HoopsHype’s salary cap expert Yossi Gozlan is providing updates and reactions on each major event at the start of free agency.
Where teams stand before 6 pm
The lead-up to free agency featured several decisions that will change the cap space landscape in the league. For now, we can absolutely lock in Charlotte, Memphis (sort of), New York, and San Antonio as teams that will utilize cap space. * Charlotte secured their spot under the cap after agreeing to acquire Mason Plumlee from Detroit. His $8.9 million salary knocked off a good chunk of Charlotte’s $24 million in potential cap space. That, and acquiring the draft rights to Kai Jones brings Charlotte’s current maximum cap space figure down to $12 million. That figure includes the possibility of Charlotte agreeing to a new contract with Devonte’ Graham, then rescinding his $4.7 million cap hold to the veteran minimum, thus creating more cap space. This is a technique that could also be utilized by Toronto in regards to Gary Trent Jr., but more on them later. The Hornets didn’t extend a qualifying offer to Malik Monk, which was very shocking to many. However, had Monk accepted his $7 million qualifying offer, that would’ve thrown Charlotte’s cap space plans out the window. He will now become unrestricted and could be a great value signing for whichever team scoops him up. It’s unclear what Charlotte plans to do with the rest of their cap space, especially now that they may have figured out their center situation for next year. * Detroit getting off Plumlee and waiving the non-guaranteed contract of Cory Joseph put them in a position to generate $19 million in cap space. The question is, who will they pursue? Kelly Olynyk is one name the Pistons could monitor, per our insider Michael Scotto. Or perhaps they’ll sign someone as unexpected as when they signed Jerami Grant last offseason.
* The trade Memphis executed with New Orleans will require all of their cap space, which led to them declining Justise Winslow’s $13 million player option. Unless they get off more salary, they’ll be left with the $4.9 million room mid-level. New Orleans, on the other hand, now can generate up to $36 million in cap space. Alternatively, they can operate over the cap, re-sign or match offer sheets for Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart, and have access to the $9.5 million mid-level exception. Also, instead of cap space, they’d generate an $18 million and $3 million trade exception for Eric Bledsoe and Steven Adams, respectively. They could use those exceptions to sign-and-trade for free agents or veterans. * New York and San Antonio are set to have the most cap space at roughly $50 million each. Meanwhile, Dallas is likely to remain a cap space team as long as they can secure a player they’re targeting. They currently can generate up to $30 million if they renounce all cap holds, including Tim Hardaway Jr. After acquiring Moses Brown and exercising Willie Cauley-Stein’s player option, they could look to offload one of their other big men to generate even more cap space to help keep Hardaway Jr.
* Miami is no longer a cap space team after exercising Goran Dragic’s $19.4 team option. The Heat could’ve generated a maximum of $27 million in cap space, which is roughly the starting salary they could give Kyle Lowry in a sign-and-trade for Dragic and Precious Achiuwa. The deal under that starting salary could reach a maximum of $87.5 million over three years. The sign-and-trade path for Lowry is better than outright signing him since it gives Miami access to the $9.5 million mid-level exception and $3.7 million bi-annual exception. However, completion of a sign-and-trade for Lowry would hard cap the Heat, which would likely allow them to do two, but not all three, of re-signing Duncan Robinson, Kendrick Nunn, and using the $9.5 million mid-level exception. For example, If Lowry gets a $27.8 million starting salary, and the Heat spend the $9.5 million mid-level exception on a free agent or uses the equivalent of it to re-sign Nunn, they could give Robinson a starting salary of $17 million while being able to fill out the rest of the roster with veteran minimum contracts. Such a starting salary for Robinson could total $100 million over five years from the Heat. * And that leads back to Toronto. They currently can generate $21 million in cap space while factoring Trent Jr. and Chris Boucher. However, if they do not reroute Dragic and Achiuwa elsewhere, they will lose all that cap space and operate over the cap. Their path to free agents would most likely be via sign-and-trades, unless they get off more salary elsewhere. * Barring any massive salary dumps, Brooklyn, Golden State, Los Angeles Clippers and Lakers, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and Utah are expected to utilize the $5.9 million taxpayer mid-level exception. Minnesota now has access to the $9.5 million mid-level exception thanks to the savings from trading Ricky Rubio for Taurean Prince, but doing so would still take them over the luxury tax when factoring in a rookie-scale contract for Leandro Bolmaro. Every other team not else not listed in this section yet will have access to the $9.5 million mid-level exception.
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