FREE AGENCY, NBA, SPURS, TRADE TALK
2009 Teams With Cap Concerns: San Antonio
In Free Agency, General NBA, Trade Talk on June 24, 2009 at 1:00 pm
This is an update to an earlier post following the acquisition of Richard Jefferson.
San Antonio Spurs? Salaries
Let?s start off by looking at who is currently on the Spurs? books for next season.
Here are the contracts over five million dollars
Tim Duncan ? $22.18 million
Richard Jefferson ? $14.2 million
Tony Parker ? $12.6 million
Manu Ginobili ? $10.73 million
That totals $59.71 million for four players.
Manu Ginobili will be entering the final year of his deal. Meanwhile, Tony Parker and Richard Jefferson have two more to go, and Tim Duncan three years to play on his contract.
Now let?s have a look at the rest of their contracts
Roger Mason Jr ? $3.78mil
Matt Bonner ? $3.26mil
George Hill ? $1.08mil
Ian Mahinmi ? $900k
These four contracts add up to $9.02 million.
Roger Mason Jr and Matt Bonner are both entering the final years of their contract. Ian Mahinmi and George Hill are on rookie scale contracts, with Mahinmi entering his third year and Hill only his second season.
That brings the Spurs? total up to $68.73 million for eight players.
Other additional costs
Player Option ? Michael Finley has a player option worth $2.5mil. He has said that he?s considering retirement so this is not a certain contract, but should he decide to play one more year he?ll most definitely take this option and stay with San Antonio. This is more money than any one in their right mind would offer him, and he?s settled here in San Antone. This would be Finley?s last year of his contract, and likely the last year of his career should he return.
Open Roster Spots ? The Spurs will have nine players on their books including Michael Finley. That leaves a minimum of four open roster spots and numerous holes on the bench, so those veteran minimum contracts will add up to $3.3 million.
I?m going to assume that Michael Finley does in fact return to the Spurs for one last season, it would be madness for him to opt out of that contract. That gives the Spurs additional costs of $5.7 million.
The Spurs total payroll has now risen to $72.03 million.
The Cap+ Luxury Tax Line
We don?t really know what will happen to the salary cap heading into next season, although it looks most likely that the cap will decline (secondary possibility that it holds steady). However, if my memory serves me, I believe I read somewhere that the league was more definitive over the luxury tax and said that it would definitely decrease this summer.
The league handed out a memo just before the trade deadline containing estimates on possible cap figures. That memo had the tax threshold decreasing from $71.15mil to $69.4mil. Here is an extract from ESPN with information on those numbers
On Feb. 18, Stern authorized the dispatch of a memo to all 30 teams projecting a drop in the salary cap from $58.7 million this season to $57.3 million in 2009-10 and a subsequent drop to $56.5 million in 2010-11, with a projected decline for the luxury-tax threshold as well: $71.2 million this season to $69.4 million in 2009-10 to $68.5 million in 2010-11.
For the purposes of these posts ? teams facing cap concerns in 2009 ? I will be solely using that suggested figure ? $69.4 million ? from the league?s front office.
Spurs versus Luxury Tax
Therefore, the Spurs are $2.63 million over the luxury tax threshold.
The Spurs Main Options
What assets do the Spurs have at their disposal to improve their team now?
The MLE
The LLE
Minimum Contracts
Expiring contracts ? Roger Mason Jr + Matt Bonner add up to a little over $7 million. That could net the Spurs a difference making role player like a James Posey, or someone along those lines.
If the Spurs spent their MLE on one player, their LLE on another, and signed some minimum contracts, what would their payroll be?
The MLE will be about $5.5 million. The LLE will be another $1.9 million. That would leave two open roster spots to get to the minimum of 13 bodies on the roster, which would add another $1.65 million.
That would take the Spurs payroll up to $80.3 million. If you include the luxury tax payments, their payroll would rise to over $90 million.
By the way, if the Spurs wanted a full 15 man roster, their payroll could climb to $82 million and $94 million after luxury tax payments.
With the Spurs over the luxury tax, will they be willing to spend their MLE?
Gosh, you?d have to think so. They can?t actually believe they can win a title without major improvements to their supporting cast, can they?
This must have been sign that their owner was willing to go all out for another few title runs.
One possibility ?
The Spurs could get lucky. They could manage to talk Antonio McDyess and Grant Hill, two excellent veteran role players who have sacrificed money in order to play for a contender in recent seasons, to sign for low value contracts.
Grant Hill earned the LLE these last two seasons in Phoenix, while McDyess is still getting paid from Denver and played for the minimum last season for Detroit.
This would be San Antonio?s dream come through, because it?s the only way they?ll be able to keep their luxury tax payments under control while also adding game changing players to their side.
What will be the Spurs #1 target from here on out?
A big man
The Spurs will be satisfied with their five main perimeter players of Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili, Richard Jefferson, George Hill and Roger Mason Jr. They?ll likely add 2-3 minimum contracts wings, one of which will likely be Bruce Bowen and perhaps even Ime Udoka. They?d love to get a bigger wing to be a true backup three though.
The Spurs desperately wanted to get Tim Duncan some serious help in the paint this offseason. That need has grown even larger after losing Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas, and they?re likely to lose Drew Gooden soon too.
They badly need a big man and will be using their MLE to try and sign a true difference maker.
Scary thought
The only big men on the Spurs roster outside of Tim Duncan right now are ? Matt Bonner and Ian Mahinmi ? that?s it. Just those two players.
One can easily see how this could become a massive problem for San Antonio if their owners were unwilling to spend that MLE. They need major reinforcements and unless San Antonio gets freakishly lucky, minimum contract players won?t suffice.
But surely they know this, right? Yeah, they know this. Maybe. Hopefully.
Quick big man list ?
Rasheed Wallace
Antonio McDyess
Zaza Pachulia
Brandon Bass
Marcin Gortat
Rasho Nesterovic
Chris Andersen
