RealGM

Well the posts and discussions about this will start, so might as well get it going.

Salary

Fully On Contract ($77.2M):

Chris Paul - $22.9M
Blake Griffin - $20.1M
DeAndre Jordan - $21.2M
JJ Redick - $7.4M
Paul Pierce - $3.5M
CJ Wilcox - $1.2M
Branden Dawson - $874K

On Contract - Player Option ($5.7M):

Austin Rivers - $3.3M
Cole Aldrich - $1.2M
Wesley Johnson - $1.2M

Dead Cap Space ($1.4M):

Delfino / Farmar / Raduljica

Total Salary:

$84.3M

Projected Salary Cap:

$92M

Luxury Tax:

$111M

Free Agents / Cap Hold:

Jeff Green ($14M hold)
Jamal Crawford ($10.8M hold)
Luc Richard ($980k hold)
Pablo Prigiono ($980k hold)
Jeff Ayres ($980k hold)

Maximum cap space (if all free agents renounced): $7.6M
Maximum cap space (all players decline options + if all free agents renounced): $13.3M
Maximum cap space (all decline, all renounce + rookie contracts): ~$11.3M
Salary + MLE hold + BAE hold: $92.1 million
Salary - opt outs + exceptions holds: $86.4 million
Room under luxury with exceptions: $18.9 million




Draft

First Round: 25th pick

Second Round: 33rd pick

thanks for this!

how much do we expect our two rookies next year will cost us in cap space?

I believe the 25th pick is $1.1M and a second round pick is about the minimum, so maybe like $2M total. Moving Pierce would also open up $3.5M

So if you add the max cap space + rookie contracts, there's about $11.3M that could possible be available (I added that to the OP). Add moving Pierce for space and we can get up to $14.8M

Pierce can also retire, but also go on the voluntary retired list and forfeit his contract so that the Clippers get out of it. He also can't play for a year in that scenario unless all 30 teams agree to let him.

yeah makes sense. doesn't seem like we'll have a whole lot to work no matter what the team does.

i mean, you could probably grab a solid 5th core player for the 14.8 then add minimum contracts around him and hope guys like cj/branden fill some roles. if they did that'd be fantastic, and we likely would be better off than we were this year. but doc hitting on min contract guys is an exercise in daydreaming, so i don't see a lot of opportunity there.

i kind of expect that the guys who were had for cheap this year and could help greatly next year (luc/cole/austin) are just gonna be plain gone, and that's gonna hurt.

I'm not too certain the Clippers will go that way, but don't only think of who can be signed with a theoretical $14.8 million, also think of who can be traded for if teams are trying to clear space for some big free agents.

Just to add a couple of things.

Only the cap hold of the 1st round pick counts against the cap heading into free-agency. The 2nd rounder doesn't count against the cap until he is signed.

List of Draft Pick Cap Holds

Rookie minimum salary is $543,471. That amount is also known as the Roster Charge amount. For every roster spot under 12, a roster charge must be added into the team salary. For example, if we have 7 players under contract and our 1st round pick, we'd be 4 players under the 12 minimum. As a result, there would be 4 roster charges added to the salary totaling ~$2.17M.

Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (Under the tax apron) - $5.628M starting salary, up to 4 years, 4.5% raises.
Bi-Annual Exception - $2.203M starting salary, up to 2 years, 4.5% raises.
Room Exception (if we end up using cap space) - $2.898M starting salary, up to 2 years, 4.5% raises.

i think one thing we have to look forward to is the continued development of blake and dj. i think it was pretty clear blake was having an mvp-level season before his injury. dj i was really not too pleased about for a lot of the year, but toward the end he showed a lot of improvement on both sides of the ball.

i don't see cp3 regressing much, but if blake and dj continue to make some leaps, we can be pleased about that.

I wouldn't think much of the capspace we can open, to have about $7-9M we'd have to renounce half our roster and the difference between that and the MLE is not worth it. Rather try too keep some of the useful pieces we had this year than getting a middling player and then have to rebuild everything up with minimum players. Also have in mind that the cap jump is gonna devalue capspace quite a bit: a player that you usually got for $10M is gonna cost $15M now, so those ~$8M we can open will be a player who'd usually be valued around the MLE. Even if we were able to get to those $14M you guys mention, who's there to get for them? Marvin Williams, if that? not worth it to gut half the roster.

