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Both Keith Smith and John Hollinger have written recently about teams leaving the last roster spot open and instead opting to use all 3 two-way contracts. The tax/aprons are clearly motivating these moves, but from a long-term perspective, it seems counterproductive to almost everyone's interests.

What do you think of an addendum that allows one roster spot to be exempt from the tax & apron calculations, provided that roster spot is filled by a veteran on a fully guaranteed, one-year minimum contract?

You'd have to define "veteran" and provide a deadline for teams to designate the roster spot as exempt, but otherwise it seems straightforward. What am I missing?

raleigh wrote:Both Keith Smith and John Hollinger have written recently about teams leaving the last roster spot open and instead opting to use all 3 two-way contracts. The tax/aprons are clearly motivating these moves, but from a long-term perspective, it seems counterproductive to almost everyone's interests.

What do you think of an addendum that allows one roster spot to be exempt from the tax & apron calculations, provided that roster spot is filled by a veteran on a fully guaranteed, one-year minimum contract?

You'd have to define "veteran" and provide a deadline for teams to designate the roster spot as exempt, but otherwise it seems straightforward. What am I missing?

Your idea wouldn't change anything. It would just be playing games with the cap totals on paper, yet only altering HOW teams get to the same total payroll.

Would it alter payrolls? No. If they give everyone a "free" minimum salary slot, then by contractual agreement on total spending, they have to lower the cap and other numbers by $2M so that the total spending stays the same.

Would it alter roster sizes? Many teams aren't even using all the slots they already have, so what would be the point of adding a slot? They could force teams to fill all 15 slots, but if they'd rather not, does the NBA want to force them to hire a player they don't want?

Put it to a vote, and I suspect 0 teams and only a few (marginal talent) players would have any interest. And it's their league.