NBA Salary, how the hell does it work?

by **ShAuN** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:16 am

Alright this is kind of annoying, how do they allow teams to go so far over the salary cap?? The Knicks are like 35M over how does that work? And also say if you want to re-sign Pierce, and your already 2.05M over. And he wants 10M a year, how do they alow it? I know the HEat are way over, how are they able to sign Finley too? It doesnt make sense??

by **Cable** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:24 am

Basically, there's two ways I know about (well three if you count a trade exception).

The first is that you can resign existing players on your team over the cap, so Pierce could resign, and then they would then be 12.05M over.

The second way is the mid level exception, which is 5.00M, and that means each team has 5 million to spend if they're over the cap. I'm pretty sure this is somehow related to Larry Bird, I think it use to be called the Bird exception. There also might be other exceptions, I think I read about them on NBA.com, I'm not quite sure about them. Correct me if I'm wrong guys. :wink:

by **ShAuN** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:26 am

Alright thanks, but since there over the cap, who pays for there contract?

by **Cable** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:31 am

The team does. The cap is not a limit on how much a team can spend in total, it's a limit set by the NBA so that all teams have a fairly even playing field. Take Mark Cuban, the owner of the Mavs. The guy's rich as hell, so Dallas can afford to bring in high priced players, even if it means going over the cap. Smaller market teams (can't think of one at the moment) may not have the money to go over the cap, but they are allowed to, and then they would have to pay for it, so they usually don't 'cause they don't have the cash.

by **Its_asdf** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:37 am

Don't forget about the luxury tax. Teams like the Knicks also have to pay a lot more extra money if they are way over the cap like that.

Edit: Post 600..... 400 more to go...

by **Cable** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 7:39 am

Yeah, forgot about that. That's another reason for staying under the cap. Isn't the tax $1 on every $1 over the cap?

by **Matt** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:19 am

werent there talk of changing it to $2 for every $1 over the cap?

by **Cable** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:05 pm

I haven't heard that, but if it happens, that'd be a really big deal. Look for contracts to be signed for less, 'cause the only guy who probably will still be able to afford his roster is Cuban, and only because he doesn't seem to care how much he spends. :lol:

by **Metsis** on Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:24 pm

The NBA has a soft salary cap... You can basically sign players on your current roster to any leagal deals even when you are over the cap. I won't even go into how the salaries and maximums and contract lengths work these days, it's just too confusing.

So the Celtics can sign Pierce for 25 million a year if they wish or if that's what he's demanding, in principle. There are some maximum contract dollar amounts set for guys who have been in the league for certain amount of years.

Mid-level exception is given to teams that are over the cap so they aren't crippled in the summer market... They can wave that 5 million dollar prize in everyones face and see who takes it.

Then there's the league minimum... The minimum is based again on the amount of years a player has been in the league. But anyone can try to sign anyone for the league minimum. This is what Phoenix is trying to lure Finley in with.

Luxury tax is another thing... Let's just say that if (and this is purely fictional) the salary cap was set at 45 million. The luxury tax limit would be something like 60 million or something. So teams can go over the salary cap a little bit before having to pay that luxury tax... So the Celtics could probably sign Pierce for the 10 mill to be 12 million over the cap and probably wouldn't have to pay any luxury tax.

There are only a few teams that are paying big bucks on the luxury tax issue. Knicks and probably Dallas are one of them. And I wouldn't be too surprised to see Miami get it's share too... But the luxury tax limit is sort of a "hard salary cap" for most teams... As most owners are not willing to pay any luxury taxes to the league...