JR Smith needs to be guaranteed or waived today...

[Kilo]

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Barring a quick trade today it seems like Cleveland will just waive JR Smith, paying him 4.37M of his otherwise owed $15.68M. Smith had agreed to push back his guaranteed date from July 1st(or was it 6th?) to help out Cleveland in possibly trading him. I don't know why he did that as no team would have traded for him to pay him his $15M for the season.

Cleveland found it hard to find a taker because they too are over the tax if they took back serious money in any deal. I believe waiving Smith now gets them below the tax.

This takes off a third team trade asset many folks used around here to make salaries match and avoid tax issues.

JR to the Lakers right? or is KCP, Avery Bradley, and Danny Green already enough 2-guards on their roster?

[MoneyTalks41890]

I think they are 12.2 or something like that in the tax. They get close waiving him, but will still need to make some additional moves.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Also, https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/07/15/report-cavaliers-waiving-j-r-smith/

[jbk1234]

I'm glad the Cavs didn't sell low on JR's contract or feel like they had to trade him because of sunk costs.

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[BullyKing]

I'm glad the Cavs didn't sell low on JR's contract or feel like they had to trade him because of sunk costs.

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I guess but it does feel like there were some missed opportunities here. I assumed the cost of dumping salary would be down given the huge amounts of cap space around the league. That turned out to be incorrect largely because of the star player turnover meaning a guy like Kwahi signing with the Clips used up league wide cap space where if he stayed with Toronto, league wise cap space would not have been impacted.

But I thought the Grizz, Clippers (Harkless) and Hawks all got fantastic value for their space. I understand its more complicated with Smith because its not straight space and he had his guaranteed portion but it seems like something could have been done with it.

[NoZoLakers]

I see Hou in his future, LA has enough guards for now and they want to save that last roster spot for Iggy or someone better and than Smith, there's nothing Smith brings that bradley/green/daniels or cook doesn't bring

[CoachD]

Is it nuts to think he could be looking at a minimum non-guaranteed?

[SmartWentCrazy]

I'm glad the Cavs didn't sell low on JR's contract or feel like they had to trade him because of sunk costs.

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Is it really better to hold onto an asset and watch it expire than to “sell low”?

[jbk1234]

I'm glad the Cavs didn't sell low on JR's contract or feel like they had to trade him because of sunk costs.

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Is it really better to hold onto an asset and watch it expire than to “sell low”?

If it will cost you more to get out of the tax later in the summer than what you get for JR's deal, yes it is better.

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[jbk1234]

I'm glad the Cavs didn't sell low on JR's contract or feel like they had to trade him because of sunk costs.

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I guess but it does feel like there were some missed opportunities here. I assumed the cost of dumping salary would be down given the huge amounts of cap space around the league. That turned out to be incorrect largely because of the star player turnover meaning a guy like Kwahi signing with the Clips used up league wide cap space where if he stayed with Toronto, league wise cap space would not have been impacted.

But I thought the Grizz, Clippers (Harkless) and Hawks all got fantastic value for their space. I understand its more complicated with Smith because its not straight space and he had his guaranteed portion but it seems like something could have been done with it.

I suspect they had something lined up with the Wolves and then Russell ended up going to GS. What I think really threw a wrench in the works was how the Lakers, Knicks, and Kings used all their cap space on role players. All of a sudden there's no way for you to get back out of the repeater tax without stretching your expirings.

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[SmartWentCrazy]

I'm glad the Cavs didn't sell low on JR's contract or feel like they had to trade him because of sunk costs.

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Is it really better to hold onto an asset and watch it expire than to “sell low”?

If it will cost you more to get out of the tax later in the summer than what you get for JR's deal, yes it is better.

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Why does Cleveland need to duck the tax?

It wont impact you from a competitive aspect going forward as you’ll clearly duck the tax in the future to reset the repeater element by the time your competitive again so it feels like Gilbert chose his money rather than getting an asset for the team.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Is it really better to hold onto an asset and watch it expire than to “sell low”?

If it will cost you more to get out of the tax later in the summer than what you get for JR's deal, yes it is better.

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Why does Cleveland need to duck the tax?

It wont impact you from a competitive aspect going forward as you’ll clearly duck the tax in the future to reset the repeater element by the time your competitive again so it feels like Gilbert chose his money rather than getting an asset for the team.

It really doesn't make sense for the worst team in the league to have the highest payroll in the league. If we're talking about 2nd round picks It's not worth being in the tax.

[SmartWentCrazy]

If it will cost you more to get out of the tax later in the summer than what you get for JR's deal, yes it is better.

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Why does Cleveland need to duck the tax?

