MaceCase wrote:D21 wrote:MaceCase wrote:The Hawks had the ability to resign Al regardless and he scoffed, or did we forget that lil detail?
No Mace, once Bazemore had this contract, (and Howard), it was leaving room than Horford's cap hold, so it was impossible to re-sign him unless they traded away something. But it was enough with Splitter and cutting Mike Scott for example.
The problem is that once the other teams knew that, they were asking for a Millsap trade and certainly not Splitter.
They made this situation themselves, and after drafting two wings, the last thing to make was the re-sign Bazemore so fast.
Yes, they were negotiating with Horford, offering 135M while he wanted 141M to get the same annual salary than the BOS offer, but even if agreed for 135 or ATL pushed it to 141, they were not able to sign him without freeing room first, and I supposed that the waiting period, and eventually the impossibility, made Horford agreeing the BOS offer before they choose to sign another player than him.
So you're saying it was an entire farce that they negotiated with Al? No, they had the capability to resign him because all it required was a small trade. Teams do not collectively band together and say "oh we gotta force you to give us your best assets", no they look out for their own interests. No team is going from netting a conditional 1st rounder for being offered Splitter to saying they demand Sap, that type of escalation simply doesn't occur and if they did they'd feel incredibly stupid once four other teams jump on that 1st rounder while they postured.
There are two separate things :
- the offer they were ready to make to Horford, and when it was 135M instead of 141M asking by Horford, or even more, it was a financial choice (and we agree on this point), thinking it's what is would be worth. With Bird rights, they could offer more than that if they wanted.
- but the possibility to make this offer and Horford agreeing was not financially but a rule problem.
To be able to legally give this offer, as they would go over the cap, they had to be under the cap first, counting the cap hold of Horford.
This is what they had at the minimum (Howard and Bazemore lowest possible salary with their offers) :
22,488,038 - Dwight Howard (estimated lower first year of 3yrs/70.5M contract with 4.5% raise)
20,072,033 - Paul Milsap
15,730,337 - Kent Bazemore (estimated lower first year of 4yrs/70M contract with 7.5% raise)
08,550,000 - Tiago Splitter
05,239,437 - Kyle Korver
03,850,000 - Thabo Sefolosha
02,708,582 - Dennis Schröder
02,281,605 - Tim Hardaway Jr
01,000,000 - Walter Tavares
01,931,900 - Taurean Prince (2016 NBA Draft #12 cap hold)
01,249,800 - DeAndre’ Bembry (2016 NBA Draft #21 cap hold)
00,543,471 - roster spot
Total = 85,101,732
9,041,268 of cap room.
Even if Howard was really signed some days later, he agreed. Bazemore was really signed.
To have the possibility to offer and sign Horford, his cap hold has to be there under the salary cap of 94.143M
18 - 9.041 = 8.959M so it needed at least Splitter and Tavares to be moved.
Or you don't sign Bazemore and instead of 15,730,337, you have 2.6M of his cap hold, and 9+(15.7-2.6)=22.1M under the cap, so enough to keep Horford's cap hold, and re-sign him, but then Bazemore would have sign elsewhere because ATL could only offer a maximum of 6M.
So if you wanted to add a big contract like Howard, it was Horford or Bazemore, or you needed to trade almost 9M first to be able to re-sign both.
And now, how many days do you need to trade Splitter and Tavares for free ? You don't know, and since you don't know, Horford don't know, and during this period, he can loose his BOS offer.
