I had the wrong figures. A 6 year max contract would be $124 mil. 16568908.00 18225798.80 19882689.60 21539580.40 23196471.20 24853362.00 = 124,266,810 $124 mil - $110 mil(Bosh/LeBron)= $14 mil. They got an additional $16 mil than a 5 year max, but $14 mil less than a full $16 mil max. They split the difference between a 5-year and 6-year max.
Actually with the $5 million Mike Miller is owed its even less. In truth, that is not enough to land the likes of role players. That means they have to fill 8-10 roster spots, not just 3 or 4 more with that money. If the big 3 actually took a real paycut, ie a $10 million per season salary I would have called it for the Heat for the rest of the decade. Just think about it, the players would lose roughly another $20 million on their careers, but with: $58,000,000 -$30,000,000 Big Three - $5,000,000 Mike Miller - $1,860,000 JJ - $ 850,000 Chalmers - $3,780,000 Cap Holds $16.51 Million in cap space. That would have amounted to some nice role players. In advertising deals for a championship team the big three could have made up the difference easily. The big three will be an albatross around the neck of Riley, you bet on that.
The Knicks did it by throwing 3 seasons away and giving up multiple lotto picks. The Heat made the playoffs last year and Riley didn't give up as much to get his guys. He gave up more picks, but if all goes well those will almost be 2nd rounders. He did give away Beasley though, but if that leads to them getting Miller and someone else then that's a plus. He also got them to take less $$ (look at the post that shows Joe Johnson and Amare making more). Lastly, I don't just see any coach or GM being able to get these 3 to put their egos to the side and play together and take like $15M less. It's easier to do that when they guy selling you has won 5 titles. And I don't know how to embed a video, but it's funny and to the point. "Everybody wanted one of them. He got em all, discounted." http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZr2qOXQJ4w&feature=player_embedded#at=73
Folks at the Heat board say Miller is coming in at around $4.25M in the first yr. They think they have enough cap room to try to convince Haslem to stay. If they nab Miller and Haslem then that's not a bad core. They still need a center.
Obviously other than having limited cap space for 4 years(player options on Bosh and Lebron), they gave up a total of 4 1st round draft picks and 2 2nd round picks? Is that all over the next 4 years? They are kind of betting their entire organization on this Big 3, which is not a bad bet. But be realistic, we know here in Houston, there is always a chance of injury. Dwade gets injured again and things may not be so harmonious. A bad center and bench with Bosh and James might be a worst team than the 2009 Cavs.
To all the doubters: "WTF is going to play center?!" "Who is going to guard Bynum and Gasol?!" I trust the Miami front office will put together a Championship team. Those guys aren't like us average joe's on a message board. I would think they're pretty smart and know what they're doing.
I hear you and you may be right on but I still get the feeling that the 3 players were well aware of the sacrifices that would be involved long before Riley came into the picture. Riley was just in the right place to accomodate their desire to play together more than anything else. I don't think he had to do much, if any, convincing. Just about any half-competent GM in Miami could have pulled this off since Toronto, Cleveland or anywhere else were never great options for these guys to come together. Wade/LeBron/Bosh have had this planned for a long time and Miami was the most logical destination by the time 2010 free agency rolled around. They've been throwing all kinds of bones to the media in the past week, including trumping up Riley's role in the proceedings, in order to make it look less like collusion. I'm not faulting Riley. I just don't think he did anything special. If he was the GM in another city, I don't think he could've pulled this off. My guess is that the 3 players were thinking NY when they first started working on this but it became obvious that NY didn't have the financial situation to house all 3 of them. Miami became the next best option, esp. with Wade already there. Any GM could have done the logisitics at that point. For all we know, they brought Riley into their plans months or even years ago and if Riley wasn't the GM, whoever was would've played the same role.
If Shaq is smart, he will sign there for the Vet minimum...he could be their version of Kareem late in his career. DD
Even asusming that, you still have to give Riley props for getting far enouigh under the cap without tanking or gutting the team like NY (gutting) or NJ (tanking). I guess you can say the Bulls managed to be competitive and get under the cap easily, but not far enough to sign em all (they weren't finding takers for Deng).
If Riley was the VP/GM in Chicago, they would have signed with the Bulls. I understand what you are saying, but IMO, the Heat have zero chance for this if Riles isn't there. DD, Shaq is too far gone to be Kareem. Plus, Riley has a long memory.
I think you are spot on here. I believe Riley had inside track on their plan via Wade so I do not think he did anything spectacular here. I'll give him credit for assembling right players around these guys when that happens.
I had no clue how the vet's minimum came into play here. That actually makes a huge difference ($1.35M per yr). Larry Coon threw out some players that Riley could chase with the vet's min. http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=coon_larry&page=heatbuildingtime-100709
Let's say they sign Miller and Haslem and whoever else and are pressing up against the cap. Since they have to field a full roster, aren't they allowed to go over the cap by paying however many players the minimum? If that's the case, they aren't exactly constrained by the cap.
There is a minimum salary cap hold in place already on their salary cap. It assumes that they fill out the 12 man roster with minimum salary guys and any cap room is room left over after that. Every team under the cap has these holds already accounted for when they tally up their cap room. Now, not all minimum salary contracts are the same amount but they all count the same against the cap. So whether they sign a rookie to his small minimum or a 10 year vet to his minimum it counts the same against them.
