Piatkowsky would be a huge pick up for us, exactly what we need with Yao and Steve. Perfect third guard for us. I would be more excited about getting him than I would Karl Malone.
If the Rockets are pushed into the tax by such a move, the $2.7m deal quickly becomes (in effect) a $5.4m deal. I couldn't tell you whether it'd happen or not, though...not too familiar with the Rockets' finances.
Im really on the bandwagon for picking up Piatkowski. He is a perfect compliment to Yao. Thats exactly what we need. Lets keep our fingers crossed.
Not only that, if they over the luxury tax threshold for more than a couple of million dollars, then they lose out on the split of the luxury tax collected from the other the teams which is was well over 10 million last year. So 3 million dollar player could end up costing the team well over 15 million dollars.
But does anyone have the numbers on way or another--whether 3 million will cost us 15 million. The league has raised the cap, what 3 or 4 million this year, does that give us the wiggle room to sign JP starting at like 4.5 and say another player like Pike at 2.7. Is a single additional 2.5 to 3 million per year contract going to make the difference for us in being over the cliff or under it?
does the average Joe Fan at home think Eric Piakow(whatever) is actually a big splash? wow. Thats news to me. Kinda funny actually.
the answer to your question is YES. The funds are divided amung under lux tax teams,each team gets about 17 million back. If a team is 1 penny over into lux tax,they lose 17 million. It was on a espn article in great detail a while back. So yes,a 3 mil contract could be like paying Eric Piatkowski 20 million(3 mil +17) a year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am not saying "could" it, I realize it could, but rather "would" it. Does someone know the Rockets salaries with enough specificity to say if 2.5, 2.7, or 3.0 to Pike in his first year--all things else being equal and JP starting around 5 mil per year, is going to be the difference. Further, even if a 3 mil contract to Pike does it--maybe it and JP first years could be lowered with added years to the players satisfation to avoid the lux tax.
apparently we have 49.2M in salaries for nine guys (yao/cato/steve/cat/mooch/nach/eg/mo t/rice) right now. posey at 5M would be 54.2M. if the luxury tax is at 57M as reported somewhere else here in an article, that would leave 2.8M to sign piatkowski. i'm wondering, do minimum salary guys count for luxury tax purposes? if so, we'll have to sign like 2 of those guys so that would lower that 2.8M. however, i think if you barely go over the LT, you only lose part of the benefits. there's another barrier (the cliff that was already mentioned) where i think you lose all rebates. so only going over by a million i think only hurts a little. but i'd get confirmation from some of the cap boys first.
The problem is there is no way of telling because it is based on revenues for the coming season. Everyone knew the luxury tax would hit last year because of the TV revenue shortfall for the first season of the new TV contract. The teams have a pretty good idea what the magic number is, but no one is for sure until the final numbers are tallied up. In other words there is no guarantee there will be a luxury tax this year and there is no guarantee where that threshold is. You however can make a educated guess and say it will be within 2 million over last years threshold since the cap is within 2 million of last year.
The "big splash" anticipation should have gone the way of the dinosaur by now. If anything, I think we'd be smarter now to wait until midseason before attempting any major trades. At least by then we'll know more about ourselves under VanGundy and will probably have some teams that figure they're going no where and may come calling regarding Rice (because of his contract). If we've really been dangling Cat, that would be when his value could skyrocket for teams craving salary-cap room. The combination of his game and Rice's contract could bring us someone we really need (hopefully with not too long a contract). That's about 12 million in salary for a player/players we'd get in return. To me, that's a worst case scenario. Hopefully, Yao and Eddie take a big step forward under Van Gundy. And if they do then this team completely changes. The "biggest splash" Alexander could make is to have his "one of the greatest teams ever assembled" remark backed up by growth and VanGundy's presence here. Then he can laugh off all the guys who were so freaked out by us not getting the 8th seed last year.
2) Did say that we will indeed be in Luxury Tax country this year. 3) Because of 2), signing someone to the MLE would cost us about $10 MIL. 4) Because of 3), he did not feel there were any players available that were worth spending that on" Copied this off of the "CD on 740 recap" thread. Sorry I don't know how to link to it. My guess is that CD actually knows the Rockets salary situation. I would be hard pressed to pay Piatkowsky $6 mil. Let's see at a god awful $100 per seat, he would have to "sell" 1350 season tickets. I just don't see that happening. Now if he is the key that pushes us into the playoffs, three sellouts of 18,000 seats at the same god awful $100 works out to just about $6 mil, (I think - my calculator is at work, and I am working with a pen and a scrap of a envelope flap in the dark - feel free to check my math) and that is doable. Interesting, Huh?
I don't think anyone is saying like $6 mil for Pike. But let's just offer Pike a 4 year deal starting at $2.7 (better than what the Cav can) to go along with Posey at 5 years starting at say $4.7 and call an end to our FA season. Any moves from here can be a trade for a stud forward if an advantagous one is out there.
Desert Scar, We pay Piatkowsky 2.7. Because we are over the luxry tax threshold (accoring to CD, see above) we pay an additional $2.7 to the league. Total out of pocket $5.4 mill. OK, not actually $6 mil, but you get my drift.
BTW, I like Piatkowsky and think he would be good addition to the team. I am just saying in a strict dollars and cents approach, it is hard to justify. The idea of the luxury tax being a self imposed brake on spending is slowly coming clear to me. If he is the player who puts us into the playoffs, he pays for himself. If we are already in the playoffs with out him, or he dosn't get us there, he is not woth it. Dollar wise. What is Al Davis famous for... "Just win baby!"
I think Piatkowsky's shooting ability on a 2 - 4 year contract is worth the luxury tax. That way we have a pure shooter locked up at a reasonable price.
If we sign Piatkowsky for 4 years, I wonder how effective will he be at age 37 by the end of the forth year.
Well, consider this. The extra 2.7 mil wouldn't just be a result of the Piatkowski deal, rather it would be a compilation of all the contracts we have (both good and bad). Amortized over 12 contracts, it means you tack on an extra, what, $300,000 per player (just estimating here, fellas, no reason to break out the calculators)? So Piatkowski's 2.7 million contract would really be a 3 million. Cato's 6 million would be a 6.3 It goes on and on. And hey, I'm not even an accountant!
