I would think it is because we didn't have any sizable contracts expire after this season. Whereas, Hedo came off the books in Orlando and Wally came off the books in Cleveland.
The Vince and Shaq trades obviously don't have to with the cap space because they were traded for guys whose contracts added up to similar figures.
I know that many of you are saying that they (CLE,ORL) are in the same boat as us, but shouldn't both of these teams actually have more cap space than us due to these contracts coming off the books?
Nope,just because a big contract expires doesn't mean you'll actually end up under the cap, or even the luxury tax!
We'll still be in tax land in all likelyhood even if we let Ray walk after this year.
So a question that I'm sure has been asked countless times so I apologize in advance: there is clearly a gap between the salary cap and luxury tax threshold.
1. What are the exact figures? I think the cap is down to 57-58 million? Is that right? Where does luxury tax start?
2. If you go over the cap but are under the luxury tax threshold, what is the punishment? Tax dollars but not as steep as luxury? If there isn't punishment, what is the point of the actual salary cap number?
Well, to be accurate, we don't know what the cap is, or the luxury tax is. That is why no one can be signed right now. There is a moratorium between July 1-8, for them to calculate the cap for the next season.
And if you are over the cap, but not under the luxury tax, there is no punishment, you simply cannot sign FA's without using one of your exceptions (MLE, LLE, or veteran minimum), and in order to do trades, you are forced to match salaries within 125% plus $100,000. If you are under the cap, you can sign free agents to any amount of money up to the league maximum (with a few exceptions, but lets not get everyone too confused right now), or up to the salary cap, and you can also make trades without matching salaries.