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I just saw that noted capologist, Bima Thug, pointed out that Melo is only going to count against the Rockets cap for $1.5 million.

So, a $2.4M vet minimum deal, NBA is paying $0.9M, the Rockets are paying $1.5 and the Hawks are on the hook for $27.8?

So, a $1.5M cap hit and the Rockets still have their full Mid Level Exception?

Yeah, all one year minimum contracts for anyone, besides a teams own second round picks, count as the minimum amount for a player with two years of service, against the cap/tax, which is $1.5M. The league covers the rest. This is to incentivize owners to sign veterans, as before a team deep in the tax would sign an undrafted rookie over a vet, just because it's so much cheaper. Now, as long as it's a one year deal (so Ennis' deal isn't like this), an undrafted rookie and a guy who's been in the league as long as Melo count as the same for a team.
If a player has less than two years of service, his cap hit is always brought up to that of a player that has two YOS, no matter how long the deal is.
Second round picks, however, count as their actual salary. So for example, Melton or Hartenstien would count for $838,464 against the cap this season, but Clark or Duval, would count as $1.5, but they're only actually paid $838,464.

And yes, full tax payer MLE available (~$5.4M). Feigen had a piece today saying they'll likely just use most of it on giving Melton and Hartenstien three year deals and keep the remaining $3.66M for buyouts, which I don't necessarily agree with but we'll see how it works out

I WAS going to say “magician”, but sounds like it’s standard cap stuff under the new CBA, so instead I’ll say, “something New York could never understand”, because that’s still universally true.

How much are the Thunder paying to slip him into the Rocket’s rotation?

OlDirtMcBert wrote:How much are the Thunder paying to slip him into the Rocket’s rotation?

That's between them and Atlanta.

For the Rockets, you know that they'll be watching to see what Melo does in an actual system with not one, but two of the elite playmakers in the game creating for him.