jmr07019 wrote:31to6 wrote:Hal14 wrote:It's for the owners to save $ now (during a season we're punting) so they can use that money they save to spend more $ on improving the team in 26-27 and beyond when Tatum is back healthy and we're actually trying to win titles again.
I understand that, but it can sometimes be hard to find ways to spend that money when you (like the rest of the league) are over the cap. The way to duck the tax is to let Simons expire. I won't be surprised or that mad if they do it. But then the salary slot that was Smart then Jrue then Simons is gone and you can't sign a starting-level player in its place. You're at JT, JB, DW, PP, SH, and the flotsam/jetsam crew going forward. (Then, likely, IF you've been fortunate enough that JT has recovered to be a star again, the reasonable thing to try to do is trade JB for two rotation players -- one star-adjacent -- but aprons might interfere with that)
Great post. If Celtics trade Simons for a smaller salaried player and a TPE they will be limited in the ways they can add salary back onto the roster. Options would be:
- use the Porzingis tpe to add salary.
- MLE signing
- JB or white trade
- trading Pritchard (6), Hauser (10) and whoever they get for Simons (10-15) for a better more expensive player. That gives you 25-30 million in outgoing salary and you could take back 125% of what you send out.
Option 1 has an expiration date, options 3 and 4 open up more holes.
The best outcome by far is the Celtics being able to turn Simons into a legitimate starting caliber player and resigning him.
Champions generally have a high pay roll. OKC was an exception this year and it’s only a matter of time until their roster is expensive.
Losing salary slots has always been a concern for me. Being able to aggregate again and take back more than you send out plus TPEs and exceptions are all great avenues but to your point we might still fall short of being able to match for difference makers.
Nonetheless I think ownership push Brad to get below the line to leave getting out of repeater territory as a possibility next season. If, god forbid, Tatum has a setback or we get devastated by a rash of different injuries that set us up for another lame duck year, they'd have the option of keeping costs low and taking advantage of that aspect of a really bad situation.
Where I disagree with you is that the best option is for us to turn Simons into a legitimate player and re-signing him. I think he's fool's gold and ultimately if he plays well enough to earn a second contract with us we're going to be playing a high risk / medium reward game of trying to figure out how much he's worth in a world where the bottom is falling out of guys with his archetype. I
Ideal scenario would be to flip Simons and assets for the next iteration of Derrick White. A guy a level or two above Simons, locked in on a reasonable deal and ready for when Tatum is back. That doesn't seem likely.
Next best option, in my opinion, is to pivot to dumping Simons and creating enough space to get below the tax line but also to create opportunities to take some chances on some 2nd draft/reclamation project type players. Unlikely to pan out but a lot of these guys would be a free spin of the wheel (Minott is a great example).
