3rd year of Johnsons contract.
crash5179, Miami doesn't need the MLE to sign Johnson. They will use an Early Bird exception. Miami doesn't need any cap room to sign Johnson
Rep to all three of you for breaking down the logistics. Gonna be very interesting to see what Wade does and how Miami reacts. I really want this kid on the Rockets.
They CANNOT use the early bird exception. That only applies to like 175% of their previous salary. Whiteside will sign a deal 22 TIMES his previous salary. They must use cap room.
It's easy to over think sometimes, and forget what you already know. I do it all the time when I get excited. Think of the Johnson situation for Miami like out situation for DMo. There is no offer sheet we can't match for DMo in any scenario of this FA season. Same with Johnson and Miami. However, the order of signings can hamper our ability to sign other FAs and maximize our cap space. We want and need DMo to wait for us to use our capspace before he signs an offer sheet that increases his cap hold Same with Johnson. Teams can screw with Miami's ability to maximize their caproom by signing Johnson to an offer sheet that increases his cap hold to $5.6m. But they cannot stop Miami from matching Johnson anymore that.n teams can stop us from matching DMo. They can only make us choose not to (see Parsons/Bosh)
