True, they might not even be willing to do it. But they won't even play him right now, and anything would be an upgrade over MCW.
In what sense is that an improvement? Even if you clear salary at the end of Rondo's contract, you still have no cap space to use. Turner and Leonard may not float your boat, but they're still serviceable NBA players. That's better than a hole in the roster that you can only fill with a minimum contract guy.
The Blazers are so far over the salary cap that cutting Leonard's or Turner's contract doesn't get them under the cap. They'd be down a player once Rondo is gone and wouldn't have any cap space to sign a replacement.
When the time comes, I have little doubt NO can manage the payroll issues. In the meantime, the guys we have are better than cap space.
Isn't the luxury tax threshold like 122 million though? With Ezeli and Turner gone, we'd be pretty far below that.
Yes, but you still have to have cap space or use an exception of some sort to sign a player. Having room between the cap and the LT threshold would help in re-signing Plumlee because the Blazers can use his Bird Rights even though they'd be over the cap. It doesn't do diddly for signing a new player, however.
What Olshey would probably want to do if he wanted to cut salary would be to find a lopsided deal where someone takes Crabbe, Leonard or maybe Turner in exchange for a cheaper player and/or a pick. That way he cuts salary, gets a player either in trade or by using the pick, plus he ends up with a traded player exception that could be used in another deal.
The time to have Rondo would have been last year when he cared to show people he could still play, not this year when he shows that he only cares to play when he wants to.
