Which means basically for a year, or whenever draft day is next summer. No surprise here, Jazz brass (Trader Danny) never really “dangled” LM, they just never said he was off limits. If you play for a team with Ainge as the GM you should probably know, or gain the knowledge, that any player can be had…for the right over-prince.

When that deal didn’t emerge this was the smartest path. Lock him up for 5 years, $238 mil and start building. After this season, depending on how he actually plays (and how much) it will be interesting to see what his market is. $40+ mil for a guy who hasn’t even taken a team to the playoffs is steep. Even LaVine has at least been the key player on playoff rosters. Yes, he’s technically an All-Star…once. So this should be interesting to see unfold.

What doesn’t change is how far under the minimum salary floor the Jazz or that they need to sign at least 2 players in order to meet the minimum roster requirements. Still something brewing over there just hard to discern what it could be.

On our podcast over the weekend the topic of the salary floor came up. I nonchalantly asked the panel if anyone knew what the penalty for not meeting said floor was since I had no clue. LT confidently said, “they just pay the excess into a fund that goes to the league office.” which seemed kind of sensible enough and so I left it at that.

The way my brain works has always been funny, even to me. I generally don’t stop and think about something, it’s more like a kitchen with 8 or 9 dishes in various stages of completion. Throughout the day my mind drifted back to LT’s answer, mainly because the more I thought about it the more it felt out of line with Adam Silver’s campaign to even out competitive balance. The penalties for over-spending felt extremely harsh when compared to “and if you don’t spend enough, just send us a check and we’ll throw ourselves a pizza party!”

So today on my lunch break I did my own research and found that the answer provided to me was incorrect. The penalties for not meeting the NBA minimum salary floor are almost as extreme as pushing past the second apron. I don’t post this just to zing LT, that’s a semi-amusing side effect, at best. I post this because it affects a lot of what could happen in the next month or so. SO here it is, at long last, the not asked for at all rules on the NBA Minimum Salary Floor!!!!!

-Beginning in 2024/25, a team whose salary is below the minimum floor at the start of the regular season won’t receive a share of the end-of-season luxury tax payouts. (last season it was just 50%, this is important because small market owners absolutely rely on this windfall to turn a profit)

-A team whose salary is below the minimum floor at the start of the season will have a cap hold added to its salary in order to reach the minimum floor. For instance, a team with a $117,418,000 salary on opening night in 2023/24 would have a $5MM cap hold added to its salary to reach the $122,418,000 floor and would be unable to immediately access that $5MM of cap room. (For Utah that would be a whopping $21, 983, 000+ million dollar cap hold!)

-A team that begins the season below the floor cannot reduce the shortfall amount it will owe at the end of the season by spending on player salaries during the season. For example, a team that starts the season $5MM below the floor would owe no less than $5MM at the end of the season. The shortfall amount that club owes could increase if its team salary dips further than $5MM below the floor by the end of the season.

So not only would Utah owe nearly $22 mil in league payments they would be denied any payments from the luxury tax pool in addition to having a cap hold imposed on them throughout the season making it more difficult to swing a massive trade or sign someone who is waived. That is nothing to sneeze at folks. Especially for a small market team like the Jazz who aren’t selling out the arena, aren’t the benefactors of a mega local cable market and are one of the more fiscally responsible teams out there.

Now it is possible they could take a one-season hit. After all, Ryan Smith’s net worth is 2.2 billion. It’s just hard for me to see a guy who knows how money works simply throw money away or sacrifice his GM’s team building flexibility.

All of this is to say I expect the Jazz to be involved in some kind of deal where they absorb salary for the cost of a couple picks, maybe even a 1st rounder or 2 . The are plenty of (Zach LaVine) contracts out there that a team would be happy (Zach LaVine) to move (Zach) for a draft pick without taking back more than one (LaVine) player (Zach LaVine). Maybe Zach LaVine…? They can send out my man Jordan Clarkson and balance out the roster and sign some decent talent from the Olympics. It’d be great to see Wenyan get back into the NBA or something like that.

Well, at least we didn’t lose Cam Reddish! Rob has been utterly out GM’d this summer by the entire Association. Putting a lotta eggs in the “better health/no regression” baskets. We’ll see how that works out. Seems like getting Tyus for the cost of moving Cam via a 2nd rounder would have been worth it given our seeming intent to trade DLo and Vincent’s health concerns coupled with Reaves being only decent at running the point. But what do I know?

Reality begins to set in for the click bait crowd. Took ’em long enough…

Utah won’t be trading LM unless it’s for a “can’t refuse offer”. Unlikely the Lakers have one they can offer, if they even wanted to in the first place. Also it’s unlikely most teams see that as doing good business when they’d have to turn around and pay him a ton of money for what was essentially one good season. He could just as easily be the next BI where he does well enough on a bad team but either can’t stay on the floor or can’t win at the playoff level. Or both, since he hasn’t managed to get there on Utah.

Chicago “resigned” to starting the season with LaVine. So much for getting draft picks for taking him on? Honestly, Chicago might as well wait and try and rehab his value. They have this odd belief they’re on the cusp of contending. Which I don’t get at all.

