So it would be lunacy to renounce Marion (and probably AP) since that would give the Raptors a whopping $1.5 mil. more than the mid-level, correct?

I believe this is how Bryan Colangelo views the situation — and it’s certainly true if the goal is to win as many games as possible next season.

However, my views on the situation are — Short term gain, long term pain — I think locking up Marion and some combination of Parker, Graham, Delfino, plus the possibility of using the MLE …. I think that kills the Raptors cap flexibility for the next couple of years, and as a consequence, I expect it’ll create long term mediocrity.

2 years at $9-10 mil. or 3-4 years at $8 mil. strikes me as about right, and makes Banks and Kapono mildly more palatable.

But who can the Raptors get for the mid-level? (And there’s no way Iverson works on any version of this team people)

First Note — The cap holds on a player finishing the fourth year of a rookie scale contract.

A player earning less than the league average salary will have a cap hold of 300% of his previous season’s pay (Joey Graham + Carlos Delfino). A player earning more than the league average salary ($5.5mil) will have a cap hold of 250% of his previous season’s pay (Bargnani in 2010).

The cap holds for these type of players is a different figure than the qualifying offer. The cap hold figure is only relevant until they sign a contract with the Raptors or some other team.

For example, Joey Graham’s cap hold is a little less than $7.5mil.

Second Note

Just in case anyone was wondering where that $7mil figure for cap space came from — When I was working out the Raptors salaries for next season I counted $50 million on the books. That includes the Raptors current salaries, the lottery pick (#8 pick), and a cap charge for open roster spots.

So, the Raptors have $7mil cap space if the cap is $57mil (figure in league memo at trading deadline) — or somewhere in that ball park depending on wherever the cap ends up this summer.

“The player must have played for three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent”

Also their are also different levels of bird rights (even though it doesnt affect our offseason)

Full bird rights (3 seasons)- re-sign up to maximum contract

Early bird rights (2 seasons)- re-sign up to 175% of prior salary or mid-level (whichever is greater)

No bird rights (1 or less season)- re-sign up to 120% of previous salary or 120% of the league’s minimum salary

There is a cap hold for Marion (and AP, Joey, Delfino, Pops and maybe Douby). Even though Marion was obtained this year (in the last year of his contract), he counts against the Raptors’ cap figure unless he (or any other FA/RFA) is renounced, correct? i.e., renouncing everyone gets the Raptors about $7 mil in (soft) cap space but denies them the $5.5 mil the mid-level figures to be, correct? Factor in the bi-annual exception and you have $7 mil. so renouncing may get the team nothing but heartache.

So it would be lunacy to renounce Marion (and probably AP) since that would give the Raptors a whopping $1.5 mil. more than the mid-level, correct?

So Marion is at least a sign-and-trade in the off-season, no?

“Well they have no rights to Marion or AP…. anything more than a fringe playoff team next year (again)…

PLEASE, I beg you to consider posting a “Public Service Announcement” to educate everyone on the realistic cap scenarios and available exceptions. Everyone knows that the NBA soft cap is confusing but we’re all rambling about FA spending that is WAY beyond realistic based on our cap situation this offseason.

Some things to be included –

1)Bird Rights – “This exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own unrestricted free agents, up to the player’s maximum salary. The player must have played for three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent” Bird rights stay with a contract through a trade. Also effects yearly increase rate (10.5% versus 8.0%).

Bird Rights apply to Shawn Marion and Anthony Parker as long as we have a “cap hold” (Not sure of the exact hold amount for Bird rights – restricted FA cap hold/qualifying offer is 125% of previous salary) – we can rescind bird rights and have the cap hold lifted.

2)Restricted Free Agents – Same as Bird Agents but the qualifying offer/cap hold is is 125% of previous salary or or the minimum salary plus $150,000 (whichever is higher). RFA’s are generally either 1st round picks or they are players with no more than 3 years NBA experience. We have the right for first refusal and considering the expected economic decline RFA’s are likely to get minimal interest in the offseason.

Our RFA’s are Joey Graham, Carlos Delfino, Pops Mensah Bonsu and possibly Quincy Douby (If we sign him for the remainder of the season).

Team Option – the only team option for the Raptors is on Patrick O’Bryant. It is quite simple – only a portion of his contract is guarenteed for next year (about $500,000 from what I’ve heard) and that amount would be on our salary cap if we waive him before Dec 15th (to my knowledge).

Draft Picks and minimum contracts – Drafted players salaries (to scale) and minimum salaries are always an exception to the soft cap. We can buy or trade for draft picks anytime up to and including draft night.

The other major thing to include in this is the obvious (yet often forgot) difference between the soft cap and the hard cap. The soft cap is the true cap – it can only be exceeded by exceptions and RFA and Bird right signings. Also we do NOT have any exceptions since we are starting the offseason below the cap! The soft cap is expected to drop a bit to about 57 million and the luxury tax level is expected to be about 69 million.

This whole equation means that we can either renounce the rights to some of our bird right UFAs and RFAs and have about 7 mill under the soft cap to spend on UFAs (according to Dave’s calculations) and lose the ability to use any Midlevel or Bi-annnual exceptions…

Or we can resign the majority of our own free agents and exceed the soft cap by re-signing our own FAs as well as using the mid-level and Bi-annual exceptions.

Well they have no rights to Marion or AP so they cant renounce them, but
Joey’s Qualifying offer and declinging O’Bryant’s option would be a difference of 4.5 million or so. Even after doing this they would only have 12-14 million to outright spend on a Ben Gordon/Ariza/Hedo etc to fill the wing spots. Once they spend their way back to the cap they only have minimum contracts, Draft Picks, and the right to sign restricted free agents that they own rights to (most notably Delfino) and would not have the mid-level or bi-annual exceptions since they started the offseason below the cap. Either way its going to take some crafty moves and alot of money thrown at late 1st/early 2nd round draft picks to make anything more than a fringe playoff team next year (again)…

Feel free to add or correct me on any of these points.

In the words of Bob Marley, “One Love”

BC sits down with Triano today and tells him we’re out of the playoffs. BC then tells Triano who he’d like to keep around and who is most likely leaving. Therefore, Triano will not be playing these bodies intensively since they aren’t returning. We’ll just have to wait and see if this is remotely true.

You think they’re going to play Jawai and Voskuhl for 48 minutes??