RealGM

With Battle getting guaranteed and Martin signing a two-way I thought it a good time to post an update. Does not include non-guaranteed deals. One open roster spot.

Agbaji isn't a PF?

For a non-playoff team, just a terrible cap situation - Looks like Mr. Simmons is bang-on with his assessment.

Thaddy wrote:Agbaji isn't a PF?

Depth chart is open to interpretation

causal_fan wrote:For a non-playoff team, just a terrible cap situation - Looks like Mr. Simmons is bang-on with his assessment.

It's hard to deny that there are some big numbers in the SL, but as long as they float under the tax line it isn't really an issue. They are still pretty nimble. None of the contracts are terrible (untradable) on their own, but the cumulative effect of IQ, BI and Yak is a little jarring.

Battle counts as a 2 year veteran minimum since he wasn't a drafted player, so we're about 300k further into the tax than shown there.

I like the depth on the squad. I think there's 13 potential rotation players on the main roster (basically everyone except Temple). Should be a lot of internal battles for minutes and they should be able to overcome some injuries better. .

We were a tax paying team around this time in 2021, coming off an even worse season of 27 wins in another country, with $19 million tied up in a bum who didn't even want to play. And I truly do not remember this much hand-wringing about the cap. Just a reasonable expectation that we will probably try to duck the tax by season's end. There is a lot of feigned ignorance at play with all the cap discourse as well as an inability to mentally adjust for salaries with an increased cap.

dhackett1565 wrote:Battle counts as a 2 year veteran minimum since he wasn't a drafted player, so we're about 300k further into the tax than shown there.

Interesting. I've not seen that anywhere and I've looked at multiple sources.

bluerap23 wrote:

dhackett1565 wrote:Battle counts as a 2 year veteran minimum since he wasn't a drafted player, so we're about 300k further into the tax than shown there.

Interesting. I've not seen that anywhere and I've looked at multiple sources.

D-Hack knows what he's talking about, so you can take it to the bank. It's basically like hearing it from Blake himself.

bluerap23 wrote:

dhackett1565 wrote:Battle counts as a 2 year veteran minimum since he wasn't a drafted player, so we're about 300k further into the tax than shown there.

Interesting. I've not seen that anywhere and I've looked at multiple sources.

He was converted last season, so this would be his second season.

It's also worth noting that any money paid the non-guaranteed will also accrue towards the tax.

causal_fan wrote:For a non-playoff team, just a terrible cap situation - Looks like Mr. Simmons is bang-on with his assessment.

Unless you are the Pacers, pathologically afraid of the tax to the point of losing good talent, you shouldn't be losing sleep over this. The tax rebate last season was disappointingly small (I think it was $13 million), call it the apron effect. Also, the players got more than their contracted 51% of BRI so the owners got to keep the players' escrow money. All of which is to say if the team happens to pay a bit of tax this year, so what. They just shouldn't be an over-the-apron team or become a repeater next season. If the team is any good, say, .500 or better, it also stands to make at least a few dollars of playoff money.

We are not a team that signs other team's better free agents, and we have all of our future draft picks. The future cap situation is reasonable. Could be better, could be worse. And this summer's free agent market was pitiful. We didn't miss out on anything.

Also, the crooks at Rogers are going to rake in the money. It's started already.

https://torontosun.com/sports/baseball/toronto-blue-jays/playoff-push-rogers-gouging-sportsnet-subscribers

TakeYourHeart wrote:We were a tax paying team around this time in 2021, coming off an even worse season of 27 wins in another country, with $19 million tied up in a bum who didn't even want to play. And I truly do not remember this much hand-wringing about the cap. Just a reasonable expectation that we will probably try to duck the tax by season's end. There is a lot of feigned ignorance at play with all the cap discourse as well as an inability to mentally adjust for salaries with an increased cap.

I know you probably knew this already even though you didn't outright clarify it in your post, but the Raptors ducked the tax by the end of the 2021-22 season with the Thad Young trade, and they will do the same this year. Except this time, ideally without trading down and out of the 1st round.

tecumseh18 wrote:

bluerap23 wrote:

dhackett1565 wrote:Battle counts as a 2 year veteran minimum since he wasn't a drafted player, so we're about 300k further into the tax than shown there.

Interesting. I've not seen that anywhere and I've looked at multiple sources.

D-Hack knows what he's talking about, so you can take it to the bank. It's basically like hearing it from Blake himself.

in this case bluerap23 has the right number, its a 5% raise on the 1 yr minimum salary of last year.

