Salary Cap update

[rmitchell222003]

Can anyone estimate how much money we have left to spend?

[saltlover]

Sure.  Green's, Bass's, and KG's contracts are estimates, but here's what I've got:

Pierce    16,790,345.00 Rondo    11,000,000.00 Garnett    11,000,000.00 Green    9,000,000.00 Terry    5,000,000.00 Bass    6,333,333.00 Bradley    1,630,800.00 Sullinger    1,306,920.00 Melo    1,254,720.00 Lee    5,000,000.00 Wilcox    854,389.00 Collins    854,389.00 Dooling    854,389.00             Total    70,879,285.00 Remaining Space    3,420,715.00         Non-guaranteed Players    Joseph    854,389.00 Smith    854,389.00 Christmas    854,389.00     Total (if on team)    73,442,452.00 Remaining Space    857,548.00

Including just the guaranteed players, we have $3.4 mil space.  If all the non-guaranteed players make it, thus bumping off a guaranteed guy, we're down to $857k, which is very conveniently just above the vet min.  It's unclear (to me, at least) how non-guaranteed contracts count towards the cap prior to the start of the regular season, but we should have enough room to add one more vet min at least, and I think use the BAE should we want.

Note:  Players with less than two years experience count as two-year vets when their salary is considered against the hardcap, thus the inflated numbers for Joseph et al.

[KGs Knee]

Sure.  Green's, Bass's, and KG's contracts are estimates, but here's what I've got:

Pierce    16,790,345.00 Rondo    11,000,000.00 Garnett    11,000,000.00 Green    9,000,000.00 Terry    5,000,000.00 Bass    6,333,333.00 Bradley    1,630,800.00 Sullinger    1,306,920.00 Melo    1,254,720.00 Lee    5,000,000.00 Wilcox    854,389.00 Collins    854,389.00 Dooling    854,389.00             Total    70,879,285.00 Remaining Space    3,420,715.00         Non-guaranteed Players    Joseph    854,389.00 Smith    854,389.00 Christmas    854,389.00     Total (if on team)    73,442,452.00 Remaining Space    857,548.00

Including just the guaranteed players, we have $3.4 mil space.  If all the non-guaranteed players make it, thus bumping off a guaranteed guy, we're down to $857k, which is very conveniently just above the vet min.  It's unclear (to me, at least) how non-guaranteed contracts count towards the cap prior to the start of the regular season, but we should have enough room to add one more vet min at least, and I think use the BAE should we want.

Note:  Players with less than two years experience count as two-year vets when their salary is considered against the hardcap, thus the inflated numbers for Joseph et al.

Beat me to it.  TP!

I've got slightly lower numbers for KG, Green & Bass though.  Their reported totals were, respectively; KG-3 yr/$34m, Green- 4yr/$36m and Bass-3 yr/$20m.  This would put their starting salaries, using standard contract stucture (7.5% raises), at; KG- $10.6m, Green- $8.1m and Bass- $6.2m.

I've also seen it reported, although not necessarily confirmed, that Smith and Christmas have a small amount of their contracts guaranteed.  Not sure how much though.

Also, we can only keep 2 of the 3 listed of the non-guaranteed players, due to roster limitations (15).

My totals are:
69.6m-guaranteed (4.7m space)
71.4-including non-guaranteed (2.9m space)

[saltlover]

Beat me to it.  TP!

I've got slightly lower numbers for KG, Green & Bass though.  Their reported totals were, respectively; KG-3 yr/$34m, Green- 4yr/$36m and Bass-3 yr/$20m.  This would put their starting salaries, using standard contract stucture (7.5% raises), at; KG- $10.6m, Green- $8.1m and Bass- $6.2m.

I've also seen it reported, although not necessarily confirmed, that Smith and Christmas have a small amount of their contracts guaranteed.  Not sure how much though.

Also, we can only keep 2 of the 3 listed of the non-guaranteed players, due to roster limitations (15).

My totals are:
69.6m-guaranteed (4.7m space)
71.4-including non-guaranteed (2.9m space)

My totals for the three signings are admittedly estimates, but when news of Green's deal came through it was reported as him making $9 mil in year 1, and presumably no raises each year.  Considering they agreed to $9 mil for one year last season, this seems plausible.  Likewise, Garnett was reported somewhere as making $11 mil in year one, and $34 over 3 (so I have him getting $333,333 raises each year.)  Bass I just guessed on, but decided that a 6.33/6.67/7.0 structure seemed just as likely as the 6.2/6.67/7.13 structure that others estimate.

In general, I think Danny doesn't like back-loading deals/giving max raises when he doesn't have to, so I've gone with these figures.  I hope that they're correct too, because we have enough space to do what we need this year, and the more paid now means less paid next season.

