DA's salary cap situation after today's news

[sinbad]

* Green reportedly is getting around 4yrs/40M
* Bass signs for 3yrs/20M
* C's ready to give Ray no trade clause or trade kicker

If Green is getting 10M and Bass 6.6M then DA is at around 67M including Ray's 6M offer. This is the breaking point for DA. He needs to stay under the 67M to be able to use both the MLE (5M) and the bi-annual exception of 1.96M. Calculation: 67M + MLE (5M) + BAE (1.96M) = 73.96M. The luxury tax apron is estimated to be 74M.

Now if the contracts escalate each year then DA has some wiggle room with Ray. For example, Green only gets 9M this year and Bass gets only 5.6M this year then DA has around 2M more to offer Ray in a counter offer(if needed).

I think the fact that Green's contract has curiously not been finalized means that DA needs to know exactly how much more he'll need to offer Ray in order to convince him to stay. DA will then know exactly how much he has left over to allocate to Green's first year. DA knows the contract will be worth 40M but he's told Green's agent David Falk that he won't know the structure until Ray's situation is finalized.

I do believe that DA will counter with the trade kicker or no trade clause and if that doesn't work then I believe he has at least an extra million (probably 2M/yr) to offer Ray. If these calculations are right then I think DA could offer Ray a maximum of 2yrs/16M with a no trade clause. Riley's pitch doesn't come anywhere close to that deal and it seems that Ray would be foolish to decline it. In order for Riley to come close to matching the total value of the contract (16M), he would need to offer Ray a 5yr/15M deal...no way Riley goes out 5 years for a soon to be 37 year old. If Ray doesn't come back it won't because of money or the fear of being traded.

Now after all that is done, DA now has the BAE of $1.96 to offer Stiemsma (or some other backup center).

After Stiemsma is done, then all DA has left to do is to add at least one another player (minimum # of players needs to be 13) at the vet minimum and he's done.

Introducing your probable 2012/13 Boston Celtics (in my opinion):

KG/Stiemsma/Melo
Bass/Sullinger/JJJ
Pierce/Green
Bradley/Ray
Rondo/Terry
One possibly two vet minimum contracts

[Roy H.]

Yeah, I'm sure the contracts will escalate.  The estimates we're all using for KG, Bass, and especially Green probably aren't accurate in terms of their first year value.

[KGs Knee]

No way Green is getting that "reported" amount.  Not even close to being worth it.

That aside, if we do pay that much for Green, it would be very difficult to keep Ray and still have the full MLE.  We definitely won't be able to use both the MLE and BAE.  Vet min deals would work, as they only count at around .8m (regardless of actual contract value).

Also, the 5yr/15m deal for Ray possibility is impossible for Miami.  Due to "Over 36" rules it would never work.