RFA Offer sheet question in regards to cap

[gelek]

Just went to the Nets board to watch what their plan for this offseason is.

One of the things mentioned as plan b after Dwight would be keeping the current core (defined as Deron-Crash-Lopez) and adding Eric Gordon for the max or near at it. Afterwards complementing that with players like AK and Kristic etc.

Now I don't know the concrete specifics and wheter it be possible (there are some usually credible Nets poster who say that it is) but here's what I'm unclear at.

Say that the Nets have a plan where they utilize the fact that Brook Lopez Caphold is comparatively small.
They want to sign Wallace immediately so that his caphold gets smaller (since he's basically an expiring it would be pretty high otherwise).

So the plan is:

before 1) remove cap obstacles like long contracts, renounce holds that you don't want to use like Humphries
1) Sign Deron / Crash
2) Sign Eric Gordon to an offer sheet, wait and sign him (I'm not talking about wheter the Hornets would match or not but more the hypothetical scenario where they wouldn't)
3) Sign Lopez to a long term contract and go over the cap while doing it

Now, here's the question: What if Lopez get an offer sheet before 2) that if the Nets matched it would make it impossible to sign Eric Gordon to the max. Is it still the QO-caphold that counts against the cap meaning the Nets would then have 72hours to sign EG to his own offer sheet? Or would the proposed contract size count, thus making it impossible to offer EG the Max?

Oh and if the QO-Cap counts, suppose the Hornets match EG's offer sheet. Now the Nets only have the remaining capspace after the Lopez matching to go after other FA's and not the Max-space that they had for EG correct?

Thanks if someone can answer me this or point to the provision in the cba

[Dunkenstein]

EDIT: The salary called for in the offer sheet doesn't go against the original
team's cap until the team issues a First Refusal Exercise Notice.

[DBoys]

Once a restricted player accepts an offer sheet, that number replaces the player's cap hold on his original team's salary cap.

I'm fairly certain that is incorrect. Per Article VII Sec 4 (a) (2) (ii) - if I'm reading correctly - the RFA cap hold increases only if/after the prior team exercises its ROFR, not when an offer sheet is signed and the prior team is still contemplating what to do.

[Dunkenstein]

Once a restricted player accepts an offer sheet, that number replaces the player's cap hold on his original team's salary cap.

I'm fairly certain that is incorrect. Per Article VII Sec 4 (a) (2) (ii) - if I'm reading correctly - the RFA cap hold increases only if/after the prior team exercises its ROFR, not when an offer sheet is signed and the prior team is still contemplating what to do.

I stand corrected. The salary called for in the offer sheet doesn't go against the original team's cap until the team issues a First Refusal Exercise Notice.

[HartfordWhalers]

This was one of the key aspects of the LAC bid on Billups -- Jordan had been signed elsewhere but not matched yet which freed the cap space for that offer. There was much confusion about it at the time, with at least some experts retracting statements about whether LAC had the room based on this.