Jerry Lucas wrote:

TakeYourHeart wrote:We were a tax paying team around this time in 2021, coming off an even worse season of 27 wins in another country, with $19 million tied up in a bum who didn't even want to play. And I truly do not remember this much hand-wringing about the cap. Just a reasonable expectation that we will probably try to duck the tax by season's end. There is a lot of feigned ignorance at play with all the cap discourse as well as an inability to mentally adjust for salaries with an increased cap.

I know you probably knew this already even though you didn't outright clarify it in your post, but the Raptors ducked the tax by the end of the 2021-22 season with the Thad Young trade, and they will do the same this year. Except this time, ideally without trading down and out of the 1st round.

If we are only 800k-1mill over the tax come opening day, why is it imperative to duck the tax this yr. With another 10% cap raise next yr with no big extensions it's not like we'll be in the tax next yr so we won't have to deal with repeater issues.
It doesn't make sense to lose a trade or a player over tax money,

I feel like a lot of y'all aren't taking in the nuances of this new tax/apron climate
I bring this up cuz Bobby spoke of the tax line as if it isn't the boogie man anymore, it's the Aprons

DreamTeam09 wrote:

Jerry Lucas wrote:

TakeYourHeart wrote:We were a tax paying team around this time in 2021, coming off an even worse season of 27 wins in another country, with $19 million tied up in a bum who didn't even want to play. And I truly do not remember this much hand-wringing about the cap. Just a reasonable expectation that we will probably try to duck the tax by season's end. There is a lot of feigned ignorance at play with all the cap discourse as well as an inability to mentally adjust for salaries with an increased cap.

I know you probably knew this already even though you didn't outright clarify it in your post, but the Raptors ducked the tax by the end of the 2021-22 season with the Thad Young trade, and they will do the same this year. Except this time, ideally without trading down and out of the 1st round.

If we are only 800k-1mill over the tax come opening day, why is it imperative to duck the tax this yr. With another 10% cap raise next yr with no big extensions it's not like we'll be in the tax next yr so we won't have to deal with repeater issues.
It doesn't make sense to lose a trade or a player over tax money,

I feel like a lot of y'all aren't taking in the nuances of this new tax/apron climate
I bring this up cuz Bobby spoke of the tax line as if it isn't the boogie man anymore, it's the Aprons

Being over the tax doesn’t have the implications for roster flexibility and making moves like being over the aprons do.

But for a financially focused ownership group, missing out on the tax redistribution payments because you are $800,000 over the tax line would be a stain on Bobby’s performance review.

As fans, we should not care.

DreamTeam09 wrote:

Jerry Lucas wrote:

TakeYourHeart wrote:We were a tax paying team around this time in 2021, coming off an even worse season of 27 wins in another country, with $19 million tied up in a bum who didn't even want to play. And I truly do not remember this much hand-wringing about the cap. Just a reasonable expectation that we will probably try to duck the tax by season's end. There is a lot of feigned ignorance at play with all the cap discourse as well as an inability to mentally adjust for salaries with an increased cap.

I know you probably knew this already even though you didn't outright clarify it in your post, but the Raptors ducked the tax by the end of the 2021-22 season with the Thad Young trade, and they will do the same this year. Except this time, ideally without trading down and out of the 1st round.

If we are only 800k-1mill over the tax come opening day, why is it imperative to duck the tax this yr. With another 10% cap raise next yr with no big extensions it's not like we'll be in the tax next yr so we won't have to deal with repeater issues.
It doesn't make sense to lose a trade or a player over tax money,

I feel like a lot of y'all aren't taking in the nuances of this new tax/apron climate
I bring this up cuz Bobby spoke of the tax line as if it isn't the boogie man anymore, it's the Aprons

Because ownership doesn't want to possibly put themselves in a future position where they have to avoid repeater penalties but the team is otherwise good enough to authorize massive payrolls (a legit contender), just because they started the repeater clock too early by being a taxpayer on a non-contending 2025-26 team.

Also in terms of next season and moving forward, even assuming 10% jumps every year, $16M in tax space isn't going to be enough to re-sign both Ochai (assuming his salary is in the MLE ballpark) and our 2026 FRP's rookie scale (even if you assume the team makes the playoffs and the pick isn't a lottery rookie scale).

OakleyDokely wrote:I like the depth on the squad. I think there's 13 potential rotation players on the main roster (basically everyone except Temple). Should be a lot of internal battles for minutes and they should be able to overcome some injuries better. .

Agreed. And this is a playoff roster.

causal_fan wrote:For a non-playoff team, just a terrible cap situation - Looks like Mr. Simmons is bang-on with his assessment.

The are just slightly above the tax line. What is terrible about that? Do you even understand the cap?

There is zero chance they are over the tax by end of year.