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Hoops Rumors Cap/CBA Live Chat: 7/4/2024
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Luke Adams
11:01
Welcome, everyone! And happy Fourth of July!
11:02
As a reminder, this chat is exclusively focused on CBA- and cap-related questions, since I've seen a lot of confusion in the comment sections of our stories as of late.
So I won't be answering any questions along the lines of "Who will acquire Lauri Markkanen?" But if you have a good one about the limitations of the second apron, that's right up our alley.
Trog
11:02
Sign and trades hard cap (a) the team acquiring the free agent (b) the team trading away their own free agent or (c) both teams?
Luke Adams
11:05
Acquiring a player via sign-and-trade hard-caps a team at the first apron. No exceptions there.

The equation is a little more complicated for teams sending out a player via sign-and-trade, so let's use the Wolves as an example, since they're signing-and-trading Kyle Anderson to Golden State.

The Wolves, who are above the second apron, are allowed to sign-and-trade Anderson because:
a) They're not taking any salary back from the Warriors in the transaction.
b) They're not going to use the $8-9MM trade exception they get in the deal.

If they were taking back salary from Golden State or decided to use that TPE, they'd be hard-capped at the second apron.

The TPE will essentially be "frozen," so if they were to move below the second apron later in the year, they could still use it.
Edward w
11:06
The new CBA has really hurt the nuggets. Losing KCP this offseason is a big loss for them
Luke Adams
11:06
They're affected by the new CBA, certainly, but for what it's worth, that ownership group has never been too eager to pay the tax. I'm skeptical they would've made KCP a huge offer to beat out the Magic even if the aprons weren't a thing.
Midwest Hoopin’
11:06
With the additions of Garza, Ingles, & Dozier in free agency, and assuming Dillingham & Shannon get standard NBA deals, what is the T-Wolves tax bill if they do not add a 15th player?
Luke Adams
11:08
The math won't be certain until all those players have officially signed (there are also incentives to consider, etc.), but our friend Yossi Gozlan currently has their tax bill projected at $105MM for a $205MM roster (so $310MM+ in total): https://www.capsheets.com/minnesota-timberwolves-cap-sheet/

I'd recommend CapSheets.com for keeping tabs on this sort of thing during free agency, since Yossi is great about updating it quickly.
Chris D
11:08
What is the NBA "policy" objective of the Early Bird rule which has the effect of reducing what teams like the Knicks and Kings can offer their own free agents like Hartenstein and Monk? In both situations, the player had a higher market value and both player and team wanted to be able to pay more.
Luke Adams
11:10
Rules like that are basically meant to keep teams and players from fast-tracking their way to huge raises when a player changes teams. They don't want situations where a star accepts a big pay cut for a season to join a new team, then is able to get rewarded with a max salary before he has full Bird rights.

You can certainly debate the merits of those rules but I think it would create new problems if they weren't in place.
41-77
11:11
If a team is hard capped at the first apron and they have a serious injury are they able to get an injured play exception and surpass the apron?
Luke Adams
11:13
No, the hard cap is the hard cap. No passing it for any reason.

I do think if a team was right up against the hard cap and had so many injuries that it could barely field an active lineup, the NBA might step in at that point, but if it's not getting that extreme, a hard-capped team has no recourse.
Kim
11:13
Good morning. I’m unclear about if you are an apron team you can’t “aggregate” players. Does this mean you can only do a single player trade at a time and if so, you have to take back less than what trade out?      So what are you supposed to do if you have too many players on your roster and need to offload say 3 players for 1? Thanks.
Luke Adams
11:16
There's a misconception about aggregating players -- it doesn't simply mean sending out two or more players in the same trade. It means combining two or more player salaries for matching purposes in a trade.

A second-apron team is prohibited from aggregating salaries, but it's not prohibited from trading more than one player in a deal, as long as those players' salaries don't need to be combined for matching.