There's not a lot of thinking to do for this offseason to be honest, try to hit on the picks (I'd definitely try to move up if possible by the way), try to keep Austin/Aldrich/Wes/Luc for cheap if possible, or try to divide the MLE between the last 3 if not, and try not to mess too much with next year's capspace. Not a lot of different options available to think too much about it.

I'd try to keep Jeff Green, but only if he accepts a one year contract, I wouldn't mind giving him $12-15M for next year if we can get out of his contract for next offseason. There's been some rumors around that the Wolves are gonna try to pursue Jamal, so as much as a lovable guy as he is, I'd be happy to see him go to a good situation. He ended the season saying he has unfinished business here and wants to stay, so we'll probably keep him. Hopefully it's a one year deal too.

Oh, by the way, if the Celtics want to get Paul Pierce to retire there, I hope Doc hardballs them and squeezes every unreasonable asset he can for it, no feel good favors to make Pierce happy. Sorry Paul, but we still remember Danny Ainge being a dick in the Austin trade.

For the MLE candidates, I really like Solomon Hill from the Pacers as a two way wing from the bench, and if not maybe I'd go for a Jason Smith/Trevor Booker type to cover the back-up PF hole.

Most important thing is not to do anything stupid messing up with the core, hopefully they'll see it like that too.

not sure how austin's bird rights work since we had his mini bird in the previous season, but aren't we eligible to offer only modest raises for cole/luc/wes? i can't imagine any of them take paltry salaries when teams will likely offer a lot more money.

I think we have full bird rights with Austin, it was weirder last year because the Pelicans had renounced his rookie option, but right now we have his full rights.

We only have the non-bird rights of Cole/Wes/Luc, so we couldn't offer more than 120% of this year's salary (the minimum). My idea'd be to offer Luc and Wes the minimum again and negotiate with Cole up until the mini-MLE. My previous thought was more about if you're using the capspace, you not only have to renounce their rights, you also have to have them wait for an offer while you negotiate with whatever other FA you want to get, and they'll probably be gone by the time you're ready to talk to them.

QRich3 wrote:I think we have full bird rights with Austin, it was weirder last year because the Pelicans had renounced his rookie option, but right now we have his full rights.

We only have the non-bird rights of Cole/Wes/Luc, so we couldn't offer more than 120% of this year's salary (the minimum). My idea'd be to offer Luc and Wes the minimum again and negotiate with Cole up until the mini-MLE. My previous thought was more about if you're using the capspace, you not only have to renounce their rights, you also have to have them wait for an offer while you negotiate with whatever other FA you want to get, and they'll probably be gone by the time you're ready to talk to them.

They wouldn't renounce the rights until they agree in principle with any possible free agent that they would be after, that's the way to go. If course there's the risk of losing guys to other teams while trying to get a FA, but if you go into the market with cap and Paul/Griffin/DJ, you should get suitors. Of course the issue is that the FA market is not that rich at the positions the Clippers would be hoping for.

Guys like Mbah and Johnson whether or not you renounce their rights is irrelevant if you are going to be offering them the minimum. Cole is a different story though, but considering he can't be had for the minimum again or 120% of the min, it won't matter either, the team will have to use an exception or space to sign him.

I think the team should also consider moving Redick if the right opportunity comes along. I know it seems like a crazy thing to say since I do love Redick, but getting bigger (with talent) at the wing is probably something this team needs, and Redick is a very good player.

The Clippers can clear space and have the room exception and the bi-annual exception I believe. The team could also have the MLE unless and until they renounce it, but obviously all those exceptions would take away from your cap space. Just about everyone wil be well under the tax that so I don't think anyone will have the mMLE.

