What’s Thomas Robinson’s situation now? Earlier today, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports tweeted: What does this mean? What’s the situation? What are these words like renouncing, Bird Rights, etc.? Well, first things first. Thomas Robinson is under contract to the Blazers for the entirety of the 2014-15 season for his 3rd-year 120%-of-Rookie-Scale amount (which was announced September 30th, 2013) of $3,678,360. He can be traded at any point as if he was an expiring contract, and all Bird Rights are maintained, as long as he is not waived, clears waivers, and is picked up by another team as a free agent. So, what happens this summer? That’s a more complex question. One presumes that the Blazers brass wanted to maintain cap flexibility going into this summer’s Free Agency period. If Robinson’s 4th-year option HAD been picked up, the Blazers would have had his entire salary amount (26.7% raise over his 3rd year salary, or $4,660,482) added to their cap for the summer 2015 Free Agency period with no recourse to remove it. As a team with some flexibility, as well as the decisions to be made on future contracts to LaMarcus Aldridge, Robin Lopez, Wesley Matthews and others, it just made sense not to tie up almost $5M in space for a player who, while promising, is about 4th on Coach Stotts’ PF depth chart. (Rookie Scale Data taken from RealGM--http://basketball.realgm.com/nba/info/rookie_scale/2013). Coon's CBA FAQ states that Robinson’s “Larry Bird Rights” are still maintained by the Blazers: Robinson, by virtue of being traded, doesn’t meet the initial paragraph’s requirements, but does meet the first “complication” in that he was traded from SAC to HOU, and from HOU to POR. He’s a “Bird Free Agent coming off of his 3rd-year rookie contract.” To maintain Bird rights (the ability to go over the salary cap to sign your own players) a team must maintain a “cap hold” on the player during the free agency period. Some of you may remember the esoteric and arcane rules behind this from the “JJ Hickson situation” of the last couple of years. Similarly, if the Blazers wanted to keep the option of going over the cap to resign Robinson, they would need to maintain a cap hold of about $15M for him. Question 38 states that the cap hold for a player in Robinson’s situation is “the max amount the team can pay using the Larry Bird exception”, which in this case would be Which means, as I read it, the max salary. 25% of cap (not really, but that’s more esoteric stuff, but close). This year’s would’ve been $14.7M. When does this cap hold go away? Per Coon’s CBA FAQ #40: What does “renouncing” mean? If we really wanted that cap space instead in order to sign someone not named Thomas Robinson, the Blazers could renounce his cap hold and remove their ability to go over the cap to resign him, though they are still able to sign him as a “regular” unrestricted free agent. So what? Thomas Robinson can play all year under his Blazers’ contract, or be traded as an expiring salary either solo or with a package of other players and assets. He can theoretically be maintained as a Bird Free Agent, allowing the Blazers to go over their cap to sign him, but that seems extremely unlikely if his cap hold will be almost $15M. When he is renounced, he can still be signed by the Blazers with their cap room, just like any other unrestricted free agent. (He cannot be a “restricted” free agent, as the Blazers did not sign him to a full 4-year rookie scale contract and then offer a qualifying offer) But they cannot go over the $4.66M they would’ve paid him for 2015-16 had they just picked up his option. This is my first swag at pulling things together for people who have some questions. If you think I’m out to lunch on any part of it, please let me know below. Hope this helps. Brian
I don't really think the Blazers NEED TRob when they have Freeland already anyways. There roles are very similar where as Freeland too could be that energy/junk yard dog type off the bench.
I think more Chris Kaman as a backup veteran big than Freeland. I see Trob being dealt at the trade deadline.
That is great info BFW! I see that you're gold now. Why? Why are you gold and I'm not? I'm jealous! I want to be gold. How do I become gold?
Some referred to it as "baby poop yellow", so I'm not sure you want in on this. Then again, maybe that would be right up your alley.
Great write up Brian. This is the kinda stuff I love to read. So many fans don't care about salary cap implications or bird rights, but honestly it's one if the best parts
Great article BFW and it affirms what I felt was coming for TRob. As I mentioned in another thread, it's not TRobs talent, it's more of a player, system mismatch in his case.
Well ultimately it is about his talents, or specifically the talents he lacks - court awareness, decision making, passing, shooting, etc. I'm not saying I don't like Thomas Robinson, but he didn't get traded twice in his first year for no reason. He's a hyper athletic, big man with almost no idea how to leverage his physical gifts in a team concept at the NBA level, maybe with some more time he'll get it, but probably not.
