So we currently have 7 players on contract and we would hope to add LMA and 2 other players. That would put us at 10 so what about the rest of the roster and how does that effect or work with the cap if the 3 players that get us to 10 players meet the cap?
Essentially we can sign LA and have Kaman/Plumlee as our center tandem and have $18M for a starting SF and backup SF.
Last time we had a summer where we had big cap space (doesn't happen often) we got Lopez and T-Rob out of it. No complaints about either (I was actually a T-Rob fan) but personally I hope the Blazers do better than that this time around.
probably the other way around. They'll spend July 1-8 trying to figure out who they can get to agree to sign. Then they'll renounce cap holds as necessary. But in general a TE isn't that valuable if you're planning to have/use cap space to sign people. EDIT: If you remember the Kahn saga with Batum, they were waiving and renouncing guys even after the moratorium had passed trying to get to where they could get enough space for Batum. We can similarly wait to see if we just re-sign all of our FA's, go over the cap and use TE's to fill the roster. Or find out that LeBron wants to come here and renounce whatever it takes to get him the salary he wants.
TE counts against the cap if not used. So after signing LMA to a MAX deal, you'd have $20M left, not $23M. You cannot use the TE to sign FAs. You cannot combine the TE with another player or exception to acquire a player. It may as well be renounced since the Blazers are way under the cap if they choose to be.
This. The Blazers don't really have cap space until they renounce player rights to get rid of the cap holds.
I think the key is how much flexibility we have with that cap space. Whether or not Aldridge signs, it gives us so many directions we could go. Even if they lose Aldridge in free agency, I can still see them signing or taking a big contract like Hibbert, Monroe, Love. Whether that turns out to be the right play....we'll see, but it's certainly promising. There's also no reason not to use all of that cap space. Even if they overpay role players (Green, Matthews, Lopez?) a bit, the ballooning salary cap next year means they'll still have more money to spend. Won't hurt our flexibility as much in the future. So many options, lots of contingency plans, and we potentially have 6 rotation players already locked up. Neil is doing great work.
Great points above. Yes, if we're going to go after a max free agent (beyond ours that we can use bird rights on), we need to renounce the rights to a significant amount of our player, including this trade exception. As Brian and Denny point out, this exception can't be used to sign FA. It must be renounce to clear up CAP space if we go that direction.
I've edited my opening post to note that the Player Trade Exception must be renounced as part of clearing CAP space.
Hendo and Kaman have very moveable contracts; a team might look to acquire them for a 2nd round pick. That would give the Blazers about $50 million in cap space along with a roster of Plumlee Meyers Vonley Crabbe CJ Dame This might be the best lineup in the history of the NBA with a team having so much cap space. Even the Heat had trouble filling in role players when they brought the big3 together. Neil has done an amazing job having such flexibility. If this franchise was in NY or LA there would be so much more excitement and talk about them possibly forming an elite contender.
