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Can somebody please share with me the value in acquiring an overpaid player whose contract is expiring?

I have a vague idea of the benefits, I'm hoping your feedback will give me a more thorough idea.

Well, I'm assuming this is Kwame....

There is a salary cap, something around 56 million that teams can spend, and you can't sign free agents if you are over that limit, only players you own the rights too, rookies, and your mid level exception and LLE.

if two players are both getting paid 9 million per year, and 1 player expires this year, and the other has 4 years lefts, you want the one with less years. So if you have a cap of say 52 million, and that 9 million expires, you now have 43 million(or about 13 million under the cap) which is a lot of money to throw at a player you covet.

so in the lakers case, they will be over the cap with gasols contract for the next couple of years which will make they unable to sign any free agent that cost more than the MLE.

the grizzles are now far enough under the cap that they can go out and sign a player to a contract that is 10+ million.

teams that usually want expiring contracts are teams looking to rebuild (memphis) teams who messed up in signing overpaid players and would like to get under the tax/cap (knicks) teams who are on the edge of contending but arent quite there yet (bulls)

Ok.

So Kwame's $9 mill will work in a trade with another good player under contract for several more season, but since his contract is expiring, it gives the team receiving him the freedom to invest in a new FA the following season.

There are 2 salary roofs in the NBA (a soft cap).

1 is the salary cap which is at 55ish million which is the max amount your team can total in salary before you aren't allowed to sign players to big contracts. In this case you only have your MLE (which is worth around 5.5 million) and LLE. You can resign your own players for more despite being over the cap tho (with some restrictions).

2 is the cap threshold where the luxury tax comes into play. This cap is higher (can't remember the exact figure). When you are over this limit, you have to pay 1 dollar for every dollar over you are. So say a team is in the luxury tax by 7-8 million for the next 3 years. If you can get an expiring contract like Kwame's you'll save close to 15 million only in tax by dumping a large contract for him. In addition you'll save about 20 million in salary, so dumping a good player on a 3 year deal at 10 million per if you are well into the tax will save you about 35 million dollars.

Expiring contracts are very valuable to rebuilding teams who will be looking at saving money and getting cap space to sign quality free agents, and they are useless for contending teams (as far as value when you trade for them) because they are more interested in getting veteran players without too big a concern about being over the cap.

In the Gasol deal, Memphis saved 43 million in player salary if I'm not mistaken (they weren't in the tax tho, so didn't save additional tax money).

KobeFan wrote:Ok.

So Kwame's $9 mill will work in a trade with another good player under contract for several more season, but since his contract is expiring, it gives the team receiving him the freedom to invest in a new FA the following season.

Providing their total salary is low enough under the cap. They don't get 9 million automatically to spend. It all depends on how their contracts sum up after the deal.

Basically, they are valuable enough to get an all-star calibre player.

All-Star in a box: Expiring Contract + Knick Knacks

Just add water.

is there a minimum salary a team have to meet?? is it a must for them to go spend the 9M next year????

Yes, there is a minimum salary they have to meet, but they don't have to spend anything as long as they have enough players and meet the minimum salary (in other words, they can save their cap space for the summer after if they don't find a free agent they like out there).

I remember how the clips had to resign Maggette and Brand just to stay over the min.
btw, wat is the min this yr?