[NBA News] - New CBA Could Have $62 Mil Cap?

[Falstaffxx]

Finally some good news.

[Jay10]

fisher said they're not going to agree to the hard cap because a team like the heat would only have $9M to fill out a roster about wade, lebron, and bosh. he also said the 3 year contracts would force teams to rebuild their roster too often.

[kosmovitelli]

Can someone explain what a flex cap means and how that's different from today? Thanks.

The league wants to target a $62 million salary cap per team and average player salary of $5 million.

It's a flex cap because teams could still exceed the salary cap but it's not a soft cap because there's a limit (a hard cap if you want) teams won't be able to exceed. As they target an average player salary of $5 million and there are 15 players per team, you can expect $75 million to be the threashold. In the current soft cap system, you can exceed the cap by $100 million of you want as long as you're willing to pay a penalty (the luxury tax).

Basically the flex cap proposed is a mix of soft cap (possibility to exceed the team's salary cap with exceptions) and hard cap (a league-wide salary cap you can't exceed).

[vinnie_vegas69]

If this is $62 million plus the ability to retain your own players (but no MLE or LLE), then it's a fair deal.

If this happens, then draft picks become the most valuable commodities in the game, scouts and recruiters the most important personnel, and free agency the least attractive prospect in existence.

I don't think the players would allow for there to never be an MLE (as it basically destroys the promise of free agency for mid-low level players), but maybe getting rid of the LLE and turning the MLE into a bi-annual exception might work - Teams having a $35 million, five year contract to give out every year even when they're way over the cap is just a bad idea. Look at how desperate Milwaukee is to move Drew Gooden's contract one year into the thing...

Teams should be banking their MLEs to specifically target desired role players that fit on their team, rather than feeling like another year gone by without using their MLE is an opportunity wasted.

[kosmovitelli]

fisher said they're not going to agree to the hard cap because a team like the heat would only have $9M to fill out a roster about wade, lebron, and bosh. he also said the 3 year contracts would force teams to rebuild their roster too often.

Yep. Some fans celebrated with a $62 million salary cap but it's way too early to think we can sign a max player in 2012. In 2013, Melo will be paid $22.4 mil and Amare $21.6 mil : $44 million combined. If you add another max player at around $20 million, that's $64 million, after 2012 Knicks would only have $11 million for the remaining 12 roster spots (if the limit is $75 million). And with the salaries of Melo and Amare increasing each year the GM would have to monitor the situation and always have some wiggle room in order not to exceed the limit.

I think it's a smart proposal by the owners.

[kosmovitelli]

If this is $62 million plus the ability to retain your own players (but no MLE or LLE), then it's a fair deal.

If this happens, then draft picks become the most valuable commodities in the game, scouts and recruiters the most important personnel, and free agency the least attractive prospect in existence.

I don't think the players would allow for there to never be an MLE (as it basically destroys the promise of free agency for mid-low level players), but maybe getting rid of the LLE and turning the MLE into a bi-annual exception might work - Teams having a $35 million, five year contract to give out every year even when they're way over the cap is just a bad idea. Look at how desperate Milwaukee is to move Drew Gooden's contract one year into the thing...

Teams should be banking their MLEs to specifically target desired role players that fit on their team, rather than feeling like another year gone by without using their MLE is an opportunity wasted.

Read Berger's article : the owners latest proposal still include the MLE. But he also said they target a $5 million average salary. The numbers of years and max raises would probably be lower.

The essence of the system described by Stern was an NHL-style cap system with a targeted salary of $62 million per team and a to-be-negotiated range from a minimum to an amount above $62 million that teams could spend up to through various exceptions currently in place – such as the Larry Bird exception and mid-level exception. An escrow-like system would be used to adjust for teams coming in below and above the $62 million target.

[jstudabaka]

I hope something gets worked out where the compromise is that players agree to a lesser share of the BRI, in exchange for keeping a soft cap. I hate hard salary caps. I've always though of the NBA as a happy medium between MLB and the NFL. Teams can't just go out every year and buy every FA, but dynastic teams can be kept together and even capped-out teams can add pieces through savvy trades and CBA maneuvering.

[ibraheim718]

fisher said they're not going to agree to the hard cap because a team like the heat would only have $9M to fill out a roster about wade, lebron, and bosh. he also said the 3 year contracts would force teams to rebuild their roster too often.

Yep. Some fans celebrated with a $62 million salary cap but it's way too early to think we can sign a max player in 2012. In 2013, Melo will be paid $22.4 mil and Amare $21.6 mil : $44 million combined. If you add another max player at around $20 million, that's $64 million, after 2012 Knicks would only have $11 million for the remaining 12 roster spots (if the limit is $75 million). And with the salaries of Melo and Amare increasing each year the GM would have to monitor the situation and always have some wiggle room in order not to exceed the limit.

I think it's a smart proposal by the owners.

But it gets us closer nonetheless....

Where is a Max in 2012 for Chris Paul going to start? No one knows right? Not yet.. I am not the expert you are but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't start at 20 million even under the old rules in 2012. So there are some inaccuracies in the 20 million dollar number I bolded I believe... but since you know the numbers better than I do please calculate what a MAX contract under the old rules would start at in 2012 for CP3? Thanks...

So regardless it gets us closer to making him a respectable offer for him to at least think about... doesn't it?

And it could possibly be higher than 62 mil, couldn't it? And if the popularity remains strong and ticket slaes continue to rise isn't it at least realistic to think if the cap is set at 62 mil next year that it could go up the year after?

