If Butler signs an offer with any team but the Bulls, he'd be doing the Bulls a favor. Right now, they can for sure lock him up for one year if he chooses the QO. Otherwise, they can and will match any offer, the shortest of which would lock him up for 3 years.
I don't think you'll qualify for the MLE if you're more than MLE under the cap before signing Monroe.
Agreed. All the signing would have to be in place first, and the total committed salaries would have to be over the CAP for the MLE to apply. I'm guessing Olshey won't keep the Blazers under the CAP for long.
You can't get the MLE and sign a FA worth more than MLE with cap space. You only get the MLE if your salaries + cap holds + MLE is over the cap. To be able to sign a max FA, you renounce Wes or whoever and you lose the MLE.
What you can use is the ROOM MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q25 ROOM MID-LEVEL EXCEPTION -- This exception is available only to teams that drop far enough below the cap to use cap room, and lose their Bi-Annual, Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level and Taxpayer Mid-Level exceptions (see question number 26). This exception cannot be used if the team has already used the Bi-Annual, Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level or Taxpayer Mid-Level exceptions. This exception becomes available once the team salary drops far enough that the team loses its other exceptions For 2015-16, the room exception is $2.814M
Your right. It looks like as soon as the Blazers use CAP space to sign a player, they lose the MLE. But it does look like the Room MLE of $2.8M applies.
The Bulls gave up the MLE to sign Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic last year. They used the room exception to sign Kirk Hinrich (blech). Wright was signed with the Taxpayer MLE. For 2014-15, the exception was $3.278M. Wright's contract was for $3.15M. EDIT: http://www.sbnation.com/nba/2013/7/26/4549992/nba-salary-cap-2013-team-free-agency Room Mid-Level Exception remaining: $2.7 million Signed via cap space: Dorell Wright (two years, $6.1 million)
With all of the CAP holds in place for their free agents (currently putting the Blazer well above the CAP), what would stop the Blazers from first using the MLE (before they renounce anyone), and then renounce the players necessary for a CAP space signing? There must be some rule prohibiting that.
Well, by renouncing everyone, you open x amount of cap space. By signing someone to the mle, and then renouncing everyone, you'd have cap space-mle. So basically, it'd be the same as if you just signed the guy with space
