Yeah, league says no first - it is hard for any app and us as fans to navigate exactly how close various teams are to hard caps, but the Clippers are really close. To make it work on spotrac (and even that may not be accurate), the Clippers would have to throw in Derrick Jones Jr to the Kings. That itself puts the Kings taking back too much salary, so you have to throw in a minimum contract going to Boston - I picked French rookie center Maxine Reynaud, a second round pick (as many of us know having looked at available second round centers). I didn't pick him for any skill reasons, he might be okay, maybe not, I don't know, I just picked him because he has the lowest salary. That's what you have to do to make it work.
For Celtics, I have been going back and forth recently on what to do with Simons. He is fine. Shooting pretty efficiently, but I genuinely do not care whether he is on the team or not. I think he is better than Monk but I would not want to pay either guy more than $12 million a year. So I am not pumped about the idea of paying Monk $20 and $21.5 the next two years. Financially, adding Monk and Reynaud would cut salary this year by $7.6 million, putting the Celtics below the first apron, and about $4.5 million above the tax line, reducing the tax bill for this year by $26 million. But next year, the Celtics currently project to have somewhere in the neighborhood of $15-20 million available below the tax level, $25-30 below the first apron, depending on draft slot and raises, for 12 guys under NBA contract next year (this year's 14 minus Simons, Tillman, Boucher plus a first rounder). Monk and Reynaud would push the roster to 14 and probably put the Celtics a little above the first apron, and also probably pushing them a little above the first apron for 27-28, when they will have (barring other moves and including 26 and 27 first rounders) 11 players, and Queta, Minott and Walsh will all be free agents.
The advantage of Monk MAY be having a sizable contract to trade next year to try to get a better big to back up, play alongside, or play ahead of Queta. Simons might be willing to come back at $10-12 million this summer, which would not give you as much salary to trade but at better value and more potential intrigue for another team, but Simons may also prefer to go somewhere he thinks he has a better chance at more playing time. He has gone from a 32+ mpg guy to 24. And when Tatum comes back - do the Cs switch to a starting lineup of White-Brown-Walsh-Tatum-Queta and have both Simons and Pritchard coming off the bench? If so, Simons usage will take a hit. He is probably not even the sixth man here when Tatum returns. So there is a good chance of a large salary space walking. They could still get one in with the trade exceptions but it might be complicated with apron rules. If Monk only had one extra year, I think I would probably do it - the $26 million in luxury tax savings this year would more than pay for Monk next year while adding a dice roll on another young center. But with two years, nah.
I do not care about the other teams but I do not think the Clippers would take on all that extra salary next year for Lavine.
Topic: Simmons Trade Idea: BOS/SAC/LAC (Read 2120 times)