The Salary Cap - an article and a missed point

[thecampster]

http://theondeckcircle.net/2008/07/01/nba-free-agency-guide-part-1-salary-cap-rules/

First, read the above article. It is chocked full of good information that should help you avoid throwing around crazy trade scenarios and should advance our discussions on certain topics. What I found interesting in this article is what is missing. It's dated, but it applies in theory. It's a short version of this article.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm

Now this article is too long to read unless you are far nerdier than I am (a hard accomplishment). Specifically what I want to draw your attention to is Question number 14 of this article which explains how a teams salary is computated. Much of the information out there is technically, factually incorrect when explaining how much money a team has under the cap to sign players due to this one restriction

•A roster charge if the team has fewer than 12 players (players under contract, free agents included in team salary, players given offer sheets, and first round draft picks). The roster charge is equal to the rookie minimum salary for each player below 12. The roster charge only applies during the offseason.

The minimum NBA rookie salary is: $473,604

So using three example teams (Knicks, Miami, Chicago) you come up with a problem in those teams signing players and also sign and trade deals and why they are a problem or a help.

Bulls - 8 players under contract - Cap hit 4 x $473,604 = $1,894,416. So in the Bulls case, there is as much as a 1.9 million dollar incentive to take back your trash players in a sign and trade for JJ. The Bulls could take 4 players from your bench (signed by you) and trade two quality players to you to save themself 3 cap hit in signing JJ. It is lost salary against the cap to them and inhibits their signing another player.

Knicks - 5 players under contract - Cap Hit 7 x $473,604 = $3,315,228. This team gets super tricky in the sign and trade department. It is in their best interest sign and trade their own players to you in signing JJ (see Duhon, Harrington, JJ, House, Rodriguez) in that they can take back extra players from you in doing so as they are under the cap (ie, Bibby - Zaza) and therefore clear up cap space for you. Additionally, you would want to make that trade because you can go over the cap to sign JJ then you can take back players in his stead but you could not just sign those players outright. Additionally, the Knicks are in a worse spot than it looks. They may have tons of cap space but they have to sign 7 players (some rookie with set salaries) in order to meet the minimum roster space requirements. Some of those salaries will have to be decent as they can not sign all low experience players and expect to also sign big name free agents. Those 7 roster spots are deadly to them.

Heat - 6 players under contract - Cap Hit 6 x $473,604 = $2,841,624. Very similar issue as to the Knicks. Even if they signed 2 big name free agents, they will need to fill 4 additional roster spots minimum and there is currently a 2.841 million they can't use to sign players based on cap penalties. Players they could sign and trade in deals included, Jermaine O'neal, Quentin Richardson, Udonis Haslem, Carlos Arroyo, Rafer Alston, Jamal Magloire.

Remember, we do not need to take back equal salary from them in sign and trading JJ, we only need to take back similar salary to what extra pieces are included.

So for an example, the Hawks sign and trade Joe Johnson (at 17 million) and include Bibby, Zaza (roughly 10 million in salary), the Heat sign and trade back Haslem, Richardson, Alston (for let's pretend 16 million total). Miami nets 3 players on their roster making about a 1.4 million dollar improvement in their cap hit situation for signing another player and then filling their roster. The net change to the Hawks is gaining a better backup point guard for our talent, a solid big man in Haslem and a decent part time backup in Richardson.

This is a big deal when considering who can sign, when and where. Just because a team has money to sign 2 big time free agents, they still have to fill out a roster with 9 deep players to compete.

[Guest]

No one talks about roster charges because they are insignificant. Every team eventually needs to have 13 players under contract, these roster charges just ensure that each team will have enough space under the salary cap to fill all 13 roster spots. This is very insignificant when dealing with sign and trades.

Hell, even if NY caps themselves out after signing 2 Max players then they can just use the veteran minimum (a salary cap exception) to fill the remaining 6 roster spots. To them, this isn't a big deal.