NBA Salary Cap/Collective Bargaining Agreement FAQ

How'd they get him to talk?!

Fisher? I talked to him for a few minutes in the locker room last week.

If you have ESPN Insider, Chad Ford breaks it down here: http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?page=boshmiamiscenario-091113

Signing the three at max means you're paying them about $49.7M total (more if Wade doesn't opt out). they have Beasley at $5M, Cook at $2.2M, and Anthony at $900K. They can waive Jones, but he has a partial guarantee of about $1.9M -- that's $10M for four guys, plus cap holds.

If the cap is $53M next summer, then they have to have no more than about $3.3M on the books in order to directly sign those guys for $49.7M.... See More

So they'd have to trade away salary, most likely in the form of a Sign-and-Trade with Toronto and/or Cleveland. There are ways to work it out, but it's a stretch, requires a lot of cooperation from multiple parties, and is a long shot at best.

You're right -- it's not in the CBA. I don't have a hard reference, but I had dinner with Bill Tosheff a few months ago (Pre-1965 NBA Players Association president), and if I remember right, he told me it was four years.

But I won't swear to that answer -- it could also be three. I think I remember (I wasn't taking notes -- it was a casual ... See Moredinner) Tosheff saying he'd been working to bridge the two year gap between the vesting requirement for the Pre-65 players (five years) and current players.

Thanks very much, yes, I guess there is a pension agreement which is outside the CBA. Thanks again.

See Q16 of my FAQ. They make a few adjustments to salaries for tax purposes:

* Zero- and one-year vets signed as free agents are taxed at the two-year minimum salary ($825K) if they make less than that (e.g. Hunter). Jawai was signed as a draft pick and not a free agent, so he's not subject to this rule.

* The cap number for the year includes likely bonuses and doesn't include unlikely bonuses. At the end of the year they subtract likely bonuses that weren't earned, and add in unlikely bonuses that were earned.... See More

Jerebko was signed this year as a second round pick, and is earning the rookie minimum salary. Where are you seeing a different tax number for him, especially since the number you quoted is below the rookie minimum?

Larry: I got the number for Jerebko from the Real GM salary sheets......

You'll have to give me a link to something -- I don't see anything with that number for him.

And like I said, the actual tax numbers are determined after the season, not before. Plus you can be pretty certain that nobody's going to be taxed at a salary below the minimum -- so I suspect the number you saw was an error.

Luxury tax is based on the team salary as of the team's last regular season game. So a deadline trade counts the same as having the player on your roster the entire season.

The amounts are calculated during the July moratorium, and paid in July.

No, a way-above-customary salary for a different job, in conjunction with an otherwise-unexplainable walking away from a similar amount of guaranteed salary as a player, wouldn't even pass the laugh test. It'd clearly be circumvention.

I don't know, but you can try. Give the league a call at 212-407-8000, ask to speak with someone who deals with it, and ask if it's available.

He will be restricted (assuming the Heat make a Qualifying Offer). Since he wasn't a first round draft pick, he's subject to restricted free agency through his first three years in the league. The option doesn't matter -- whether he invokes his option or not, he will still have completed his contract and entered free agency with three or fewer years' tenure.

Howard, I have to say I was a little disappointed you guys didn't cover my shaving it with a little more...hoopla. It was a major media event in MY book...

It seems like the Knicks would have to take on an equally bad, but smaller and longer contract. Curry/Chandler for SJax/Claxton, for example.

Congrads...will follow..

It depends on the players' individual contracts. There's a clause that says what happens to non-invoked options when the player is waived. There's also a window (that's usually a matter of individual negotiation) during which the player is allowed to invoke his option. I know Curry's opens the day after the season ends, but I don't know about Jeffries (who has an ETO, by the way, not an option).

Continued...

In Curry's case, it's -possible- to get out from under any 2010 obligation, but not bloody likely. He & the Knicks could mutually agree to amend his contract to void his option. Once they do that, his contract ends next summer no matter what, so if they waived him, none of his salary would count against 2010-11. But they most Curry could get in ... See Morea buyout is his 2009-10 salary of $10.5M -- he'd be walking away from an additional $11.3M. I don't know why he'd agree to do that -- it's not like he's going to get that much from another team.

In Jeffries' case, since he has an ETO rather than an option, voiding it wouldn't help -- the contract would still end in 2011. The only thing they could do is get him to invoke his ETO, but I don't know if his window is open. And similar to Curry, he's owed about $6.9M next season, so even if it was possible, I don't see any reason he'd agree to walk away from that.