Salary Cap Question Re: Restricted Free Agents

Wow, it's been a while since we've had CBA question threads. You can look it up on Larry Coon's CBA FAQ. But, working from memory, an RFA can be offered anything a team has cap space to offer (under the maximum salary for the player). If the incumbent team wants to match and don't have cap space, they must have an exception to hold it. So, if their biggest exception is the MLE, and a team offered the RFA more than the MLE, the incumbent team cannot match and will lose the player.

 

I thought the incumbent team can go over the cap to match whatever offer the RFA gets?

 

Team A has a RFA. The amount of a raise they can offer is dependent on the type of contract that RFA previously held. For example, Landry originally had a 1 year deal so the Rockets could not use Bird Rights to re-sign him. If the RFA is coming of a rookie scale contract, the team has full Bird Rights (3 years' of contract or more) and can sign the RFA up to the Max.

Team B has salary cap space of $10m. They can offer that RFA up to their amount of cap space. In the case of Landry, the Rockets could only offer a MLE max. If Team B offered $7m, they get Landry.

 

Are you sure Gater?

I thought the league instituted a rule about that after Arenas left and the most that Landry could get from any team was a full MLE deal.

DD

 

Since Landry was only on a one yr contract the most he could have signed with any team was the MLE which we could have matched.

 

Bird rights is when you can sign over your cap. I think that's the only case you can dig deeper into your pocket to keep someone's rights. I think that's what the OP is asking in terms of signing someone over the cap.

RFA has its quirks like the gilbert arenas rule, where a 2nd rounder can only make up to the MLE during RFA period.

 

Sort of. The first 2 years can not exceed essentially an MLE level deal.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q37