Rose/Gibson are now our longest term salary commitments. Lu is signed through next year, Booz's contract can be terminated whenever we choose, Jo and Jimmy are through 15/16, Rose/Gibson through 16/17. Teague, if he can stick, will be under team control through 16/17.
Next year, if we brought everyone back, we'd have a salary commitment at about $78M with 8 or 9 players. Drop Rip, you're down to 73. Drop Booz, down to 58 and with a little wiggle room to sign decent FA(s).
Going into the 14-15 season, we have Rose, Taj, Jo, Jimmy, Teague on the books (let's assume we let Boozer go at $17M by that year). That's $43M in salary commitments and we can look to that year as a time to make big FA moves if guys are available.
For next year (13-14), it may just make more sense to keep everyone together, pay the big tax bill, and give it an honest title run. The next season you can shed a ton of salary at once and re-evaluate/reload.
I haven't looked ahead at who is slated to become free agents in the next few years, but if you're willing to wait around two more seasons....that is clearly when we're most able to make a splash. That's a big if, of course. With every coming day and year, Luol becomes more movable as well which could allow us to perhaps make a run at a FA after this season, if there is anyone out there and we could trade Lu without taking on salary.
....winning cures all ills!
Full Version: Thoughts looking ahead to the next couple seasons
It's not really that easy. The salary cap is $58 million and you already have three long term (3 more seasons) commitments in Rose, Noah and Taj.
For 2013/14, the best you're going to be able to do is the MLE, which may be able to bring in someone useful but not a star.
For 14/15, you've got about $15 million left for 8 roster spots. That also assumes that no one else gets signed to a multi-year deal next year.
You can't just spend all of it on one guy and fill out the rest using exceptions later, you'll have cap holds at the veteran minimum for all of those spots, leaving you with maybe $7 million under the cap. That's not exactly a game-changing total. Even to get that total, you'd have to renounce Deng's Bird Rights (meaning they couldn't go over the cap to keep him), otherwise he'd have a cap hold that eats up all of your space.
Their best chance to add a big-time player would be through a trade using Deng's expiring contract. Then the cap doesn't matter at all and they would just have to match the salaries.
For 2013/14, the best you're going to be able to do is the MLE, which may be able to bring in someone useful but not a star.
For 14/15, you've got about $15 million left for 8 roster spots. That also assumes that no one else gets signed to a multi-year deal next year.
You can't just spend all of it on one guy and fill out the rest using exceptions later, you'll have cap holds at the veteran minimum for all of those spots, leaving you with maybe $7 million under the cap. That's not exactly a game-changing total. Even to get that total, you'd have to renounce Deng's Bird Rights (meaning they couldn't go over the cap to keep him), otherwise he'd have a cap hold that eats up all of your space.
Their best chance to add a big-time player would be through a trade using Deng's expiring contract. Then the cap doesn't matter at all and they would just have to match the salaries.
QUOTE (ZoomSlowik @ Nov 1 2012, 03:15 PM) 
It's not really that easy. The salary cap is $58 million and you already have three long term (3 more seasons) commitments in Rose, Noah and Taj.
For 2013/14, the best you're going to be able to do is the MLE, which may be able to bring in someone useful but not a star.
For 14/15, you've got about $15 million left for 8 roster spots. That also assumes that no one else gets signed to a multi-year deal next year.
You can't just spend all of it on one guy and fill out the rest using exceptions later, you'll have cap holds at the veteran minimum for all of those spots, leaving you with maybe $7 million under the cap. That's not exactly a game-changing total. Even to get that total, you'd have to renounce Deng's Bird Rights (meaning they couldn't go over the cap to keep him), otherwise he'd have a cap hold that eats up all of your space.
Their best chance to add a big-time player would be through a trade using Deng's expiring contract. Then the cap doesn't matter at all and they would just have to match the salaries.
For 2013/14, the best you're going to be able to do is the MLE, which may be able to bring in someone useful but not a star.
For 14/15, you've got about $15 million left for 8 roster spots. That also assumes that no one else gets signed to a multi-year deal next year.
You can't just spend all of it on one guy and fill out the rest using exceptions later, you'll have cap holds at the veteran minimum for all of those spots, leaving you with maybe $7 million under the cap. That's not exactly a game-changing total. Even to get that total, you'd have to renounce Deng's Bird Rights (meaning they couldn't go over the cap to keep him), otherwise he'd have a cap hold that eats up all of your space.
Their best chance to add a big-time player would be through a trade using Deng's expiring contract. Then the cap doesn't matter at all and they would just have to match the salaries.
At what pace do we expect the cap to grow? I recall that it more or less didn't get higher from last season to this one.
QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 1 2012, 06:33 PM)
At what pace do we expect the cap to grow? I recall that it more or less didn't get higher from last season to this one.
Very slowly. You might as well assume it stays relatively constant. It's designed so that the share that the players receive decreases over time, so this is about the level the cap will stay at for the near future.
We are in salary cap hell as an organization.
Well we have one huge part of the equation -- a superstar. We also don't have any truly bad money. Boozer is "bad money" because we'd have rather given that money to LeBron James or something, but in reality he's a huge contributor.
The more I think about the cap issue, the more I feel like I'm okay sticking with this core indefinitely. You won't do what Miami did -- you'll wind up doing what all these other teams that are under the cap but are filled with s*** players are doing.
The more I think about the cap issue, the more I feel like I'm okay sticking with this core indefinitely. You won't do what Miami did -- you'll wind up doing what all these other teams that are under the cap but are filled with s*** players are doing.
QUOTE (Jake @ Nov 2 2012, 04:31 PM)
Well we have one huge part of the equation -- a superstar. We also don't have any truly bad money. Boozer is "bad money" because we'd have rather given that money to LeBron James or something, but in reality he's a huge contributor.
The more I think about the cap issue, the more I feel like I'm okay sticking with this core indefinitely. You won't do what Miami did -- you'll wind up doing what all these other teams that are under the cap but are filled with s*** players are doing.
The more I think about the cap issue, the more I feel like I'm okay sticking with this core indefinitely. You won't do what Miami did -- you'll wind up doing what all these other teams that are under the cap but are filled with s*** players are doing.
The question is...can "this core" beat the Heat, even next year with a healthy superstar? I'm unconvinced.
QUOTE (Balta1701-B @ Nov 3 2012, 01:02 PM)
The question is...can "this core" beat the Heat, even next year with a healthy superstar? I'm unconvinced.
The fact is that we're 0/1. No way around that. On the other hand, we know that this core can at least make it to the fight.
A prudent question may be...would you be okay with winning 1 title in the next 5ish years? Most would say yes. Then...what if the other titles belonged to a single franchise like the Heat, whom we lose to each year other than our title year?
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