machu46 wrote:Hollinger and Nehm published an article laying out part of how the Bucks were able to afford the signing, some notable parts IMO:Let’s start with the fact that they needed to generate cap space to do anything involving Turner, unless they could get the Pacers to participate in a sign-and-trade, which wasn’t plausible for a Bucks team that has basically no draft capital to insert into a deal. (Ironically, Indiana may now have an incentive to turn this back into a sign-and-trade, but that didn’t exist when the Bucks were imagining this outcome.)
Not entirely sure how it would all work, but maybe possible still that we're able to restructure this as a sign-and-trade, give Indiana a massive trade exception, and stay over the cap, allowing us to use the MLE?
He goes on to add that if Micic's cap hit is less than $2 million, we can then waive and stretch him to free up the amount we need to sign Turner outright. If his cap hit is over $2 million, we would need to waive Livingston or possibly trade Tyler Smith to get the rest of the needed space.
Lastly, he says that we can still sign Rollins to a minimum deal, but couldn't risk him signing the qualifying offer because it would mess up the Turner math.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6467602/2025/07/02/myles-turner-damian-lillard-bucks-salary-cap-explained/
That all checks out. Thanks for posting.
FYI, regarding "Not entirely sure how it would all work, but maybe possible still that we're able to restructure this as a sign-and-trade, give Indiana a massive trade exception, and stay over the cap, allowing us to use the MLE?" - I touched on this in one of my previous posts. Even if it turns into a sign-and-trade, we'd still need the cap space unless we're also sending salary (Kuzma) out in the deal. If it gets turned into a sign-and-trade and we're sending Kuzma out as part of that deal (likely to a third team, because otherwise Indy wouldn't get as big of a trade exception and then in that case, why are they doing it), only then is it potentially possible to stay over the cap and have the Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level Exception (minor general note: just saying "MLE" can be a bit confusing - what is often referred to as the "Room Exception" is still technically a Mid-Level Exception, with its CBA name being "Mid-Level Salary Exception for Room Teams").
