RealGM

this luxary tax thing, I understand that nobody wants to pay the extra tax, but if an owner is willing to pay it, can he just make an offer to any player that is available or do the rules actually say no you can not spend beyond what the league says you can spend on an available player?

the reason I ask is because our defense sucks with and without Bynum and Ariza. there I said it. if you disagree refer to the Celtics game at Staples.

I have all the faith in the world in the offense because even when they have a crappy shooting night they still put the points up, but we need help in the defensive end.

although it would cause some issues Artest is looking very appealing.

If your over the cap then no you cannot just make an offer to any player if you do not have his birds right. You can sign him by using the MLE. Usually teams go over the cap by signing one of their young players to a max contract or near it. If we did sign someone like artest it would have to be a sign and trade and we would have to send off someone like Odom because the salaries have to match.

I thought MLE was just a set amount of money that the league gives teams over the cap that would not be penalized.

anyway I would trade Odom for Artest at this point, our defense is a joke.

snaquille oatmeal wrote:I thought MLE was just a set amount of money that the league gives teams over the cap that would not be penalized.

anyway I would trade Odom for Artest at this point, our defense is a joke.

That's why i said if the player is willing to accept the MLE then you can sign them but if your over the cap then you cant just sign any player unless you do a sign and trade or if you have their birds right.

Well there is a salary cap and a luxury threshold. Teams cant exceed the Salary Cap to sign players but they can go over the cap via trades and signing players that they own already ( bird rights).


The MLE is an exception or a tool given to those teams that are over the cap to sign player (s). Teams under the Salary Cap are not given this exception.

Pretty much you have to use the Salary Cap as your tool but you can be creative and risk going over the lux tax. You basically pay dollar for dollar over the luxury cap and those funds are redistributed to other teams in the league.

If you are 10 million over the lux , your bill is 20 million. It is just a luxury for teams to have more salary but pay the price.

Intresting that you think our defense sucks with our without bynum and ariza. Pointing to that game at staples vs boston. We got our ass handed to us. I think we can improve our defense internally. Also we havent had a chance to play with lamar, pau and bynum all on the court at the same time and that will make a huge difference on our defense. I think Ariza would of had a huge roll last night in portland.

As far as the cap goes, we're gonna be way over it. Also Ronny and Sasha being unrestricted free agents this coming summer. There gonna get raises here or somewhere else.

Phil_2.0 wrote:Well there is a salary cap and a luxury threshold. Teams cant exceed the Salary Cap to sign players but they can go over the cap via trades and signing players that they own already ( bird rights).


The MLE is an exception or a tool given to those teams that are over the cap to sign player (s). Teams under the Salary Cap are not given this exception.

Pretty much you have to use the Salary Cap as your tool but you can be creative and risk going over the lux tax. You basically pay dollar for dollar over the luxury cap and those funds are redistributed to other teams in the league.

If you are 10 million over the lux , your bill is 20 million. It is just a luxury for teams to have more salary but pay the price.

Thanks for clearing that up Phil .

I was confused on it too.

Any team above the salary cap has to use an exception to sign a free agent. That's a structural limitation, circumvented by exceptions, such as the MLE, biannual exception, Bird exception, disabled player exception. The trade exception can't be used to sign a free agent, but it can be used to match salaries to facilitate a trade. All these exceptions allow a team to exceed the salary cap.

Luxury threshold is set at a higher amount - for every dollar a team exceeds that (this year is at 68m I think), the league levies a tax which serves as a penalty to discourage bigger markets teams from stacking a team - an unfair advantage over small market teams that can't spend that much.

Regarding Artest or any other possible free agent this summer, we can use either exceptions (up to the 5-6m MLE) or engage in a sign-and-trade agreement, to whatever amount Buss is willing to pay (including the luxury tax).

I believe we're already a luxury tax payer due to the Gasol trade, so from this point forth, all the players we extend or acquire are going to cost the Lakers double.

This summer, whatever offers Sasha and Turiaf get, it's going to cost the Lakers double the amount to match them. If we keep Odom, apply that to Bynum and Ariza next summer as well.

If our defense is a joke, the Sun's defense is SNL on crack.