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Yet again

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Aloha,

Tell me if you have seen this movie before. The Lakers go fishing after the big fish, while smaller fish that could have been useful are snapped up. The Lakers are ultimately unsuccessful and are left with nothing but minnows to choose from.

CBA 101 from a non-expert

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Source NBA.com:

The National Basketball Association today announced that the Salary Cap has been set at $140.588 million for the 2024-25 season. The Tax Level for the 2024‑25 season is $170.814 million.

The Salary Cap and Tax Level go into effect at 12:01 a.m. ET on Monday, July 1. Teams are permitted to begin negotiating with free agents today at 6:00 p.m. ET — six hours prior to the start of the league’s “moratorium period.” The moratorium period ends at noon ET on Saturday, July 6.

The Minimum Team Salary is $126.529 million for the 2024-25 season.
The First Apron Level is $178.132 million for the 2024-25 season.
The Second Apron Level is $188.931 million for the 2024-25 season.
The Collective Bargaining Agreement provides for three different Mid-Level Exceptions depending on a team’s salary level. The Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level for the 2024-25 season is $12.822 million, the Taxpayer Mid-Level is $5.168 million, and the Mid-Level for a team with room under the Salary Cap is $7.983 million.

Okee dokee, so as I understand it, we currently have access to the taxpayer MLE because we are over the 1st apron but under the 2nd. The taxpayer mid-level exception belongs to teams who are above the salary cap and in the first luxury tax apron. Teams above the second apron do not have a mid-level exception. The non-taxpayer mid-level exception belongs to teams who are over the salary cap but not in the first luxury tax apron.

Currently we’re over the 1st apron and about $10 mil under the 2nd so we can use the $5.168 million MLE to sign anyone…if we cut someone since we’re at the maximum roster size. This is because of the cap hits for LeBron, Prince. We could renounce whatever rights we have but I doubt that’s happening.

To gain access to the NTPMLE, worth $12.822 million, we’d need to be above $140.588 but still end up UNDER $170.814 million after we use it, you can’t use that and punch your way into the tax area…which isn’t an actual apron…which makes all of this a lot harder.

If you get all the way under the salary cap itself but above the minimum salary you, are some reason, kind of penalized and I think you only get access to the Room Exception which is the one worth $7.983 mil.

We haven’t even factored in Bronny or Knecht yet, either, right? I’m not 100% sure but I think works out to adding roughly $4.9 mil in added salary on top of the already guaranteed money and the cap holds worth mentioning. If I’m not crazy…no guarantee…that leaves us at $170,229 million in guaranteed salary. So LeBron would have to take a pretty hefty pay cut to keep the salary under $170.814 million and have the room to use the full exception. I believe roughly $20 mil

I am not a cap expert, by any means so please feel free to double-check my math lol. One thing I’m 100% certain of is that somebody needs to be cut in order to free up a physical roster space. That $$$ still counts against the salary cap, it only opens up a roster spot.

Ooops. My brain just exploded.

Not surprised

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Aloha,

I came into this off season with very low expectations. We had no cap space beyond the mini MLE, only 2 distant 1st round picks, only one sizable expiring contract and no young prospects that would interest a rebuilding team.

To make matters worse, it is a weak free agent class. When Klay and Derozan are your big targets. That’s tells you how weak it is. And to top it off there have only been a handful of names on the trade block. The silver lining is we did get a very good prospect in a weak draft.

I guess the good news is, so far we haven’t done anything stupid. Unfortunately Rob has plenty of time left to pull off another boner move.

I had hoped to add a back up center that can bang and perhaps a decent minimum guy of MLE guy that can help. But since every one of our minimum guys opted in, we don’t even have a roster spot available. And as I look at the few rumored players that maybe available in a trade, I don’t see one that would be a big enough upgrade to justify the cost.

Look, this is a pretty good team. Health was a big issue. We generally had at least 3 rotation guys out, sometimes 4 and occasionally 5. And we had a coach that didn’t know how to handle it. Once he finally started the unit he should have all year long, we turned it around and was one of the best teams down the stretch. Even in the playoffs we faced a healthy Nuggets team with 3 guys out. While they weren’t stars, the games were so close that even minor contributions could have turned the tide.

So what do we do? Well, I think we see if we can open up a couple of roster spots and a player or two on the margins. Then hold onto our most tradable assets and see what presents itself as the season progresses. While are not a true contender I think we are a top 6 team. We are already better than the Nuggets and Clippers after they lost important players. We should save our assets for players that could make a difference.

My biggest fear is that Rob will again blow it and do something stupid. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen