SMTBSI wrote:celticfan42487 wrote:brackdan70 wrote:Great break down. But with stretching contracts you can only do 2 times the years plus one I thought? A one year could be stretched to 3 . 2 year stretched to 5 and so on.
Also, we don't want to be RIGHT at the limit.
You're going to want to leave room to sign a post trade deadline cut. Last year was Monroe but easiely could have been Lou Williams or Tyreke Evans. Ainge is going to want flexiability to make trades in season without going in the lux tax.
There's a lot of reasons it's better for Ainge for Smart to take the 6 mil QO and keep that 2.5 mil in his back pocket for in season adjustments.
We're still in a world where NO team has cap space to take on an expiring.
Hell didn't Philly and the Nets in our own division just get paid first round draft picks to take on expiring contracts? It's that bad out there.
And while trading our own first isn't a huge price to pay... I don't think we want to just give up the chance to take on a prospect that could be another Jordan Bell or Semi and allow us to lose guys like Rozier and Smart and still tick on in our current contending run. Draft picks are the key to cheating the salary cap.
The thing is that dodging the tax is only part of the picture. The other question is which do you value more: the ability to add a post trade deadline cut while staying below the tax, or having a nice mid-sized ~10mil contract for salary matching in trades? We can only have one or the other, and each one opens certain opportunities and closes off others.
My gut is to value the mid-sized contract more highly, because the worst-case scenario for going that route is not that we
can't sign a post-deadline cut, it's just that we'd have to go into the tax to do so. On the other hand, if we have Smart on the QO, the worst case scenario is flatly
not being able to make a legal trade when someone we want comes available.
Yeah I hear you. I just don't see 10 million being free'd up that easiely.
Also "not able to make a legal trade", I thought that Smart accepting a Qualifying offer just means he gets a No trade clause. Or is it true it's impossible to trade him. With a no trade clause I could see Smart accepting a trade if one came up that gave him a role. Hell he may even accept it more on the condition the team he's being traded to actually gives him a long term contract.
But I also don't see us being able to trade Yabu or Morris in today'd condition without giving up a first rounder to do so. So I wouldn't want to do that.
I'd also like us to be able to add someone. What if Rozier goes down, or Theis again? I don't want to lose a bench player and regret not being able to replace him. Hell what if Smart decides "THIS IS SPARTA" and kicks himself into a torn ACL one night?
I guess I value the flexibility of adding someone in season as needed more than trading Smart.
That is also because I think it's for the best for us to have Smart's bird rights as a free agent next year. With Irving and Rozier being free agents, and us having the awful Kings first round pick... there are endless variables here where Smart being signed for 10 million for that season can swing from a great thing to a horrible thing.
Also 2019 free agency is going to be literally LOADED with players. I feel pretty comfortable that Smart won't get an offer as an unrestricted free agency for well... as long as it's taken him this off season. He may legit be the 30th best free agent next off season. Irving and Rozier contracts and our decision on wether to match Rozier's or not should long happen before we decide if we want to use our bird rights to resign Smart to what he wants.