It wont impact you from a competitive aspect going forward as you’ll clearly duck the tax in the future to reset the repeater element by the time your competitive again so it feels like Gilbert chose his money rather than getting an asset for the team.

It really doesn't make sense for the worst team in the league to have the highest payroll in the league. If we're talking about 2nd round picks It's not worth being in the tax.

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

[HartfordWhalers]

I don't know why he did that

JR got an extra ~1m for moving it back.

[MoneyTalks41890]

Why does Cleveland need to duck the tax?

It wont impact you from a competitive aspect going forward as you’ll clearly duck the tax in the future to reset the repeater element by the time your competitive again so it feels like Gilbert chose his money rather than getting an asset for the team.

It really doesn't make sense for the worst team in the league to have the highest payroll in the league. If we're talking about 2nd round picks It's not worth being in the tax.

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

Resetting the repeater and getting the full MLE has value on its own.

[jbk1234]

Why does Cleveland need to duck the tax?

It wont impact you from a competitive aspect going forward as you’ll clearly duck the tax in the future to reset the repeater element by the time your competitive again so it feels like Gilbert chose his money rather than getting an asset for the team.

It really doesn't make sense for the worst team in the league to have the highest payroll in the league. If we're talking about 2nd round picks It's not worth being in the tax.

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

I mean assets have a market. The Cavs just spent $5M for the 30th pick. But we're talking about the repeater tax here, and the ability to turn it off by staying under the tax line for two consecutive years. Is a lotto protected 1st really worth $30M or resetting the clock to year zero?

I think that would be bad management. Also, Gilbert had a stroke and I'm sure the minority owners wanted no part of paying the tax for a lotto team.

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[SmartWentCrazy]

It really doesn't make sense for the worst team in the league to have the highest payroll in the league. If we're talking about 2nd round picks It's not worth being in the tax.

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

Resetting the repeater and getting the full MLE has value on its own.

Resetting the repeater matters when youre trying to be competitive. Id strongly guess that in at least 2 of the next three years, once contracts expire, they’ll duck the tax to reset the repeater clock.

They wont have the full MLE after they waive JR either, so I dont buy that reason either.

[SmartWentCrazy]

It really doesn't make sense for the worst team in the league to have the highest payroll in the league. If we're talking about 2nd round picks It's not worth being in the tax.

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

I mean assets have a market. Gilbert just spent $5M for the 30th pick. But we're talking about the repeater tax here, and the ability to turn it off by staying under the tax line for two consecutive years. Is a lotto protected 1st really worth $30M or resetting the clock to year zero?

I think that's bad management.

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You will reset the tax before your competitive again. I’d personally prefer my team to have an extra first that for the owner of a rebuilding team to have an extra 30M, but maybe thats just me.

[jbk1234]

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

I mean assets have a market. Gilbert just spent $5M for the 30th pick. But we're talking about the repeater tax here, and the ability to turn it off by staying under the tax line for two consecutive years. Is a lotto protected 1st really worth $30M or resetting the clock to year zero?

I think that's bad management.

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You will reset the tax before your competitive again. I’d personally prefer my team to have an extra first that for the owner of a rebuilding team to have an extra 30M, but maybe thats just me.

I don't think that's a reasonable expectation to have of owners. A lotto protected 1st just isn't worth $30M.

Also, cap flexibility is really important in terms of being able to take advantage of potential future opportunities. You see treadmill teams, even lotto teams, get stuck because of poor cap management all the time.

Finally, there's something to be said for not lowering the price that makes sense for your organization because the market won't pay it at specific time. If the Cavs traded that contract for a poor return, teams would expect them to fold down the line as well.

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[Scoot McGroot]

So youd prefer that the team owner have more money at the expense of an asset that could help the team from a competitive standpoint moving forward? That doesnt make any sense to me.

I mean assets have a market. Gilbert just spent $5M for the 30th pick. But we're talking about the repeater tax here, and the ability to turn it off by staying under the tax line for two consecutive years. Is a lotto protected 1st really worth $30M or resetting the clock to year zero?

I think that's bad management.

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You will reset the tax before your competitive again. I’d personally prefer my team to have an extra first that for the owner of a rebuilding team to have an extra 30M, but maybe thats just me.

Seems like the Cavs didn't get an offer of a 1st. If they had, they probably would've taken it.

Would you want your team to pay an extra ~$46m (salary plus luxury tax) for a 2nd or two? Or to take on a multi year deal for 2 2nds?

I would almost always prefer my team to have an extra 1st. But I'm not going to demand my team also pay $100m to do so. There's limits to smart business. I'd love my team to win a championship, but if they're not doing that, I don't think anyone does well to waste $46m.