I think you use the stretch provision if you can't trade one of our expires after the deadline and are over the luxury tax line. They can also use the stretch provision on the partially guarantee portion of JR's contract.
I think the stretch is a last ditch option and will only come into play if we take on a contract for JRs contract in the next week. If the contract we take back is an expiring, that will be 6 expirings worth anywhere between 78-82 million in total. Koby can shave off that extra amount thru trades.
Really I don't think Gilbert or Koby will use the stretch because it could limit them in the future. Stretch money is dead money. The Lakers are finding out how horrible of a decision it was to stretch Deng.
Every situation is completely different. There has to be a little more nuance to this than simply saying “never stretch!”
The Lakers expect to be free agency players every year they have cap space, so having dead money on their books is a much bigger problem for them than it would be for non free agency destinations like Cleveland.
LA also stretched Deng to open up more
cap space which is a big no-no especially if you strikeout, which they did last summer outside of LeBron. Had they also signed Paul George like they arrogantly thought they would, no one would care about Deng's dead money this year.
The Cavs would be stretching to begin the reset process of the repeater
luxury tax. Totally different scenario entirely.
Once the Cavs sign their three first round picks and assuming they tender Nwaba a qualifying offer, the Cavs will already be about 3.5M OVER the tax even if they waive JR Smith. If the Cavs do waive JR and then opt to use their 15th roster spot on another player, that figure will increase even more.
So long story short, the Cavs already have no flexibility to make moves using their treasure trove of expiring contracts to add money in exchange for incoming draft assets because they’re already over the tax.
The easiest solution, whether they use the JR Smith contract in a trade or not, is to stretch someone and the more likely candidate would be Knight since he’s a mostly useless player with a salary big enough to make a difference.
If the Cavs stretched Knight, they would go from 3.5M
OVER the tax to 7 million
UNDER the tax, giving them tons of freedom to explore deals using JR, Delly, Henson, Clarkson and Tristan and also ensuring they’d stay under the tax this season and start the reset of the repeater.
Now... let’s talk about how harmful it would be.
Stretching Knight would kick approximately 5.2M in dead money in 20-21 and 21-22.
Here are the guaranteed contracts the Cavs have on the books for 20-21.
Love
Nance
Garland
Sexton
Windler
Porter Jr.
Zizic
2020 1st Round Pick
That’s it.
Those 8 contracts combined are going to be about 70M depending on how high the 2020 first rounder is.
Let’s get aggressive with it and say the Cavs are able to flip some of the Delly, Henson, Clarkson, JR, Tristan expirings for three future first round picks and three contracts adding up to 40M in 20-21, that puts the Cavs at 110M in salaries.
Throw in that 2020 pick acquired and now the Cavs are at 113M for a nearly full roster.
Toss in a couple of guys making the veteran minimum and a second round pick, round up and we’ll say in the most aggressive scenario possible trade wise the Cavs will have 115M in committed salary for next year. Toss in Knight’s 5M in dead money and you’re at 120M.
The luxury tax for 20-21 is projected right now to be 142M.
So even in the absolute most aggressive scenario possible of the Cavs flipping expiring deals this year for 40M in salary next year AND factoring in a top draft pick AND factoring in another first round pick that the Cavs don’t even have yet, the closest I could get them was 22M short next year’s luxury tax even with Knight’s stretched amount on the books.
There’s just virtually no scenario where the Cavs pay the luxury tax in 20-21. Knowing that, the stretch absolutely is a legitimate option.
