1) whats the max value of the tax MLE? I know what the fixed first year number is, but that number can increase in subsequent years, right? 2) assuming Portland uses it, who do you want
1) 5% per year raises (base on the first year salary) for up to three years. The 2018-19 taxpayer MLE hasn't been set yet. It's locked to the salary cap. It will go up by the same percentage as the salary cap. Just as an example, the taxpayer MLE for 2017-18 was $5.192 million max. for the first year. Assuming a 4% salary cap increase, the max. first year salary for the 2018-19 taxpayer MLE would be $5.4 million. Year 2 would be 5.616 million and year 3 would be 5.832 million. So, assuming a 4% increase in the salary cap, the max. contract for the taxpayer MLE would be a 3 year contract with a total value of $16.848 million. 2) I have no idea. Given we're going to be playing luxury tax of about $3 for every $1 in incremental salary, I'm not sure there will be anyone willing to take $5.4 million per year that would be worth the $20+ million per year they would actually cost in salary + tax. We can most likely get a better player using the $13 million Crabbe TPE, but that will cost us even more in luxury tax payments. BNM
I don’t see any other way we’re going to improve. We can’t go into next season with the same roster plus a late first round pick. If Paul isn’t willing to pay up, we may as well just trade CJ.
That was my basis for the comment we can probably get a better player with the Crabbe MLE than the taxpayer MLE. If we're going to go all in we need to go ALL in. I haven't seen any RFAs that will be available for less than $5.4 million that I consider a difference maker. Sure, you might luck out and get a young guy who breaks out, but I'll leave that to Neil. He's better at finding those guys than me. Baldwin has the potential to be on of those guys. Does Neil have another Baldwin up his sleeve, and even if he does, will that player be ready to make a significant contribution in 2018-19? I kind of view guys like Baldwin as keeping the pipe full, rather than guys who have an immediate impact. It's nice to have a steady flow of young improving players, but other than Nurk, none of the diamonds in the rough Neil has plucked have made an immediate significant impact. BNM
If we’re going all in, both the MLE and the TPE should be in play, not just one or the other. Otherwise, we’re treading water. But if it is one or the other, guys like Wayne Ellington and Hezonja interest me more in FA. The only real TPE possibility I’d prefer would be Courtney Lee.
I think Aminu and Harkless have decent trade value, especially with the way Aminu played in the playoffs and who knows, maybe there is a team out there that will take a flier on Leonard with him only having 2 years left now.
This is exactly what I have been trying to say! There is no other way to improve besides trading CJ... using the MLE will cost 3x the contract signed because we will be over the luxury tax... not worth it for a player that probably doesn’t change much on a team so far away from contention... only other option would be to trade Zach... which would mean you are going all in on a Dame/CJ combo that is flawed... Neil knows trading CJ is only option but his ego is more important than doing what’s right and balancing the roster
I just think Aminu and Harkless have more value to Portland than to any other team. Yeah we could move them, but I don’t see us getting anything back that would actually improve our team. I bet it’s more likely we extend Aminu.
List of FA’s https://www.google.com/amp/www.espn...229609/nba-free-agents-2018-2019?platform=amp There are some really interesting names.. Bradley Ariza Evans Reddick Doubt we can get one for the 5 mil MLE. Although Lou Williams just signed for 8... whon knows
Even then, we need a guard that can attack the rim and defend off the bench. However, there's not many players like that available, if any.
As already pointed out, any dollar we spend after we have moved into luxury tax will actually cost us three dollars. It’s all well saying Paul Allen can afford it and he probably can but what’s the point if that player is very unlikely to make us good enough to compete for the titles or even go into conference finals? I don’t even think a player like Tyreke Evans would come here for $5.4M a year. He did that last season, proved he is still quite good and he can get a decent contract now. Marco Belinelli might come for $5.4M, maybe someone like Ilyasova. That’s about it. It’s not enough to be worth an $20M outlay. We need a lot of moves to improve this roster. Getting a MLE average player won’t fix it.
Technically yes, but then we'd be hard capped and wouldn't have the money to sign Nurk or Davis. It's really best to just forget about any sign-and-trades unless the Blazers do something drastic like a miracle complete salary dump of Turner.
I agree that may be the case, but they are assets that might fetch more than we think and should be explored.
