Salary situation next offseason?

madmaxmedia · Post #1 » by **madmaxmedia** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 5:24 pm

Hey cap people, what's the cap situation next offseason? Will we have significant funds available to sign a FA, before hopefully extending Blake and Paul? If so, then I can see why the Clippers ultimately decided to include Gordon in the trade- we get Paul for at least 2 years, and can sign a 3rd piece next offseason anyway.

Whether we extended Gordon or sign a new FA, it's going to put us in luxury tax territory regardless. So if we were going to extend Gordon then there's no reason why we couldn't sign another guy. I just didn't know if we would have the cap room to pursue a big FA, before we re-sign our guys.

We don't absolutely have to find another max contract player, but if Gordon was going to get near or max contract money then I am okay with taking the chances in free agency. To be honest, Gordon is worth near max money perhaps, but is not one of those guys is worth more than max money. Blake and Chris Paul are, we could conceivably land a third. If LA looked good to Chris Paul now, then it will look even better to FA's next offseason.

So just a PURELY hypothetical example (because I don't know who the other prime FA's will be next year)- we trade DJ (or not) and then sign Dwight Howard via FA. Blake and CP3 obviously choose to stay in LA with that signing. Then there's not a person alive who would say the Paul trade was a bad deal.

Post #2 » by **mkwest** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:05 pm

Next year's cap is predicted to be @ $61M.

Paul - $17.8M
Jordan - $10.5M
Williams - $8.5M
Butler - $8M
Griffin - $7.2M
Gomes - $4M
Bledsoe - $1.7M
_____________________
Warren - $820K
Thompkins - $790K
Leslie - $790K

That's 7 guaranteed contracts and 3 unguaranteed players. Guaranteed salary as of today is $57.7M. Total Salary is $60.1M. When you add in the minimum contract roster charges (for empty roster spots/13 rostered players minimum requirement), there is no cap space. Waiving the unguaranteed players does not really free up any cap space. The result would be the same as about a veterans' minimum exception.

The Clippers could use the amnesty on Mo Williams to give us about $7.9M in salary space. We could attempt to trade his salary to a team that could absorb his contract and then use the amnesty on Gomes. This would free up about $11.4M. Take note that these numbers are all estimates so there is room for error. We won't have enough money for a max player.

The only way I could see us getting Dwight Howard is if Orlando opts to not trade him during the season and then he informs them that he is indeed opting out and will be signing elsewhere. We could then attempt to do a S&T of DJ for Howard after using the amnesty clause on Mo Williams. Would Orlando be willing to do that? It really depends. It's better than losing him outright, but DJ will have to show enough improvement this season to prove that he's worth the $10M+ he'll be making yearly.

madmaxmedia · Post #3 » by **madmaxmedia** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 6:53 pm

Gotcha, so we would have been able to re-sign Gordon, Paul, and Blake in that hypothetical situation, but won't have room to add a new max contract FA.

And it would take significant roster tweaking even to free up in the range of $10-11M.

donemilio21 · Post #4 » by **donemilio21** » Thu Dec 15, 2011 7:01 pm

madmaxmedia wrote:Gotcha, so we would have been able to re-sign Gordon, Paul, and Blake in that hypothetical situation, but won't have room to add a new max contract FA.

And it would take significant roster tweaking even to free up in the range of $10-11M.

From a financial perpective; If we still had EJ and exteded him, Blake and Paul our starting 5 would have an estimated salary of $70mil in 2013. Add the bench and we are looking at luxury tax, That's not a Donald Sterling payroll.

RiversideClips · Post #5 » by **RiversideClips** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 12:52 pm

W/ Paul, DJ & Blake wearing the Clipper Jersey I think Vets may want to come to Clipperland for less money.
Even though I bag on Mo Wiliams, I think he is vital this year as the #1 Guard off the bench, he can play either position and it will increase he trade stock for next off season. Bledsoe will replace Mo as the 3rd Guard b/c of injuries not this year. The Clips need to look at getting capable back-ups on the front line w/ any money they have left over.

madmaxmedia · Post #6 » by **madmaxmedia** » Fri Dec 16, 2011 7:41 pm

donemilio21 wrote:
madmaxmedia wrote:Gotcha, so we would have been able to re-sign Gordon, Paul, and Blake in that hypothetical situation, but won't have room to add a new max contract FA.

And it would take significant roster tweaking even to free up in the range of $10-11M.

From a financial perpective; If we still had EJ and exteded him, Blake and Paul our starting 5 would have an estimated salary of $70mil in 2013. Add the bench and we are looking at luxury tax, That's not a Donald Sterling payroll.

If we had kept Eric Gordon in the trade, we would have won at least 40 games for sure this year, and become a championship contender by next season. For that (and all the ticket sales that go with it), I think Sterling would consider keeping all 3. The main problem is the new luxury tax scale.

Someone told me that by trading Odom, the Lakers actually saved $24M or something like that because of the luxury tax hit. So if Gordon would have put us in that sort of territory (we pay him $16M or whatever but the total hit becomes $36M or something like that), then obviously no way that happens.