So, in the wake of last night’s disaster, it seems to me that the non- taxpayer’s MLE goes up in importance as a means of attracting a solid vet for the bench. I’d love for some of you cap gurus to run through what would be needed in order to be able to use it. Can Simons and Nurk be re-signed, maybe having their deals structured with a favorable first year price, and still get under the tax line? Assuming so, what FA’s would you like to target with it?
Great question. The older I get, and the less brain (literally) I have, the more the cap shit confuses me
I don't know if someone is getting Mo Bamba for just 6M but if we can that would more than take care of our need for a big man.
Who could we get for a contract that is no more than 3 years and starts at ~6M next season, who would make the biggest impact on our roster? That's the simplified version of it. Here you can see what players made this last season and what guys are set to make next season which should give anyone an idea what 6M might bring in: https://hoopshype.com/salaries/players/
In all seriousness, they only way to get an impact player in the $6 Mil range is to find an NBA ready player who is still on their rookie deal.
Right, which makes it a really valuable asset. The Blazers will be able to outbid teams that only have the TPMLE available to them, which is most of them.
I misunderstood the post and thought that @e_blazer wouldn't think we would use the full MLE and that he would have called it that. The way it stands if we end up at the 8th pick, Ant costs us 25M next season, Nurk costs us 15M next season and we opt in on Hart without cutting or trading anyone else we'll be right around 134M but could be as high as 139M if we move up to #1 at the lottery, the tax is going to be at 149M, so I guess the idea is to give up hope on using that big TPE. That's probably realistic because we don't really have the capitol to take advantage of that anymore. What an absolute clusterfuck Cronin's moves have been.
In that case maybe Bamba would be realistic and he'd be a great get but I kinda think the Magic might extend him his qualifying offer and that's more than the MLE but yeah the idea of giving up on the TPE and concentrating on the MLE makes a lot of sense. I do think that Bobby Portis as much as he loves Milwaukee might be able to be lured away from them for a raise of more than 5M. Shit, I don't think the Suns have Jalen Smith's bird rights and that probably means he'll sign for the MLE with someone. He would be a pretty good get.
especially the ones that have aspirations to contend and would want to sign the same veterans. Dunno who to target though. I’m guessing Ingles will be signed but they don’t need to use the MLE on him do they?
It’s what would have happened under Olshey. We’d have an old roster with no cap room and a pick in the late teens. We’d be playing for another week or so until we got swept in round 1, but other than that, even with losing the NO pick, we are in better shape moving forward
You think we're in better shape moving forward with Dame, Ant, Hart, some mid to early lotto pick, Nurk, Nas, Winslow, the MLE and possibly Ingles (his price might complicate the use of the MLE) than we would have been if we would have had CJ playing instead of Dame last season, raising his trade value and moving forward with Dame, Ant, Nas, what we might have been able to get for CJ after a big season, Nurk, Larry, Norm and possibly a resigned RoCo for less money? I'm not so sure, I think both of those rotations struggle to make it out of the first round and definitely don't make it out of the second. I guess what we're looking at right now is being a team with old players and young players who has no chance of real contention as apposed to a team with mostly old players and only a couple young players with the same potential. I definitely don't think the moves made this season moved the needle on our potential in the immediate future and really muddy our potential further down the road depending on what we do with Dame's contract situation. So in my opinion we suffered through that tank to end up on the same level with no end to the mediocrity in sight. Just a different group of guys treading water but maybe you're seeing something I'm not because the roster will be more balanced I just don't know if that balance will have enough talent that is peaking at similar times to ever make any real noise in the playoffs.
While I think they will be mediocre again, at least there is a chance they add the right pieces. Before, there was no chance.
I don't see it but I was legitimately asking you and I value your opinion in this case just as much as my own because I'm pretty shook at how some of Cronin's plans seem to have backfired so badly. So the fact that you do see a path to contention with Dame leading the team is encouraging even if I'm not there.
Remember the Seinfeld episode where George forgot his glasses, but could squint well enough to see squirrels, or something, while driving, but Jerry broke it to him that they were mailboxes? That’s how I’m seeing this
That's hilarious! Whatever glasses I have on today are making everything look like total shit so I'd imagine if your vision is a little off mine probably is too.
Damian Lillard $42,492,492 Eric Bledsoe $3,900,000 Josh Hart $12,960,000 Justise Winslow $4,097,561 Nassir Little $4,171,548 Didi Louzada $1,876,222 Greg Brown III $1,563,518 Trendon Watford $1,563,518 Andrew Nicholson $2,844,429 Jusuf Nurkić $15,000,000 Anfernee Simons $25,000,000 3rd pick $9,000,000 (7th pick = $6,000,000) around 125M...now that's for 11 players. If they use the 36th pick they'd be at 126M for 12 players (so then no roster charges) a vet minimum deal (Eubanks?) would have them close to 128M for 13 players Full-MLE triggers a hard-cap at the apron, which will be around 155M. They have a 27M margin so obviously if that was the roster, they could afford the full-MLE. But if they used it they'd only be able to leverage 16-17M of that 21M TPE; and they'd lose the 6.5M and 3.3M TPE's obviously, where their lottery pick lands and what they do with it has a lot of bearing on this. If, heaven forbid, they trade their pick + Bledsoe for Grant, they eliminate 13M from that calculation above but add 20M in salary. So they'd only be able to use a maximum of 10M of the 30M in TPE's they have so, next it might be worthwhile looking at the impending free agents: Blake Griffin Gary Harris Goran Dragić Ricky Rubio Taurean Prince Thaddeus Young Joe Ingles Robert Covington T.J. Warren Jeremy Lamb Tomáš Satoranský Kyle Anderson Serge Ibaka Tristan Thompson Montrezl Harrell Derrick Jones Jr. Thomas Bryant Delon Wright Mo Bamba Tyus Jones Chris Boucher Collin Sexton Dennis Schröder Kevon Looney JaVale McGee Robin Lopez Lou Williams Rajon Rondo Bruce Brown Donte DiVincenzo Ish Smith Jeff Green Jake Layman Facundo Campazzo Michael Carter-Williams Paul Millsap E'Twaun Moore Markieff Morris Trevor Ariza Dwight Howard Wayne Ellington Carmelo Anthony Enes Freedom Andre Iguodala James Johnson LaMarcus Aldridge Avery Bradley Ed Davis Hassan Whiteside Kent Bazemore Austin Rivers Andre Drummond Victor Oladipo Otto Porter Jr. Elfrid Payton Frank Kaminsky Nemanja Bjelica is there really anybody on that list that would be worth the full-MLE and the loss of options and flexibility that would cause the Blazers? Harrell? Otto Porter? Boucher? Bamba? and of those is there really any of them that Portland could sign for the full-MLE they couldn't sign for the tax-MLE?