Does the cap matter?

e4Nf6 · Post #1 » by **e4Nf6** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 4:03 am

Something that came up on another thread that I wanted to talk about specifically....

One common thread of all these "LB trades" is that we seem to be getting better players in exchange for worse contracts. Some here have been against the trades because of our salary cap number running up and up. But does it matter at all?

Is hoarding cap space an effective strategy for a team like Charlotte? Personally, I think no.

Is it realistic for the cats to sign Amare/Bron/Bosh even if we had the cap room? I can't imagine it. The best case scenario is overpaying somebody like Rashard Lewis. He's a nice player, but are you willing to tank 2-3 season for him?

How many of the big FA signings since the Max salary rule have worked out well for the signing team? If the teams that Signed Brand, Maggette, and Baron could have mulligans on those deals right now I think most might take them.

I think 2010 will be the make-or-break year for the currently popular strategy of "Tank and Hoard," If Bron/Bosh/Amare jump teams then it will be a success. If not, I think you will see less of these cap-centric trades and more incremental plans of improvement.

Here is a quick quiz, I'll look for the answer to #3 after I finish typing...

1. Who has been the best FA pickup since the Cat's inception and how much did he cost?
2. Who has been the most expensive FA pickup since the Cat's inception?
3. What are the 3 best "Big" (more than the MLE) FA signings since the Max salary rule?

Off the top of my head:

1. IDK...Hermann and Carrol seem to be the choices, neither one got payed much at all. Herman was 1 year 1.8 million, Carrol's first deal was the NBA minimum.
2. Othella Harrington? 2.2 than 2.3 million a year.

W_HAMILTON · Post #2 » by **W_HAMILTON** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 4:49 am

No, the cap doesn't matter. As I said before, the only situation it would matter is if Johnson and co. cut back, meaning we have to dump salaries, and in doing so we have to dump our better players since teams might not want the contractual obligations of our worse players (ie, we have to trade Wallace for "cap room" just to save money).

I wouldn't worry too much about the FA market, for many of the reasons you already stated. I think it would actually be better for a team like us to acquire some of the contracts we have lately, because one of the biggest problems we have had in the past is that we haven't had the contracts to make any sort of big deal, unless it involved giving up one of our best players. If we had more varied contracts earlier in the year, it's possible we could have acquired Diaw for them instead of having to give up Richardson. But for the most part, we couldn't do a deal like that because the type of contracts we needed usually would have to include one of our best players, since no one else made enough to make the salaries match.

Now, we are adding some varied contracts, reasonably-sized contracts, and contracts that end at different times. That is a scenario where you can make some deals. Instead of having to "throw in" Wallace to make a deal work, we could put in Radmanovic. When these deals begin to expire, then they become even more tradeable assets in the form of reasonably-sized expiring contracts. If Mohammed and Radmanovic have their contracts fully extended, they would represent almost ~14 million in expiring contracts in 2010. Remember how those Cavs fans were trying to peddle Szczerbiak's huge expiring contract onto us for Wallace, or something like that? Well, we will be the team in that position. We could be the team that gets a good player in exchange for average players like Mohammed and Radmanovic, just because that other team wants to clear cap space.

Post #3 » by **fatlever** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 4:01 pm

at this point, i'd say i agree with both these posts.

while i dont want to be in a situation where we are way over the cap at any point, i dont really see the logic in this franchise trying to get 20 million under to pursue a big name FA. our best bet is to keep acquiring talent, picks, and tradeable contracts.

that being said, we most also be smart... no more nazr type trades. thats the only trade, so far, that has really been a bad move for our cap space.

and...i think vlad will be easy to move in the last year of his deal, if we choose to go that direction.

e4Nf6 · Post #4 » by **e4Nf6** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 4:36 pm

Btw, best free agent signings in the Max salary era....

1. Chauncy Billups to the Pistons
2. Steve Nash to the Suns
3. Gilbert Arenas to the Wizards

Its a bit thin after that....who´s next, Carlos Boozer maybe, and then what? Not many "big" signings have been successful in the 9 years since the max salary rules. I could name a bunch of bad ones.

Post #5 » by **fatlever** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 4:39 pm

as ridiculous of a deal that it was, hard to argue about the lewis to magic deal now. way overpaid, but seems to be a perfect fit on that team next to howard.

Post #6 » by **Walt Cronkite** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 4:40 pm

Gil... we hardly knew ye.

chrbal · Post #7 » by **chrbal** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 6:08 pm

My main concern is of course when teams go too far. Not that I think the Bobcats will ever go as high as the Mavs and Knicks did where they would just add salary litterally because they could.

So the cap doesn't matter, cap management does.

You don't want to be in a posistion where you are so desperate for help at a certain spot that you trade two young expirings for a guy who wasn't even in his previous teams rotation.

carolinabred · Post #8 » by **carolinabred** » Mon Feb 9, 2009 8:53 pm

chrbal wrote: So the cap doesn't matter, cap management does.

I would agree that it does not work...the only thing that works to make your team a championship contender is drafting well. I remember a few years ago that Atlanta had a lot of room under the cap and no one wanted to go there. They ended up getting Joe Johnson through trade. Even with that they still sucked until now. Those of us would were big hornets fans know that cap management is what they did for years, they made the playoff almost every year after Zo was traded. I think a more important question is...If the Bobcats drafted a superstar ( I mean Kobe or Shaq talent) would they pay MAX dollars to keep them?

Rich4114 · Post #9 » by **Rich4114** » Tue Feb 10, 2009 1:14 am

In the NBA this used to matter. But with restricted FA's it no longer matters. They've built the system up so you pretty much have to aquire big name players by drafting them or making a trade for them. Hoarding cap space I don't think gets us anywhere, and we all seem to be in agreement.

Right now this team is lacking a pure goto option and depth. If we can draft a quality player in the upcoming draft and maybe fill out some of the roster through 2nd or 3rd tier FA's then I think we can be a solid team.