One thing I thought of is if we got a TPE to NOT use it this season, and wait until next offseason just before it expires when we are not hard capped by the tax apron. If Hayward can sign a contract where it decreases every year so we get the maximum TPE we can get even better. Say for example the TPE is 34.502 mil we could just sneak in Beal in a trade next year. Lol
It just may open more doors to trade for a max or near max level player by waiting it out after the season. I would offer a Jrue Holiday like trade 3 first round picks and 2 pick swaps for this type of player as I expect us to be very good over the next several years.
The most the TPE can be is a little more than $32 million and that's only if Hayward takes a declining salary every year, which is rather unusual.
The more likely outcomes are he gets an even $30 million a year every year making the TPE $30 million or he takes 8% raises every year and so his first year starting salary would be about $28 million, which would be the size of the TPE.
John Hollinger suggested they would be better off actually starting him with a bigger number, and having it decline, so that it is closer to market the last couple of years and therefore have more trade value. As long as they have the cap space, it is something for them to consider.
It’s not solely up to CHA. It depends on what was negotiated. I’m sure Bartelstein doesn’t want Hayward’s biggest salary to be the one subject to a giant escrow reduction.
The escrow for the next two seasons is estimated to be at 18%, back down to 10% (hopefully) following that. Assuming players lose the total 18% each year over the next two years but nothing the 2 years after that his financial losses would be the following on a descending vs ascending deal:
Descending
32.4 x .18 = 5.83
30.8 x.18 = 5.54
Ascending
27.6 x.18 = 4.97
29.2 x .18 = 5.26
So (5.83+5.54) - (4.97+5.26) = 1.14 million dollars net loss.
Given that CHA offered his a cool 20 million more than the next offer my guess is they'll have some say in how the contract is structured. But who knows, maybe not.