Do the Celtics have James Young's bird rights after this season?

[Ed Hollison]

I know they elected not to pick up his final year option, so he'll be a free agent at the end of this season. It's my understanding that he's 1) an unrestricted free agent (not restricted) and 2) the Celtics will not have his bird rights. Is that correct?

The reason this matters is that if you have his bird rights you could potentially sign-and-trade him for something to a team that's over the cap. Or, if the Celtics sign a free agent or two, they could re-sign James Young while over the cap themselves. But to my knowledge they can't do either of these things given his contract status.

[jmen788]

I have no idea...but it will be very ironic/annoying if he is about to put it all together right at the last moment (latter part of his contract).

[GzUP617]

 From what I can remember if we wanted to keep him the most money we can offer him is 2.9 million.

[spikelovetheCelts]

Players eligible to be signed under the Bird Exception are said to have "Bird Rights." Players must spend three years with a team to earn full Bird Rights but that is after rookie contract for bigger than 15% if we don't give him a qualifying offer.  Hopefully we can move him to Sac for Kostas. They need a shooter we need big. win-win.
http://www.basketball-reference.com/contracts/players.html

[saltlover]

We have his Bird rights, but they're largely irrelevant.  The most we can offer him in year 1 of a new deal is the 4th year option we declined, which is $2,803,507**.  This is true whether we use Bird rights to go over the cap to sign him, use a mid-level exception, or just use cap space.  Also, his cap hold is also $2.803 million, so going over the cap to sign him means that we've probably also kept Amir, Jonas, and Zeller around.

This is also true for any team we might trade him to in the next week, and is why he has no value in trades aside from the small amount of salary filler he can be.  If he plays well enough for his new team, he might get an offer larger than they are allowed to make.  Even the bi-annual exception is more than his 4th-year option allows. In other words, 29 other teams will be able to make a larger offer if they want to take a look at him.

** - It's possible this number is off by 15%.  All players currently under a rookie scale contract will get their salaries increased by 15% next year.  This increase won't count against the cap/tax, and the NBA will reimburse teams for the increase.  They're just catching up the current rookie scale players to the new CBA increases.  Since Young's salary offer is limited by the old rookie scale, it's possible that either he could be offered up to this increased amount of salary ($3.22 million), or that the NBA would treat his $2.8 million salary the same way and pay him 15% extra.  I think it is unlikely they addressed this situation, but I'm looking into it.

[footey]

I hope Young keeps improving and stays in the league. It won't be with us long term but I wish him well.

[CelticGuardian]

Don't look now but guy is a 40% 3pt shooter... I'm seeing a 15 million a year offer from the Nets

[Surferdad]

Don't look now but guy is a 40% 3pt shooter... I'm seeing a 15 million a year offer from the Nets

LOL!  If we are talking about dysfunctional front offices, then perhaps Orlando takes a shot at him to replace Oladipo.  That way the $15m will prevent them from signing any free agents.

[Evantime34]

We have his Bird rights, but they're largely irrelevant.  The most we can offer him in year 1 of a new deal is the 4th year option we declined, which is $2,803,507**.  This is true whether we use Bird rights to go over the cap to sign him, use a mid-level exception, or just use cap space.  Also, his cap hold is also $2.803 million, so going over the cap to sign him means that we've probably also kept Amir, Jonas, and Zeller around.

This is also true for any team we might trade him to in the next week, and is why he has no value in trades aside from the small amount of salary filler he can be.  If he plays well enough for his new team, he might get an offer larger than they are allowed to make.  Even the bi-annual exception is more than his 4th-year option allows. In other words, 29 other teams will be able to make a larger offer if they want to take a look at him.

** - It's possible this number is off by 15%.  All players currently under a rookie scale contract will get their salaries increased by 15% next year.  This increase won't count against the cap/tax, and the NBA will reimburse teams for the increase.  They're just catching up the current rookie scale players to the new CBA increases.  Since Young's salary offer is limited by the old rookie scale, it's possible that either he could be offered up to this increased amount of salary ($3.22 million), or that the NBA would treat his $2.8 million salary the same way and pay him 15% extra.  I think it is unlikely they addressed this situation, but I'm looking into it.

I'm confused, I thought bird rights meant that you can go over the cap to sign a player to a contract of any amount.

Aren't what you are describing called "non-bird rights"?

[saltlover]

We have his Bird rights, but they're largely irrelevant.  The most we can offer him in year 1 of a new deal is the 4th year option we declined, which is $2,803,507**.  This is true whether we use Bird rights to go over the cap to sign him, use a mid-level exception, or just use cap space.  Also, his cap hold is also $2.803 million, so going over the cap to sign him means that we've probably also kept Amir, Jonas, and Zeller around.

This is also true for any team we might trade him to in the next week, and is why he has no value in trades aside from the small amount of salary filler he can be.  If he plays well enough for his new team, he might get an offer larger than they are allowed to make.  Even the bi-annual exception is more than his 4th-year option allows. In other words, 29 other teams will be able to make a larger offer if they want to take a look at him.

** - It's possible this number is off by 15%.  All players currently under a rookie scale contract will get their salaries increased by 15% next year.  This increase won't count against the cap/tax, and the NBA will reimburse teams for the increase.  They're just catching up the current rookie scale players to the new CBA increases.  Since Young's salary offer is limited by the old rookie scale, it's possible that either he could be offered up to this increased amount of salary ($3.22 million), or that the NBA would treat his $2.8 million salary the same way and pay him 15% extra.  I think it is unlikely they addressed this situation, but I'm looking into it.