Let's use the Suns as an example. If they were to trade Nassir Little ($6.75MM) and David Roddy ($2.85MM) for a single player earning $6.5MM, that would be fine, because they'd only need Little for matching purposes. Roddy would be in the same deal but wouldn't be aggregated with Little (they could even generate a new trade exception worth Roddy's outgoing salary).
Yaakov
11:17
Now that knicks added Milton and Diop to Bridges trade where are they hard capped?
Luke Adams
11:21
For context here: Shams Charania is reporting that the Knicks are adding Shake Milton (via sign-and-trade) to the Bridges deal and Fred Katz says they're also adding Mamadi Diakite.

Diakite's salary is about $2.27MM and it sounds like Milton will get about $3MM via sign-and-trade. Bogdanovic (the other outgoing piece) is around $19MM.

The goal for the Knicks in that deal was to send out more salary than they take back (Bridges' incoming salary is $23.3MM). Because taking back more salary than they sent out would've hard-capped at the FIRST apron, whereas aggregating salaries in order to send out more than they take back will hard-cap them at the SECOND apron.

They'll achieve that goal by aggregating Milton and Diakite with Bogdanovic to ensure they're sending out more than $23.3MM, so they'll get about $11MM in extra room below their hard cap.
11:22
(Keita Bates-Diop is also being added to the deal, but he can be absorbed using the minimum salary exception, so the Knicks can essentially acquire him "separately" -- they just need to top Bridges' incoming salary, NOT Bridges + KBD).
Justin
11:22
please explain the Bruce brown situation, he can’t be packaged with other players in a trade until when? And does that include draft picks? I just think it’s probably best to wait out that restriction to get something more. Bruce alone won’t snag a return package that coincides with Scottie Barnes.
Luke Adams
11:23
No restriction on trading Bruce Brown now that he's picked up his option. There was a two-month aggregation restriction that applied to him after the trade, but it has long since expired.
Trog
11:23
Is there any expiration on players draft rights that do not sign a contract with their NBA team. For example, if I drafted Peter Petrosamanavika from Belarus in 1995 as a draft and stash ... And he now had one of his legs blown off and suffers from dementia ... Can I still trade his rights?
Luke Adams
11:25
You could. But the NBA did introduce a new rule in the latest CBA that says if you're using a draft-rights player as the only "touching" piece in a trade (ie. it's the only piece you're sending out in a two-team deal, or a necessary piece to "touch" a third team in a three-team deal), they have to have been drafted in, I think, the last seven years.

So the Knicks were allowed to acquire Petteri Koponen's rights in that deal with the Mavs last week even though he was a 2007 pick because there were a bunch of other incoming pieces. But they wouldn't be able to send him out on his own in a separate deal.
Pete
11:25
I haven’t seen any news on how the hard cap is impacting total league spending, it seems down. Are remaining free agents going to get squeezed because total spending is down?
Luke Adams
11:27
Hard to say until free agency is over (still lots of quality players out there that teams could find a way to spend on). But I don't get the sense spending is down overall. Last year the biggest free agent contract was $160MM and the second-biggest was about $128MM (with only about 2/3rds guaranteed). This year we've got five FA deals of $175MM+.
CTBullsFan
11:27
Is there a provision in the CBA that allows local fans to vote to remove and replace team governorship? Asking for a friend. A very very sad friend.
Luke Adams
11:28
Have not come across that one in my CBA reading but will get back to you if I do. I'm sure Bulls fans aren't the only ones who would be interested!
Daniel
11:28
Can a team above the first apron acquire more salary than they take in a trade, or is that limited for both teams above the first and second apron?
Luke Adams
11:30
That's a restriction for both aprons. As soon as you take back more salary than you send out, you're hard-capped at the first apron for the rest of the league year.

