Min salary for Belinelli is $2.3M, roughly. We're at the 2/3 mark, so his minimum would be over the $585K we have. But in 5 games, he'd be under the $585K room we have.
Vet Minimum goes up with years of service. Belinellli has 10+, so his is pretty big. The two way contracts can convert to full ones, but it might be better to negotiate an NBA contract at the end of the season.
Ok but what would happen if we let his 45 days expire without converting his contract? He becomes a FA? Can we still demote him after the g league season is over?
I believe after the G-League season is over the two-way guys can play on the team and the 45 days thing doesn't matter anymore. The only drawback would be that I don't think he'd be eligible for the playoffs but I doubt we'd need him for that. Baldwin still has another season where he could be a two-way player or we could sign him to a minimum deal in the off season. Wilcox is no longer eligible for two-way contracts after this year.
Ok so we could theoretically still sign a buyout guy to a minimum contract, stay under the tax, and still retain Baldwin until the end of the season? Let’s do it then. Especially if Ilyasova gets bought out.
One thing I was thinking about that would only work with a lower guy fighting to stay in the NBA is to sign them to a two year deal with the 2nd year non-guaranteed. If we did that with a guy like Baldwin then we could trade him this summer and the team that acquired him could waive him without having to pay him anything. That might come in handy to match salaries in trades. The problem this summer would be that since there are 4 free agents there isn't as many people eligible to be traded as would be optimal. As for Ilyasova, the Shamsports Capulator (not sure how accurate it is) says signing him for the rest of the year would be $6,584 over the luxury tax. So we might have to wait a few games to do something like that.
This is true... BUT the NBA pays the difference between a two year vet & someone with much more experience when they're on a min contract. Tax wise, it doesn't matter if Portland signed Belinelli to a min contract or someone with 2 years experience. It would be the same roster charge
