http://www.nba.com/pistons/chat_mailbox ... 91022.htmlKevin (Farmington Hills, Mich.): Let’s say Joe Dumars tells Toronto GM Bryan Colangelo to “close your eyes and sign here” and signs off on a trade that sends us Chris Bosh for some Pistons players that match salaries. Next year Bosh signs elsewhere. Can we use his expired salary for free agents?
Langlois: Great question, Kevin – and the answer is yes … and no. Bosh’s contract comes off the books next summer. His Bird rights would transfer to the Pistons if they were to trade for him. In order to retain those rights, however, the Pistons would have to keep Bosh on their cap and at 150 percent of this season’s salary, meaning he would count something like $24 million against the cap – obviously, pushing the Pistons well above the cap. He would stay on for that figure until actually signing a contract, either with the Pistons – at which point he’d go on at whatever his first-year salary was in the new deal – or with another team, when his contract would come off their books completely. But that doesn’t mean the Pistons would be under the cap by the nearly $16 million Bosh is scheduled to earn this season. First, the cap could come down to close to $50 million by the NBA’s own projections. Second, players like Rodney Stuckey, Ben Gordon and Tayshaun Prince are due pay raises of roughly $1 million a year each that will take the team’s cap figure up. Third, Will Bynum will be a restricted free agent and could be in line for a significant raise. All of that really means the Pistons probably wouldn’t wind up under the cap by much, if at all, unless they were to trade players from their current roster with salaries commensurate to Bosh’s whose contracts run past this season. For the sake of argument, say that would be Jason Maxiell and Tayshaun Prince. Then, yeah, the Pistons would probably be under the cap by perhaps $10 million or so – enough to get a very good player, but likely not enough to get in the discussion for the elite free agents hitting the market.