Redick has been my outside the box trade candidate heading into this summer. I've been probably his biggest supporter, but he's in the final year at a great price and his amazing shooting has masked his injury concerns. I think he could bring back 2 solid bench pieces and then we look for another dead-eye shooter who isn't as good as JJ and likely is a liability defensively to play with the starters.

og15 wrote:They wouldn't renounce the rights until they agree in principle with any possible free agent that they would be after, that's the way to go. If course there's the risk of losing guys to other teams while trying to get a FA, but if you go into the market with cap and Paul/Griffin/DJ, you should get suitors. Of course the issue is that the FA market is not that rich at the positions the Clippers would be hoping for.

Guys like Mbah and Johnson whether or not you renounce their rights is irrelevant if you are going to be offering them the minimum. Cole is a different story though, but considering he can't be had for the minimum again or 120% of the min, it won't matter either, the team will have to use an exception or space to sign him.

Well, they would have to renounce Austin, Green and Jamal, which I mentally included when I said "useful pieces", but even with guys like Luc and Cole, if you go into June 1st trying to negotiate with free agent X with your capspace, you run the risk that Cole and Luc and Wes agree to terms with Brooklyn or Denver or whoever before you're ready to talk to them. That was along the lines of what I meant to say.

I wouldn't trade Redick unless it was for a bigger piece, and I'm not sure what player of those traits would be available. I'm never a fan of trading a good player for two lesser guys. Getting depth is a lot easier than getting core pieces, even if it's been very difficult for us.

Nope, not for depth, I don't care about depth, I mean trading Redick for another good player, maybe packaged with a pick. I haven't looked through the options, but I wouldn't be against it even though he's one of my fav Clippers.

Guys like Luc and Wes don't tend to go off the market on July 1st. There should be guys like them as well as guys like Darell Arthur, etc who are still available.

I believe we signed Wes July 7th and Cole was July 13th, same with Luc in his original contact with Sacramento. Josh Smith lingered for long. Two seasons ago Ed Davis was around for some time. Usually there's a little lag until the major FA's fall into place.

I believe the team is close to the real deal so you keep the core 4 guys. sign cole and green. use the rest to get a starting 3 and a pg who can defend and run an offense. I am sorry I just do not think Austin is a good fit for the clips for a number of reasons. I would give it one more try with this group before I go to the start over route.

I believe the team is close to the real deal so you keep the core 4 guys. sign cole and green. use the rest to get a starting 3 and a pg who can defend and run an offense. I am sorry I just do not think Austin is a good fit for the clips for a number of reasons. I would give it one more try with this group before I go to the start over route.

og15 wrote:Nope, not for depth, I don't care about depth, I mean trading Redick for another good player, maybe packaged with a pick. I haven't looked through the options, but I wouldn't be against it even though he's one of my fav Clippers.

Interesting. Taking a quick look at players in the $5-12M range (assuming we can include Pierce's about-to-retire salary and Wilcox), I don't see many options that I would trade for Redick and a pick. I'd say no to Chandler, Shumpert, Aminu and Evans. Would think long about Bradley, but would probably say no in the end, and I'd probably say yes to MKG if the Hornets made him available for that package, same with Crowder and Porter. Guys like Green and Iguodala are not leaving the Spurs & Warriors probably. Can't see anyone else that's remotely possible or realistic, some of the ones I mentioned are already a stretch I think.

mattd13, well if you sign Cole and Green that might be all the money you have. Green shouldn't get more than $5-6 million a year for his play, he really shouldn't, though he probably will, maybe...

Cole can get about $4-5 million per year, if the Clippers give him that they have to use the MLE. So after this the team will only have the bi-annual exception (about 2 million) and minimum contracts.

One thing that can't be done though is give multiple year deals to guys like Crawford and Green, that would be bad

I don't despise Austin like some, he's a survivable player, but he's obviously not a PG. If you keep Jamal, then Austin has to be a backup PG, and I'm not a fan of that, though I don't believe Doc has an issue with it.

I am not opposed to letting green go if he is not willing to sign for the right price. I would also give him a chance to start. with a full preseason he might be able to buy in and play with that group. cole however, I believe is the guy you do not let go. he is just to good of a back to lose and his kind are hard to find. jamal stays because he has nowhere to go and will be easy to sign. he wants to be here. Austin is a toss up because of doc, but he really needs to move on. I am sure doc will bring in guys and find players to fill out the roster. hopefully some will surprise and we do well.