Room MLE added back against Cap Space?

Smitty731
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Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#1 » by Smitty731 » Thu Jun 19, 2014 5:49 pm

This topic came up on the Trade board...

If a team is under the cap and thus has the Room MLE available to them, is it added back against their cap space?

The real example right now is Philadelphia. They should open the offseason with ~21.7 million in space. Is the Room MLE of ~2.7 million added back against them leaving them with ~19 million in space?

As Knosh stated on the Trade board, the CBA FAQ is worded a bit weird there. I've always taken it that all MLE and TPEs are added back against the space. Some seem to think there is an exception for the Room MLE.

I seem to ask these things in a confusing way, so if I need to claify further, let me know. I tweeted Larry Coon for clarification too. He's pretty great about responding usually, so we'll see what the Guru says.
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#2 » by DBoys » Thu Jun 19, 2014 6:32 pm

no
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#3 » by Smitty731 » Thu Jun 19, 2014 11:40 pm

Can you explain how we know this? I think you are right, but I wanted to see something somewhere that states this. I'm fairly certain the FAQ doesn't say it. I've looked all over.
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#4 » by DBoys » Fri Jun 20, 2014 2:12 am

It's in the CBA. Haven't looked up where. But it's use and function are logical, let me see if I can explain.

By definition, it would be worthless for a room team to have a Room MLE if it used up cap space. The reason is, when a team's total "Team Salary" (committed salary, cap holds, empty roster slot charges, plus exceptions) is still less than the cap limit, those exceptions get tossed in the trash and turned into cap room. For example, if a team has 50M in salary/holds in a 60M cap year, it's always preferable to have $10M of cap room rather than a 5M MLE, 2M BAE, and 3M of cap room.

In that same situation, where they've fallen below the cap and renounced their other exceptions, the team gets awarded a Room Mid-Level Exception. But if it ate up 2.7M of cap space, no team would ever get (or want) one - - it would always be automatically renounced so that the team would keep their full 10M in space rather than have their spending chopped up into 7.3 in space and 2.7 in a separate exception.

Instead, the Room Mid-Level Exception is unavailable/unused until a team nears the cap and wants to spend a bigger chunk of payroll (up to ~2.7M) than they have in cap room. When used, the salary in the Room MLE contract adds to the team's total Team Salary and therefore can use up any available remaining cap room, so it would never be used until a team is less than ~2.7M under the cap, or have already otherwise gone over the cap with their spending. Then they are using it to add a player to the roster which leaves them over the cap, which is the very purpose of an "exception" to the cap on salaries. (A team can NEVER add a player to the roster, and end up more than 100,000 over the cap line, without using an "exception" that permits them to add that player.)
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#5 » by ep1987 » Fri Jun 20, 2014 3:08 am

Exceptions are a means of exceeding the cap.

When a team has cap room they cannot use exceptions. When they exhaust their cap room room mle is granted.

Of course if they have $1m in cap room and wish to sign a player for $2m they will have to use room mle. The remaining amount (~620k last season) amount would only have one use; to sign a rookie 2nd round pick to a 3 or 4 year deal.
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#6 » by DBoys » Fri Jun 20, 2014 4:16 am

ep1987 wrote: if they have $1m in cap room and wish to sign a player for $2m they will have to use room mle. The remaining amount (~620k last season) amount would only have one use; to sign a rookie 2nd round pick to a 3 or 4 year deal.


Won't work, and teams wouldn't do it that way.

The team who had $1M in cap room would first use some of the $1M to sign that 3-4 year deal. That also expands their ability to spend on that 3-4 year deal, from 620K up to 1M, and sometimes the extra bit up front can be the edge to get some concessions on the back end of the deal. (See Parsons, C.)

Then they would use the Room MLE.

Also, it should be noted that if they did it the other way around and tried to use the leftover 620K of the Room MLE on the deal, they couldn't tie up the player with yrs 3 and 4. Room MLE and Minimum Exception deals have a different salary limit but the same limit on years, which is 2.
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#7 » by MarkDeeks » Sun Jun 29, 2014 1:59 pm

The CBA lists all the unused exceptions that count in team salary calculations, and the room exception isn't in the list.
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#8 » by Smitty731 » Sun Jun 29, 2014 7:21 pm

MarkDeeks wrote:The CBA lists all the unused exceptions that count in team salary calculations, and the room exception isn't in the list.


TPEs are in that list? Or do they disappear once a team is under the cap, similar to the way the Tax or Non-Tax MLE are converted to the Room?
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Re: Room MLE added back against Cap Space? 

Post#9 » by DBoys » Sun Jun 29, 2014 11:59 pm

Smitty731 wrote:
MarkDeeks wrote:The CBA lists all the unused exceptions that count in team salary calculations, and the room exception isn't in the list.


TPEs are in that list? Or do they disappear once a team is under the cap, similar to the way the Tax or Non-Tax MLE are converted to the Room?


http://www.nbpa.com/cba/2011

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