NBA Salary Cap

[MarkPrice25]

Hey guys, I understand the CBA to a pretty good extent, but I have a major question that I hope you guys can help me with.

It's common knowledge that we have about $20+ million in salary cap room if we don't do anything with Z. That puts us at the "hard cap." What I don't understand is how teams like NY have a $100 million dollar payroll for Marbury and their 11 power forwards. I know that there is a luxury tax out there and there is the MLE and LLE, but how can the Knicks have such a large cap number? It can't ALL be Bird Rights, can it????

Help me out please. Hell, if we can have a salary cap like the Knicks, we have $80 million to spend this summer without Z. I know that could never happen, just saying.

Say we re-sign Z at $10 million this summer (just for comparison), we will only have $10-12 million to spend. Are we able to go over the cap at all at this point?

What about this......I know it is a gamble. Renounce Z, sign (insert PG and SG here), sign another big off the bench, and hope that Z doesn't sign with anyone. Then, we can go over the cap and give Z whatever he wants after we've signed some big-name FAs. I know that can work because we have his Bird Rights.

I hate to post without knowing all the facts, but I would really appreciate some help on this.

 

[LyXo]

Marbury was acquired in a trade: 04
Anfernee Hardaway was acquired in a trade: 04
Tim Thomas acquired in a trade: 04
Signed Allan Houston: 01 (Bird rights prolly)
Signed Kurt Thomas: 04 (Bird rights prolly)

Marbury and Hardaway both had huge contracts. I think Marbury's was just starting and Hardaways was something ridiculous like a 9-year contract.

I think all of the contracts were just small to begin with then grew and grew over the years. Top that with a huge-ass Allan Houston contract and an extension to Kurt's, then you have tons and tons of wasted money into a bunch of injured, me-first players.

Also, the Knicks have been over the cap for quite some time. From looking at http://www.hoopshype.com/general_managers/isiah_thomas.htm, I see he's been trying to rid of baggage. Too bad that baggage was traded for even more baggage. They had Latrell Sprewell, Keith Van Horn, etc.

 

[Mad Hatter]

We will have more than $20m to spend this summer - maybe a lot more. We won't know the exact number until the new CBA comes out and we find out what the new salary cap is. But the cap is expected to rise by a sizable amount over last year - it may be as high as $50m! Besides that, Lucious Harris will be bought out, taking at least half of his salary off the cap.

The point is... I think it's safe to count on having at least $24m to work with. It could be even more, though.

You can't renounce Z and then later go over the cap to re-sign him because then you lose your Bird rights on him when you renounce him.

The Knicks are in very bad shape for the next 2 or 3 seasons. They can't sign any free agents other than whatever they can get with their exceptions (mid-level, etc.). They have made bad trades, given out bad contracts, and are paying a ton of luxury tax on a mediocre team. NY's situation is one of the worst in the NBA. I think if you figure the top 10 worst contracts in the NBA, NY has to have at least 3 or 4 of them. Allan Houston is making $19.1m next year, $20.7m in 06-07. Penny gets $15.7m next year before his long contract is finally up. Marbury... we won't even touch that one. Many of NY's players were signed to these escalating deals before the current CBA went into effect. You can't sign guys for as many years as you used to be able to, but the old contracts are grandfathered.