2014 Free Agency Period: News and Discussion

[supermario21]

Why does it seem like everyone is absolutely constrained by the $63 million cap right now?

Because you can't go over the cap to sign free agents unless you have their bird rights or manage to pull off a sign and trade.

 

[OptimusPrime]

I really want to figure this out. So the cap is around $63 million but what about the fact that teams can go over and pay luxury tax like the heat did last year and had combined salaries of 80 million and the crazy Nets were at 104 million (and lost an absurd 144 million last year LOL).

Why does it seem like everyone is absolutely constrained by the $63 million cap right now?

You can go over the cap sign your own free agents (most of the time). There are certain exceptions you can use to sign guys if you are over the cap. I would suggest you read up at http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm if you want to know all of the details.

 

[supermario21]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Free agent Spencer Hawes met w/ Warriors' GM Bob Myers in LA, who has trade exception to use; meeting with Doc Rivers shortly, sources say.</p>&mdash; Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/484100623470563328">July 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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[calleger]

I really want to figure this out. So the cap is around $63 million but what about the fact that teams can go over and pay luxury tax like the heat did last year and had combined salaries of 80 million and the crazy Nets were at 104 million (and lost an absurd 144 million last year LOL).

Why does it seem like everyone is absolutely constrained by the $63 million cap right now?

http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm

 

[Clevelander]

we absolutely need to flip jack this offseason. a 3 guard rotation of irving, waiters, and wiggins will be deadly. also have felix, harris, karasev, and delly to split minutes at the guard spots as well. if we sign hayward, ariza, or parsons, that would solidify us at the 3 with wiggins and bennett also getting some play at sf too. pf we will have tt and bennett hopefully splitting minutes. we need a solid defensive big man at center. andy is great, but he's gotta take a cut in playing time to stay healthy the whole year. zeller looked great last season and i expect him to really step up.

bottom line, we REALLY need to trade jack for a center!! or just trade him for future picks plus fillers or something and just sign a center in free agency.

 

[CFIO]

Jack for RLO

 

[dark2332]

we absolutely need to flip jack this offseason. a 3 guard rotation of irving, waiters, and wiggins will be deadly. also have felix, harris, karasev, and delly to split minutes at the guard spots as well. if we sign hayward, ariza, or parsons, that would solidify us at the 3 with wiggins and bennett also getting some play at sf too. pf we will have tt and bennett hopefully splitting minutes. we need a solid defensive big man at center. andy is great, but he's gotta take a cut in playing time to stay healthy the whole year. zeller looked great last season and i expect him to really step up.

bottom line, we REALLY need to trade jack for a center!! or just trade him for future picks plus fillers or something and just sign a center in free agency.

We would flip Jack if he would get us anything in return; the issue is we will have to give away assets to move him. I still think moving him should be a priority, but don't think teams are excited at a chance to deal for him with his contract.

 

[Clevelander]

We would flip Jack if he would get us anything in return; the issue is we will have to give away assets to move him. I still think moving him should be a priority, but don't think teams are excited at a chance to deal for him with his contract.

shit i would just take what we could get for jack honestly lol

 

[Mr. MacPhisto]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Free agent Spencer Hawes met w/ Warriors' GM Bob Myers in LA, who has trade exception to use; meeting with Doc Rivers shortly, sources say.</p>— Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) <a href="https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/statuses/484100623470563328">July 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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Guess the question would be what GS would give us to do them a favor. Could end up with another first rounder for our trouble. We wouldn't get to keep the trade exception unless we do the trade after we sign other players and get close to the cap. We'd have to renounce the exception. So Golden State would have to give us something to grease the wheel.

Could always add in Barnes and Speights with the cap exception to get Hawes and Jarrett Jack.

 

[faughta0509]

Going over the cap is allowed to re-sign one's own free agents or through the use of exceptions (e.g. the mid-level exception). When signing free agents who played for other teams previously, teams are constrained by the cap. The CBA is far more detailed then that, but there's your two sentence summary.

Edit: Others beat me to it and I forgot to quote EMIXIM.

 

[Cavalierfan]

Guess the question would be what GS would give us to do them a favor. Could end up with another first rounder for our trouble. We wouldn't get to keep the trade exception unless we do the trade after we sign other players and get close to the cap. We'd have to renounce the exception. So Golden State would have to give us something to grease the wheel.

Could always add in Barnes and Speights with the cap exception to get Hawes and Jarrett Jack.

I'd take one future protected first and thank them.

 

[Mr. MacPhisto]

Going over the cap is allowed to re-sign one's own free agents or through the use of exceptions (e.g. the mid-level exception). When signing free agents who played for other teams previously, teams are constrained by the cap. The CBA is far more detailed then that, but there's your two sentence summary.

Though it must be noted that a team's own free agents create a cap hold, so a team that has $40M in space doesn't truly have $40M if a free agent of theirs has a $15M cap hold. First round draft picks also cause cap holds depending on their slot. And empty roster spots if you're below 12 players each have about a $500K cap hold. So a team can just use their $40M in cap space to sign a bunch of guys and then re-sign their own free agent to a huge deal.

Like with the Heat, they need to know what Bosh and Wade are taking to know what kind of space they'd have, assuming LeBron maxes out. But they'd also need to SIGN them to reduce their cap hold. Right now, Wade and Bosh are each a $22M cap hold. Only by renouncing them or re-signing them for less will that number go down.

The press does a terrible job of reporting this. They did it over the weekend by claiming that the Heat have a record $55M in cap space. To an average fan that has no idea how the salary cap works, that sounds like the Hear could sign every great free agent and keep LeBron, Wade, and Bosh. But the reality is that Bosh, Wade, and LeBron account for $66M in cap holds. Haslem accounts for a hold of around $6M. Chalmers is roughly the same. Napier is around $1M. And since they are near the luxury tax, they would not be able to get the full MLE right now. I fully expect them to renounce Chalmers and Haslem. They'll sign Bosh and Wade ahead of time. That will lower their cap number, but they have to do it first.

The press reporting will leave a lot of Heat fans depressed and disappointed when they can't go out and sign every player under the sun to help them. These are mostly not fans that have any clue of how the cap functions, so when the press reports things poorly, they get mislead.

 

[dark2332]

shit i would just take what we could get for jack honestly lol

We will get nothing. Rather, we will likely have to couple him with a draft pick. I would trade him for a "Balls of Fury" DVD and half a bag of Doritos if a team would do it.

 

[Mr. MacPhisto]

I'd take one future protected first and thank them.

I would as well. But a team under the cap gets no benefit from a trade exception. That said, acquiring Barnes and Speights would allow us to unload Jack. I don't believe that Barnes has had his option picked up for 2015 yet, so he could essentially be an ending deal. The same is true of Speights. Low salary and an ending deal. Those are easier pieces to move in another trade or, at worst, a means to get out from under Jarrett Jack a year early.

 

[sailfish]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p>Jazz vowing to match any offer to RFA Gordon Hayward but fresh rumbles tonight that Cavs weighing wisdom of big offer sheet to Hayward</p>&mdash; Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) <a href="https://twitter.com/ESPNSteinLine/statuses/484084001133441024">July 1, 2014</a></blockquote>
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I'd love to see this happen.