Did you direct that at the wrong person? I made no comment on the feasibility of signing both players, I said LeBron wasn't opting out in order to get rid of Love. He's opting out because it makes him more money.
Yes this is true but the articles are missing that they have to renounce bird rights to their own players to clear the cap holds so they actually have $22mil in clear cap space.
You can offer your own free agents something like 120% of their previous salary. Lebron made $20M, he can be offered $22M. They use bird rights to go over the cap to sign their own guys they have rights to. That includes Love.
oh I misunderstood your point. I don't think an extra million or 2 means much, I think this was motivated by lovvvvve
And.now he says he's taking a "wait and.see" approach to free agency. Nice Lebron way to toss your team under the bus!
you don't understand. I'll put it as simply as possible, Love's bird rights knock $20M of their cap space.
What LBJ can get means nothing. There are 4 other Cleveland free agents that will all need to be dropped to make room for LBJ
They don't need $.01 of cap space to sign LeBron. They can sign their own UFA to 120% of his previous salary.
I think both the money and the freedom to dictate to the Cavaliers means a lot to him. By going year to year, he retains all the power. It's possible that he doesn't want Love back, but he created this deal structure when he wanted Love around--the opt-out was pretty much always intended to be exercised, because it gives him nearly unprecedented power over the franchise. Arguably more than Jordan had over the Bulls.
They can only resign their own free agents if that free agent has bird rights. LBJ doesnt. That's the whole reason why bird rights even exist.
http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q25 NON-BIRD EXCEPTION -- This is also a component of the Veteran Free Agent exception. Its name is somewhat of a misnomer, since Non-Bird really is a form of Bird rights. Players who qualify for this exception are called "Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agents" in the CBA. They are veteran free agents who are neither Qualifying Veteran Free Agents nor Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents, and include the following: Players who finished the season with a given team, who have played no more than one season without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. Players who were Early Bird free agents, but whose team renounced its right to use the Early Bird exception to re-sign the player. Players who were to be Larry Bird or Early Bird free agents, were playing on one-year contracts, and were traded mid-season. This exception allows a team to re-sign its own free agent to a salary starting at up to 120% of his salary in the previous season2 (not over the maximum salary, of course), 120% of the minimum salary, or the amount needed to tender a qualifying offer (if the player is a restricted free agent -- see question number 44), whichever is greater. Raises are limited to 4.5% of the salary in the first year of the contract, and contracts are limited to four seasons when this exception is used.
Let's say there is 22m in cap space without Love, Thompson, Shump, and smith's cap holds. So explain how you get Love and LBJ
They use the Non-Bird exemption (see post 53) on LeBron to get him max salary possible. They use the bird exceptions to sign anyone else because they will be over the cap after signing LeBron or due to his cap hold and the others. They have Love's bird rights from the trade with Minny.
NON-BIRD EXCEPTION They are veteran free agents who are neither Qualifying Veteran Free Agents nor Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agents, and include the following: Players who finished the season with a given team, who have played no more than one season without clearing waivers or changing teams as a free agent. (That would be LeBron!) This exception allows a team to re-sign its own free agent to a salary starting at up to 120% of his salary in the previous season2 (not over the maximum salary, of course) (Exceptions let you go over the cap, just like Bird Exception does)
