We've been using a figure of $10.5mil. But I checked the asterisk on Larry Coon and didn't catch this one detail
Larry Bird, except when coming off rookie scale contract At least the average salary 150% of his previous salary*
Footnote says....
* Not to exceed the player's maximum salary, based on years of service (see question number 11). If the difference in salary between the last two seasons of the player's contract exceeded $4 million, then the percentage is based on the average salary in the last two seasons of the contract.
Well Lee's cap % hit is not to exceed Maximum Salary based on yrs of service using 25% of the new $56.1mil projected figure. Since Lee is only a 5th year player he's entitled to $14.025mil.<-----Pay attention to that figure here's where it gets dicey....Before we gave Lee $7mil this year he had a QO of $2.7mil(2009-2010) and a salary of $1,788,033(2008-2009). Now if you take either of those two figures his QO or his 2008-2009 salary and subtract it from $7mil you will have a bigger difference than $4mil... but let's use both for this example
Link to Lee and Nate's QO's ---------> QO's
~$7,000,000
-$2,700,000
$4,300,000
or
~$7,000,000
-$1,788,033
$5,211,967
For the record I don't think his QO salary pertains here because it would have been a 2009-2010 salary not qualifying as "last 2 seasons" or the difference would have been bewteen $2.7 and $1,788,033.....
but with example given both figures are greater than $4mil. Well you know what that means according to Larry Coon's breakdown above? You have to take the average of the last 2 seasons....
2009-2010/$7,000,000 + 2008-2009(Sal)$1,788,033=$8,788,033/2=$4,394,017 *
^^^^^^The figure in bold is not
Larry Bird, except when coming off rookie scale contract At least the average salary 150% of his previous salary*
Therefore
The other LC rule applies which is....
Larry Bird, except when coming off rookie scale contract Below the average salary 200% of his previous salary*
Lee's $7mil * 200% comes to $14mil just right under $14.025mil
Bye Lee
Now you may be thinking Oh no why did you go on such a witch hunt for this info. Well I didn't. I read this article from Sheridan and thought he was wrong and wanted to verify the info
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york/knicks/post/_/id/30/barring-trade-knicks-roster-will-have-seven-keepers-after-july-1
Funny thing is I'm pretty positive he applied the same 200% rule to Duhon and No Sharrington except they make At least the average salary and have the past 2 seasons... so their hits should be 150%
Anyway check out this article from Sheridan
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/14992/the-knicks-secret-weapon-the-unlikely-bonus