My question: Is there any restriction on new salary contracts based on previous contracts? This is the scenario I am considering. Miami wants to lure Melo to join their current roster. Lebron, Wade, and Bosh all opt out. What prevents Miami from resigning all 3 at 12m for one year (retaining bird rights), fitting Melo as a max contract, and then resigning Lebron, Wade, and Bosh the following year to max contracts? The NBA might make a case that this is tampering (promising future compensation), but couldn't the Heat argue that they just wanted to give it a trial run to make sure it worked before committing long term to the plan? Would the NBA have a leg to stand on? What would be the max contract be for James, Wade, and Bosh coming off 1 year/$12 million contracts? I understand they would be forfeiting the provision that allows them annual raises based off previous contracts (how Kobe gets paid nearly $30 million) but wouldn't they still be allowed to be resigned as maximum contracts based solely off a percentage of the total salary cap (35% of total cap for players with 10+ years)? In an insane version of this scenario, Bosh Wade and James all agree to marginal salaries (hypothetical: $8m/1 year) become free agents the following year whose cap holds still allow for cap space to sign ANOTHER mid level free agent in 2015 before signing their own max contracts. Is this an actually exploitable strategy?
LeBron/Bosh/Wade would never go that low because their future contract is dependent on their previous salary - so taking that far of a dip is going to have a serious adverse effect on their future earnings. Maybe LeBron can easily make up that money in off-court endorsements and all but would Bosh be able to? Can Wade at this stage of his career? Probably not - taking a small pay cut will help the team but still not have a huge hit on future earnings - I mean for example the Max for Melo right now is around 22 million - the Max for LeBron is around 20 million - that was because of the initial cut LeBron took to sign with Miami. The ONLY place I can see LeBron taking 3 million is New York just for the sheer amount of money he would make off court would more than make up for the contract money lost - but at this point New York isnt even fielding a team that could make the playoffs
Why would playing in New York increase his off court earnings? He's already the most popular player in the world.
It doesn't really affect them that much. The Max for those players are 35% of the salary cap(actually I think the actual number due to weird accounting rules is more like 32%), which is roughly what they'd sign for with Houston or Chicago or somewhere else that doesn't offer absolute max. So they would essentially be only taking a paycut for one year. BUT... This excludes Melo because Miami doesn't have his bird rights. And this is where the idea falls apart.
Alright, I seem to not have fully articulated my hypothetical. 2014 Offseason: Projected cap is 63.2 million Lebron/Bosh/Wade opt out. Miami convinces Haslem to retire with promise of front office job. Andersen declines player option to enter free agency. The only player Heat have under contract is Norris Cole for 2.04m. Heat have Norris Cole contract, First round Slot Contract (~925k), Andersen cap hold on Early Bird Rights (1.89m), Lebron cap hold (30.9m), Bosh cap hold (30.9m), Wade cap hold (30.3), and 6 incomplete roster charges (6 * 510k). Heat have no salary cap space until: Anderson signs elsewhere (drop his cap hold, add one incomplete roster charge) Heat resign Lebron/Bosh/Wade to identical 1 yr/11.9m contracts (their cap holds disappear) Heat sign Carmelo to 4yr/22.1m contract (4.5% raises). Forced to fill out remaining 5 roster spots with league minimum contracts (Ray Allen likely being one). 2015 Offseason Heat still have Bird Rights to Lebron/Wade/Bosh and sign them all to max contracts (35% of 2015 cap at 5 years with 7.5% raises). This is similar to the situation that Minnesota got busted with Joe Smith, HOWEVER; the only reason the league could prove the situation was that they had written the "under-the-table" agreement down. Without any written evidence, could the league prevent this from happening?
Can you please point me to the source of your information? Why are their future contracts prohibited if they sign a one year contract for $12 million? Miami would still retain their Bird Rights, why would they not be allowed to sign for the maximum contract allowable (35% of cap for 10+ years experience) once their 1 year deal expired?
Barkley signed a one year minimum salary contract so that the Rockets could sign Pippen. Then the next year they gave Barkley a max contract. btw: Bird rights don't really matter much in this, because the max is available to any unrestricted free agent. Bird rights simply allow you more years and higher raises. That aside, as OP states, Miami would still have Bird rights. The Joe Smith issue was different than Barkley's, because they lured him away from another team with their promises. In Barkley's case, he was staying with the same team. That would tell me that you have more liberty to take less without tampering if you stay with your team. It was pretty obvious what Barkley and the Rockets were doing. Maybe the league said after that that, watch out, don't anyone try this again.
Bird Rights do matter in regards to Melo. He loses them when he switches teams. If he signed a 1 year deal with Miami, the Heat would not be allowed to go over the cap in 2015 or 2016 to resign him. This is the exact situation Joe Smith was caught in. Minnesota wanted to sign him but didn't have the money. They told him they would sign him to three consecutive 1 year deals (to gain Bird Rights), then sign him for a big contract once they were allowed to go over the cap.
We aren't talking about Melo, right? Because your scenario signs him for 3 years. The Joe Smith situation is what you are worried about with Lebron, Wade and Bosh, right? That is more like Barkley signing for a year. So, yes, Lebron, Wade and Bosh could sign for a year like Barkley, and re-up for the Max after one year, like Barkley. But no, no chance they can treat Melo like Joe Smith and sign him to multiple one yr deals. But I didn't think this thread was suggesting that. Thus, this is more like Barkley than Joe Smith.