Speaking of Mr. Ingram, BI likely to stay in NOLA. Again, not surprising. He took a step back and nobody is probably excited to offer him a multi year max contract and/or send NOLA the haul they likely feel entitled to for him in a trade. Might as well hold onto your picks and let the market dictate his value next summer.

Welcome to the new CBA, folks. Big contracts for under-performing players are the new albatross in ways we can only imagine to actual GMs. It’s funny when the league signs an incredibly profitable deal and the players probably won’t see the half of it in terms of salaries simply because they agreed to a max 10% cap growth every season. 15-20% probably would have made more sense.

Also, shout out to whomever owns TNT for suing the league when they rejected the match. Hard for Silver to arbitrate the oddity that is the Timberwolves not selling to the A-Rod group now since this is, basically, the same thing.

Gotta love the dog days man…

Might be the best fit for him if his goal is to win a ring, could end up starting which is important to him. Takes a lotta pressure of Jokic and Murray in the first 3 quarters. Would be surprised if he ended up anywhere else.

After listening to Tom tell me how bananas I was for suggesting quality NBA players may not sign for the vet minimum but rather play for a lot more money overseas (and how that idea was stupid, I believe, his words lol) today we see that Pat Bev is considering playing overseas for a lot more money than the vet minimum.

Wow. How surprised am I? Zero, it doesn’t take a genius to understand (or I dunno, maybe it does and I’m a genius?) that these guys aren’t video game trade chips that just do whatever you want or tell them to do in your mind. They have a tremendous amount of pride, they have a small window to earn money playing a game, most of them aren’t all that worried about where the paycheck comes from. They do worry about the size.

So if you want to keep playing with other people’s money, feel free. It’s never really been a game that interests me. These guys will find paydays and some agents might get fired. The NBA free agency is like an ever more dangerous game of musical chairs. Money that was on the table 10 minutes ago is gone now, you sat too slowly.

I don’t believe Pat Bev will be the exception, I think that, at this point in the summer and seeing how most teams have zipped up the cap space, you can either choose the Schroeder Route (play overseas, rehab value, get in earlier the following summer, maybe do well in FIBA if at all possible).

La Melo played overseas rather college or the G-League. There is money to be made and no salary cap to strop you from maximizing what you believe your worth top be. You can play in a vacation destination like Spain or Australia all while playing a decent role for the game you love. Heck, you might be the “star” of the team.

This is the flip side of globalization, that good players aren’t forced to play for pennies. They do have options.

Patrick Beverley Weighing 'Historic' European Contract amid NBA Free Agency Offers

It would take DLO and Rui and probably at least 2 unprotected FRPs. Maybe some more swaps. BI likely looking for the max extension which, between Bron, AD and that deal ($60 something mil).

Anyhoo, I am of the opinion we are probably either a few ponies short, would balk at the price of that odd-fitting trio, the optics of giving up as much for BI as we did AD, the difficulty of building a decent team once we rocket past the 2nd apron just to keep Reaves or any number of logical reasons why we wouldn’t make that deal but it’s the dog days and I’m bored.

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.

With the news that Christian Wood and Jaxon Hayes are opting in on very cheap/cap friendly deals I think we need to look almost exclusively at wings and big, mobile guards under 87 years old. That takes Klay and CP3 out of the mix. With the Lakers extending Castleton the 2 way QO it shows they intend to keep him unless another team actually offers him a contract (and maybe even they choose to match it). At the very least it looks like they did the young man a solid by guaranteeing him a raise if someone else wants him.

AD, Jax and Wood, LeBron and Vando are enough big bodies. Between the 4 there’s enough good, shooting and skill to compete in the regular season. If we have the ponies for LM from Utah or KO from Toronto I’d be cool with that, I’d also be cool trading one if Wood or Jax along with Rui to Chicago for Vucevic.

But then we have to use the MLE, should it be available, on a wing. Kinda doubt Tobias Harris will come for the full MLE but we could slot DeMar DeRozan at the 3 (doubt he’d be happy coming off the bench, at least to start the season but who knows…insert wish for a coach who has done this before and understands how to talk to vets properly…) but that still trends toward old and under-sized. Grant looks too pricey given his impact in winning but there’s an argument that it’s his situation and not specifically him. Still, not sure we have the ponies for that race.

So here’s a list, in no particular order, of wings under 35 who can contribute on both ends that could be had for the MLE (IMO):
-Precious Achiuwa
-Tobias Harris (this one is a stretch in logic honestly)
-Kelly Oubre (personal top choice)
-Saddiq Bay
-Naji Marshall (could challenge for a starting spot honestly)

Staying away from the Covington’s and Hayward’s as my hope is we get younger and not older and that we focus as much in defense as much as shooting.

With nothing but the contracts of Hachimura (semi-valuable), Gabe Vincent (barely played), Jarred Vanderbilt (barely played but with still decent upside) and the Tax-Payer MLE were basically running it back. Could we see some trades in a week? Maybe, but Rob is either too slow to pull the trigger or teams aren’t interested in our talent and/or picks still 5 years out. Compounding the issue is we still can’t offer salary relief the season after next for anyone except Russell, whom we have all acknowledged would be difficult to replace.