Im not really seeing it. Can you throw a hypothetical trade scenario that keeps us under the luxury tax?
Jock for Olynyk works straight up and keeps us under the luxury tax threshold. Next year we would have to make moves in order to get under, but again i am predicting a renegotiated Fred next year. Edit: As of now we are slated to have a payroll of 188,050,805 for next year if you keep Jock and exercise his option to stay. Swapping for Olynyk raises that to 192,855,683. The luxury tax is projected to be 188,478,980. We would almost be there, and we have holidays option to decline if we want which would bring us down to 187,954,283. This is all without restructuring Fred and ignoring any draft picks and cap holds. But shows it shouldn't be much of a problem, especially since we have the deadline to get under if we have to.
Overall, it’s probably about the best we could hope for. Jock for Olynyck works straight up salary wise, but it’s probably going to cost you picks. And it also costs us Holliday in your scenario. You’re still going to have to negotiate at least $10m off Fred and/or make those lopsided trades. You didn’t really refute what I said, you only confirmed it.
But i did refute and i provided the data to support my arguement. If you think for some reason, that we wont cross into the luxury tax no matter what at no given time next year, i guess your right. Even still, its very "possible" to acquire Olynyk and STILL never go into the tax next year. Acquiring him does not restrict our flexibility this year or nexts.
I don’t think it’s as easy to simply make a trade now and then dip under the luxury tax before the end of next year as you make it seem. Those are called “salary dumps” and they cost you picks to execute. That trade also assumes that Fred would be willing to renegotiate at all. We don’t know that. If we make that move and he doesn’t want to renegotiate, we are left at either $20M over the luxury tax (more on that in a bit) or letting Fred walk for nothing and still being up against the LT. Neither of us really addressed the unfilled roster spots that need to be accounted for or our draft pick. Even if we fill out our roster with league minimums, we are still also currently looking at a $10m draft pick. We are currently $1M over the LT next year. Adding Olynyk for Jock adds $5M plus costs picks ($6m over LT). 4 roster fillers at league minimum is an extra $4M+ ($10M over LT). Add our #9 pick for $10M ($20M over LT). We can cut Holiday’s $5m and replace it with a league minimum ($16m over LT). And we can hope that FVV will renegotiate for $28m per year to get us back below LT, but that’s probably wishful thinking if he knows we have no other option but to pick him up or let him walk. Letting him walk would not leave us with any salary cap room to add a replacement. This brings me back to my original position that I don’t expect any pure upgrades at the deadline. They will have a pretty tight balancing act to perform as it is. They can’t just load up now and expect to get under the LT at some point next year. That will cost them big time. Now, if they trade or renegotiate FVV at some point before the trade deadline, they have a much clearer picture of next year’s payroll and can look at making some of those peripheral upgrades. *I’m in a bar out of town, so I’m having to eyeball and memory some of this, but it should be pretty close.
How about sending a few second rounders over and snagging Jose Alvarado from the Pels? As much as I like Holiday, he's essentially an extremely undersized 3-and-D shooting guard. Might be nice to shore up the depth at PG a bit.
But once you add our pick slot, and cap holds, we will be in the luxury no matter what next year unless things change. So going 4mil more into the lux tax is not some treacherous thing. Houston is 100% going to have discussions and conversations with Fred, because they HAVE to. We will be in the lux tax, and I agree that we will 100% get under it by next seasons end. Holiday wouldnt even have to be a salary dump because of his value. At worse it takes a 2nd. Not really detrimental to our treasure trove. But, again, Fred is gonna get re-worked or we will move on. The writing is on the wall.
Well, a few think he would be a cheap acquisition to upgrade the backup 5 and give us a stretch 5 option. And others thing there is no way we would acquire salary that extends past this year.
He’s really just an example of the type of upgrade we could make. I was using it as an illustration of how much havoc it creates when you make a trade for anyone with salary committed beyond this year. You can plug whichever player you want in there.
Hou In: Cam Johnson 2028 FRP swap for best of Brooklyn Picks (i.e., likely Phoenix). Hou Out: Jabari Smith Jr. (plus trade filler, likely Landale or Jeff Green) 2027 Brookllyn pick JSJ may become Cam Johnson, but this trade guarantees Rockets get Cam Johnson for rest of this year plus 2 more. It also consolidates more of the Phoenix picks in Houston. Even if Houston doesn't want Booker, Phoenix likely need to find someone Houston wants from a third team. Houston can decide to deal with Phoenix or just let the lottery balls fall where they may. Brooklyn gets more time to rebuild.
Get Adams Green and Smith out of here. The 2nd seed at the midway point of the season is not good enough with a bunch of 20-23 year olds. I want change I want Lavine and Collins!!
Why the hell Brooklyn chooses to participate in this trade, I have no clue, but it's a random trade that I like lol.
You’re right. It’s not enough return for Brooklyn. They can two picks for Cam alone. They aren’t getting enough return for parking Beal’s salary in their cap space.