As a matter of planning, he'd be wise to avoid 7.5% raises for his own free agents.  The CBA is structured such that the cap/tax levels will increase 4-4.5% per season most of the time, so 7.5% jumps will eat up bigger chunks of the salary pool from one year to the next, whereas smaller raises won't.

[Prof. Clutch]

TP's to saltlover & KGs Knee for the breakdown.

There's a little more info about the Smith's contract now coming out:

According to the site, Smith signed a two-year, minimum-salary contract. The first year is $25,000 guaranteed, becoming fully guaranteed ($473,604) if not waived on or before Nov. 15. The second year is fully non-guaranteed, becoming fully guaranteed ($788,872) if not waived by June 30, 2013.

http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/celtics/post/_/id/4696589/jamar-smith-contract-in-focus


Also apparently shamsports has a nice financial breakdown here:
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/celtics.jsp

[Roy H.]

Also apparently shamsports has a nice financial breakdown here:
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/celtics.jsp

Here's another site that I've historically found to be ever so slightly more reliable (and usually updated more often):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AodNvAy3ZYZmdGE3NDBqMElRUXh2REN4Q3pZRG1TU1E&gid=4

[Prof. Clutch]

Also apparently shamsports has a nice financial breakdown here:
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/celtics.jsp

Here's another site that I've historically found to be ever so slightly more reliable (and usually updated more often):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AodNvAy3ZYZmdGE3NDBqMElRUXh2REN4Q3pZRG1TU1E&gid=4

Great!  Thanks Roy!

[Cman]

Also apparently shamsports has a nice financial breakdown here:
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/celtics.jsp

Here's another site that I've historically found to be ever so slightly more reliable (and usually updated more often):

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AodNvAy3ZYZmdGE3NDBqMElRUXh2REN4Q3pZRG1TU1E&gid=4

Thanks for including these updates, everyone.

One thing the link from Roy makes clear is that, not only are the Cs almost out of space for this year, but also for next year. Other than vet min contracts and our first rounder next year, Cs are unlikely to be doing much on the free agency front next year.

As a side note, the lack of flexibility next year might have been one reason that DA was willing to part with all those 2nd rounders to get Lee.

[KGs Knee]

In general, I think Danny doesn't like back-loading deals/giving max raises when he doesn't have to, so I've gone with these figures.  I hope that they're correct too, because we have enough space to do what we need this year, and the more paid now means less paid next season.

As a matter of planning, he'd be wise to avoid 7.5% raises for his own free agents.  The CBA is structured such that the cap/tax levels will increase 4-4.5% per season most of the time, so 7.5% jumps will eat up bigger chunks of the salary pool from one year to the next, whereas smaller raises won't.

Actually, Ainge has backloaded quite a few contracts over his time here.  In fact, probably the vast majority of them.

As far as whether or not to pay more now or later, I'd prefer to pay a little more later.  Gives us more flexibility under the apron now.  If the numbers I saw you posted in another thread regarding BRI estimates and cap/tax/apron levels is accurate, we could have as much as $10m+ under the apron next season (although I'm skeptical the tax line will be $79m next year).

Using my current estimates, I have next season's team salary at $69.7m for 10 players.  You'd have to include our 1st rd draft pick (which might add $1m more), and salaries to fill the roster as well.  If the tax line goes up 4% ($73m), the apron would be $77m.  That would leave us about $7m left to spend, using exceptions (BAE,MLE,Trade).  That is with a full roster of rotation players already, mind you.

[Swedemon]

Total (if on team)    73,442,452.00
Remaining Space    857,548.00

Wait a second... isn't the Luxury Tax at $70,307,000 in 2012/13 not 74,300,000 as you have it?

Also, don't we *have* to stay under the Luxury Tax line in order to give Jason Terry what we committed which is the full MLE ($5 million).  And if that is the case we would need to back-load the recent contracts to stay under the tax.  Moreover, we would not have the flexibility to add another vet min or BAE contract.

Am I missing something here?

[SCeltic34]

Total (if on team)    73,442,452.00
Remaining Space    857,548.00

Wait a second... isn't the Luxury Tax at $70,307,000 in 2012/13 not 74,300,000 as you have it?

Also, don't we *have* to stay under the Luxury Tax line in order to give Jason Terry what we committed which is the full MLE ($5 million).  And if that is the case we would need to back-load the recent contracts to stay under the tax.  Moreover, we would not have the flexibility to add another vet min or BAE contract.

Am I missing something here?

The luxury tax apron is the luxury tax (70.307 million) PLUS 4 million dollars, equating to 74.307 million.

[Swedemon]

The luxury tax apron is the luxury tax (70.307 million) PLUS 4 million dollars, equating to 74.307 million.

There ya have it...Thanks for clarifying.

I found more info here regarding the Luxury Tax "apron" and how it affects a team's flexibility: 
http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q23