I'm confused, I thought bird rights meant that you can go over the cap to sign a player to a contract of any amount.

Aren't what you are describing called "non-bird rights"?

They still call them "Bird rights", but it's why I said they're largely irrelevant.  A Non-Bird free agent can get up to a 20% raise.  The point is, regardless of what you call them, you are granted an exception so that you can re-sign your player even if you're already over the cap, but they've put in a pretty strict limitation as to how much that contract can be worth in the case of a rookie scale contract.

[kozlodoev]

I can't say I saw this coming, by the way. He spends most of the season polishing the pine, then is forced into action and all of a sudden looks like a serviceable NBA player for the first time in his career. Don't get me wrong, he's not going to be a go-to guy any time soon, but this is still probably more than many had hopes for.

[BitterJim]

We have his Bird rights, but they're largely irrelevant.  The most we can offer him in year 1 of a new deal is the 4th year option we declined, which is $2,803,507**.  This is true whether we use Bird rights to go over the cap to sign him, use a mid-level exception, or just use cap space.  Also, his cap hold is also $2.803 million, so going over the cap to sign him means that we've probably also kept Amir, Jonas, and Zeller around.

This is also true for any team we might trade him to in the next week, and is why he has no value in trades aside from the small amount of salary filler he can be.  If he plays well enough for his new team, he might get an offer larger than they are allowed to make.  Even the bi-annual exception is more than his 4th-year option allows. In other words, 29 other teams will be able to make a larger offer if they want to take a look at him.

** - It's possible this number is off by 15%.  All players currently under a rookie scale contract will get their salaries increased by 15% next year.  This increase won't count against the cap/tax, and the NBA will reimburse teams for the increase.  They're just catching up the current rookie scale players to the new CBA increases.  Since Young's salary offer is limited by the old rookie scale, it's possible that either he could be offered up to this increased amount of salary ($3.22 million), or that the NBA would treat his $2.8 million salary the same way and pay him 15% extra.  I think it is unlikely they addressed this situation, but I'm looking into it.

I'm confused, I thought bird rights meant that you can go over the cap to sign a player to a contract of any amount.

Aren't what you are describing called "non-bird rights"?

Bird rights are weird when rookie contracts are involved.  You can't cut/not pick up the option of a rookie and then pay them more than they would have been paid under their rookie contract (since that would be circumventing the rookie scale), so the pay for Young in this situation gets capped at what he would get paid next year.  We still have full bird rights, it's just that the cap for signing him (his 4th year rookie scale salary) is lower than what it is for other players (a max contract).

Other teams can offer him any amount, though, since they wouldn't be circumventing the rookie scale

[BitterJim]

Don't look now but guy is a 40% 3pt shooter... I'm seeing a 15 million a year offer from the Nets

LOL!  If we are talking about dysfunctional front offices, then perhaps Orlando takes a shot at him to replace Oladipo.  That way the $15m will prevent them from signing any free agents.

It's not money that will prevent them from signing any free agents

[CelticGuardian]

Don't look now but guy is a 40% 3pt shooter... I'm seeing a 15 million a year offer from the Nets

LOL!  If we are talking about dysfunctional front offices, then perhaps Orlando takes a shot at him to replace Oladipo.  That way the $15m will prevent them from signing any free agents.

It's not money that will prevent them from signing any free agents

Solomon Hill? Miles Plumlee? Third stringers get paid like starters now.

[Evantime34]

We have his Bird rights, but they're largely irrelevant.  The most we can offer him in year 1 of a new deal is the 4th year option we declined, which is $2,803,507**.  This is true whether we use Bird rights to go over the cap to sign him, use a mid-level exception, or just use cap space.  Also, his cap hold is also $2.803 million, so going over the cap to sign him means that we've probably also kept Amir, Jonas, and Zeller around.

This is also true for any team we might trade him to in the next week, and is why he has no value in trades aside from the small amount of salary filler he can be.  If he plays well enough for his new team, he might get an offer larger than they are allowed to make.  Even the bi-annual exception is more than his 4th-year option allows. In other words, 29 other teams will be able to make a larger offer if they want to take a look at him.

** - It's possible this number is off by 15%.  All players currently under a rookie scale contract will get their salaries increased by 15% next year.  This increase won't count against the cap/tax, and the NBA will reimburse teams for the increase.  They're just catching up the current rookie scale players to the new CBA increases.  Since Young's salary offer is limited by the old rookie scale, it's possible that either he could be offered up to this increased amount of salary ($3.22 million), or that the NBA would treat his $2.8 million salary the same way and pay him 15% extra.  I think it is unlikely they addressed this situation, but I'm looking into it.

I'm confused, I thought bird rights meant that you can go over the cap to sign a player to a contract of any amount.

Aren't what you are describing called "non-bird rights"?

They still call them "Bird rights", but it's why I said they're largely irrelevant.  A Non-Bird free agent can get up to a 20% raise.  The point is, regardless of what you call them, you are granted an exception so that you can re-sign your player even if you're already over the cap, but they've put in a pretty strict limitation as to how much that contract can be worth in the case of a rookie scale contract.

Thanks for the explanation! Tp