[ibraheim718]

Oh I went ahead and researched his salary number to save you some time for next year.... it's 16,359,805... and he would've been in the league 6 years going on his 7th in 2012.

[can o peas]

fisher said they're not going to agree to the hard cap because a team like the heat would only have $9M to fill out a roster about wade, lebron, and bosh. he also said the 3 year contracts would force teams to rebuild their roster too often.

Yep. Some fans celebrated with a $62 million salary cap but it's way too early to think we can sign a max player in 2012. In 2013, Melo will be paid $22.4 mil and Amare $21.6 mil : $44 million combined. If you add another max player at around $20 million, that's $64 million, after 2012 Knicks would only have $11 million for the remaining 12 roster spots (if the limit is $75 million). And with the salaries of Melo and Amare increasing each year the GM would have to monitor the situation and always have some wiggle room in order not to exceed the limit.

I think it's a smart proposal by the owners.

will it stay at $62 million every year or will it still depend on revenue like it does now? $62 million is just enough to sign a player for $16.5 million (the typical first year of a max contract) if we only have Amare and Melo but not our pick or any other players correct? Still, it would be nicer if there was a chance it could raise depending on revenue to say $64 million (which would allow us to keep our pick and maybe Fields).

[ibraheim718]

But the flex cap offer made by the owners Tuesday seemed to be a victory for high-revenue owners (James lorraine Dolan) and the trend of forming superteams (amar'e, CP3 and Melo)

[N8Knick12]

But the flex cap offer made by the owners Tuesday seemed to be a victory for high-revenue owners (James lorraine Dolan) and the trend of forming superteams (amar'e, CP3 and Melo)

[vinnie_vegas69]

If this is $62 million plus the ability to retain your own players (but no MLE or LLE), then it's a fair deal.

If this happens, then draft picks become the most valuable commodities in the game, scouts and recruiters the most important personnel, and free agency the least attractive prospect in existence.

I don't think the players would allow for there to never be an MLE (as it basically destroys the promise of free agency for mid-low level players), but maybe getting rid of the LLE and turning the MLE into a bi-annual exception might work - Teams having a $35 million, five year contract to give out every year even when they're way over the cap is just a bad idea. Look at how desperate Milwaukee is to move Drew Gooden's contract one year into the thing...

Teams should be banking their MLEs to specifically target desired role players that fit on their team, rather than feeling like another year gone by without using their MLE is an opportunity wasted.

Read Berger's article : the owners latest proposal still include the MLE. But he also said they target a $5 million average salary. The numbers of years and max raises would probably be lower.

The essence of the system described by Stern was an NHL-style cap system with a targeted salary of $62 million per team and a to-be-negotiated range from a minimum to an amount above $62 million that teams could spend up to through various exceptions currently in place – such as the Larry Bird exception and mid-level exception. An escrow-like system would be used to adjust for teams coming in below and above the $62 million target.

I wasn't thinking it was going to happen, I was just addressing what it would be like if it did.

[can o peas]

But the flex cap offer made by the owners Tuesday seemed to be a victory for high-revenue owners (James lorraine Dolan) and the trend of forming superteams (amar'e, CP3 and Melo)

wait...wait, dolan's middle name is LORRAINE?

[kosmovitelli]

Where is a Max in 2012 for Chris Paul going to start? No one knows right? Not yet.. I am not the expert you are but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't start at 20 million even under the old rules in 2012. So there are some inaccuracies in the 20 million dollar number I bolded I believe... but since you know the numbers better than I do please calculate what a MAX contract under the old rules would start at in 2012 for CP3? Thanks...

I used $20 million as an average salary during the life of the contract (just an example). If there's a cap limit you can't exceed (like $75 million in my example) then you need to have enough cap room for the max player in 2012 but you also have to make sure you won't exceed the limit the years after. In the previous agreement, teams only worried about the starting salary. The proposal made by the owners will likely change the habits.

If you want the starting max salary for Paul in 2012 under current rules, it would be $17.2 million (105% of his previous salary).

[ibraheim718]

Where is a Max in 2012 for Chris Paul going to start? No one knows right? Not yet.. I am not the expert you are but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't start at 20 million even under the old rules in 2012. So there are some inaccuracies in the 20 million dollar number I bolded I believe... but since you know the numbers better than I do please calculate what a MAX contract under the old rules would start at in 2012 for CP3? Thanks...

I used $20 million as an average salary during the life of the contract (just an example). If there's a cap limit you can't exceed (like $75 million in my example) then you need to have enough cap room for the max player in 2012 but you also have to make sure you won't exceed the limit the years after. In the previous agreement, teams only worried about the starting salary. The proposal made by the owners will likely change the habits.

If you want the starting max salary for Paul in 2012 under current rules, it would be $17.2 million (105% of his previous salary).

Thanks...

[stuporman]

I'm not going to pretend I understand it all. The only thing I don't see or was wondering about and was talked about before is reduced salaries or scaled back in some way.

[NoLayupRule]

But the flex cap offer made by the owners Tuesday seemed to be a victory for high-revenue owners (James lorraine Dolan) and the trend of forming superteams (amar'e, CP3 and Melo)

in leu of actually understanding all this mumbo jumbo I will instead take this sentence as the word of god and expect that NY will be a winner in these negotiations, as it should be

[towelie]

This is splurge-worthy news.