This rule applies at the start of the offseason too, so the Thunder are hard-capped at the first apron for all of 2024/25 as a result of the Caruso/Giddey swap even though it was technically completed in June (ie. the 2023/24 league year).
Trog
11:31
Does Hoops Rumors have any plans to break down and analyze which teams have cap space, exceptions, etc. left in the off-season? It would be really valuable if that info was updated as players came off the board  I think of guys like DeMar DeRozan saying he wants more than the MLE ... But then wondering, who even has that left?
Luke Adams
11:32
We generally don't like publishing anything concrete on that until after the moratorium ends and deals start going official, since the construction of agreements can change (e.g. a player who looked like he'd sign via MLE ends up being acquired via sign-and-trade, freeing up the MLE). But Yossi has estimates that sound like what you're looking for at https://www.capsheets.com/
Arcman
11:33
The new rules seem to hurt free agents especially older players. PG free agency was limited because of it. His choices of going to a playoff team was limited. So will you see players rather signing extensions in the future?
Luke Adams
11:35
I don't think the new rules played a huge part in limiting Paul George's options. That's just a matter of seeking a maximum-salary contract in a market where most teams don't have max-salary cap room. He was lucky there was a contender that did -- that hasn't happened for a few years. (I think 2019 was the last time an All-NBA type player changed teams as a free agent using cap room like that).

For what it's worth, we've definitely seen a huge increase in veteran extensions since the 2017 CBA. There was a rule change that year that made extensions easier, and those restrictions have been loosened even further in the 2023 CBA, so I expect to see lots of extensions going forward.
George
11:35
If a team at the end of the season is in the second apron their 2032 first round pick gets freezed. How long can it remain freezed and can picks 2033 and 2034 get also freezed if they stay a second apron team for all the duration? Thanks!
Luke Adams
11:40
Let's use the Suns as an example, since they'll definitely be a second apron team this year. So once they're officially ruled a second-apron team at the end of the 2024/25 league year, their 2032 pick will be "frozen."

If their salary exceeds the second apron in at least two of the following four seasons (so three of five in total), the frozen 2032 pick would move to the end of the first round for that draft.

But if they stay below the second apron for at least three of the subsequent four seasons, that pick becomes "unfrozen" and is once again tradable. Either way, it'll be a few years before they have the option to move it again.

My understanding is they'd essentially go through this process each year they're a second-apron team. So if they're above the second apron to finish the 2025/26 season, the same process would repeat with the 2033 first-rounder (frozen for at least the next few years, unfrozen if they spend enough seasons below the second apron).
Nuggets
11:40
I understand that the Nuggets are a 2nd Apron team. How can they then acquire Russell Westbrook who will make $4M next year?
Luke Adams
11:41
The Nuggets actually aren't a second-apron team after letting KCP go. They're below the first apron for now, so no restrictions at the moment. But if they make a trade for Westbrook where they don't send out at least $4,027,525 (his exact salary), they'll become hard-capped at the first apron.
jDubster
11:43
How exactly does a team that is - repeat offender “reset’, I.e., get back to not paying taxes.  How long do they have to spend under, and at what level?
Luke Adams
11:44
If a team finishes the season in the tax in, say, 2024/25, they're subject to the repeater rate if they were also a taxpayer in three (or more) of the previous four seasons (2020/21 through 2023/24).

So essentially, a team needs two years out of tax territory to definitely avoid being that repeater rate. Simply ducking it for one year and then going back into tax territory the next season wouldn't be enough.
11:45
It's funny, the tax line itself actually hasn't been discussed much this offseason since being under or over the tax doesn't affect a team's roster-building abilities -- that's all about the apron levels. But I imagine there are plenty of owners around the NBA keeping a close eye on their teams' position relative to the tax line (which is $170,814,000 this season, by the way).
Lou
11:46
Should Celtics stretch and waive Horford’s money and resign him to a vet minimum to save $5M in salary and plenty more in luxury tax aprons? It’d allow them to go all in for the 2025/26 season and beyond when accounting for White and Tatum’s extensions
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