The NBA Salary Cap and the OKC Thunder

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:23 pm

The NBA Salary Cap for next year is roughly $60 million dollars per team ... except where it isn't. There are more exceptions and rules to the salary cap than on the long tax form. The rules state you absolutely cannot go over the cap unless you meet one of 900 different exceptions.

There's also a "luxury tax" that team owners must pay if they go "significantly" over the salary cap. All Wikipedia says is that it's a "complicated formula," which is good enough for me. Last year the salary cap was roughly $60 million and the line for luxury tax started at $70 million. Any dollar spent on salaries above that number has to also be paid as a penalty to the league. If last year you spent $71 million on salaries, you would have to pay a million to the league in luxury tax. According to Wikipedia, in 05-06 the NY Knicks payroll was $124 million, so they paid roughly $54 million in luxury tax to the league. Ouch.

And, that brings us to the Thunder. The Thunder has done notoriously well with inexpensive rookie draft picks. Take Ibaka, who when he came to the NBA didn't speak English. He learned how to play basketball by watching the NBA in the Congo. He didn't like wearing shoes. He plays for the equivalent of $5/hour in NBA contract terms. Last year he led the league in shot blocks. Guess what? That takes you out of the minimum wage group. James Harden, another "cheap" player, won the NBA's 6th Man award. That sound you hear isn't Harden shaving his beard -- it's coins raining down on him.

This year, the NBA more than doubled the luxury tax penalty, from 1:1 to 2.25:1. The example I read said that a $20 million overage will now cost a team $45 million in penalties. There are about three, maybe four markets that can pay that. (L.A., Miami, New York.) Oklahoma can't. The arena here sells out because the top 1/2 of the arena is $10/seat. That kind of money pays for fuel for the private jet, but not $20/$50/$100 million penalties.

Both Ibaka and Harden have a year left on their contracts. Ibaka made $2 million this past season; experts are saying he could ask for $10 million the year after next -- that, for a great shot blockers who doesn't shoot much, may or may not make sense to pay. Harden will be worth more than that. He'll make $6 million next year, and the year after that I'd expect that to double. Again, a tough call for a non-starter. The year after next, Durant will be bringing in $18 million, Westbrook will be making almost $16 million, and Perkins will be around $9 million I think.

Using a conservative estimate, I figure the starting lineup will be making about $54 million the year after next. If we want to stay out of penalty, that gives us $6 million for six more guys. Can we keep Nick Collisun for $1m? Cook is making $3m now? We can't pay that. The year after next, we are screwed.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Jul 03, 2012 7:12 am

Can you cut or trade some people on the bench in order to free up more room for those two, though?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 10:42 am

Rounding to the nearest million, in the 2013/14 season Durant, Westbrook, and Perkins are locked in to make $42 million. Assuming the salary cap stays around $60 million, that leaves $18m for 12 players. If the luxury tax doesn't start until $70m, then that gives a little more breathing room with $28m for 12 guys.

If you're talking about the $18m number, we're screwed. That year, they're estimating that Harden will ask for $8m and Ibaka will ask for $10m. That seems crazy to me. Last season Ibaka averaged 27 minutes per game. He's an amazing rebounder who averaged 9 points per game. Harden doesn't do the high flying blocks and rebounds like Ibaka, but he's fast as shit on D and single-handedly wins games.

But yeah, if we go with the $60m then awesome, we can have five guys and hope they can all play 48 minutes, all game, every game.

At $70 million, over the line but under the tax, that gives you $10 million for the rest of your roster -- 8-10 guys. That's between a mil and 1.2 mil per guy. In 2013, Cole Aldrich (a deep bench player) is set for $3 mil. In the playoffs, Aldrivhs averaged 5 minutes and 2 points per game. That's only 2 more points per game than I averaged, and I'm not in the NBA. That can't be worth $3 mil. Sorry, Aldrich. Sefolosha is a started and he only makes $4 mil. We've also got Maynor at $3 mil, who got hurt and hasn't played since January. He was our backup point guard (it's the reason we needed and got Derek Fisher).

This year we just got Hasheem Thabeet. I don't know much about him, other than (a) he's 7' 3", and (b) he's been in the league four years and this is his 4th team. Translation? Underperfoming tall guy who hasn't clicked with a team yet. That also means, cheap. We also got Perry Jones III. I don't know much about him, other than he had a stellar freshman year and everyone said he would go top 3 in the draft -- instead he stayed in college, had a so/so sophomore year, and went 28th in the draft. Again, cheap. I think the Thunder is banking on one of both of these guys to rise up, stay cheap, and let us drop either Ibaka or someone else. Please, please don't be Harden. My whole family has "Fear the Beard" shirts.

Knuckles the CLown · Post by **Knuckles the CLown** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:23 pm

Yeah that would suck if you lost a player in FA cause you have a stupid fucking t-shirt. I mean you loyal diehard Thunder fans have invested so much time and energy in the franchise it would suck to lose ONE PLAYER!

God the last thing anyone wants to hear is Thunder fan struggling with losing players or being over the cap. Good grief the NBA cherry picked a fucking perfectly run franchise and plopped it in your lap instead of giving you an expansion team that would suck for 8 years.

Wait till Durant and Westbrook want out of that shithole and to play in Miami, New York or LA. Which will happen if the don't win a championship in the next two years.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 6:57 pm

Wait, you're in Ohio? What the fuck do you know about losing a ...

Oh.

Sorry.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Mon Jul 09, 2012 7:09 pm

I'm not worried about Durant jumping ship, not right now. I'm slightly more worried about Westbrook leaving, only because no matter what he does or how he plays, he'll always be seen as Durant's sidekick.

Harden's the one most likely to jump to the Lakers. Right after the playoffs he said he casually mentioned he wouldn't mind playing there, and just this week he said he would love to stay in Oklahoma if the money is right -- which says to me, if the money's NOT right, he's out. The guy's too good to not be a starter, and he's not going to bump Westbrook from that slot anytime soon.

Funny thing is, Harden wants to go to L.A. to play with Kobe, and by the time he gets there Kobe won't even be able to walk on that knee, much less play of it. I guess if he hurries up he can be Nash's backup.

RealityCheck · Post by **RealityCheck** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:12 am

Flack wrote:Wait, you're in Ohio? What the fuck do you know about losing a ...

Oh.

Sorry.

No, he's in Rochester NY so he knows nothing about having a real team or losing one.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Jul 10, 2012 11:53 am

The Knicks just nabbed Marcus Camby, who plays both power forward and center. It's an odd move if they plan on keeping Lin -- at best, it shows (I think) that they're worried about Lin making it through another season with that knee. I guess that makes Camby the power forward and Tyson Chandler the center? If Lin can stay healthy and Jason Kidd can perform and mix with that crew ... I don't know, the Knicks could be building something here. Now they just need to resign Lin and dump Stoudemire. :)

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:36 pm

Flack wrote:The Knicks just nabbed Marcus Camby, who plays both power forward and center. It's an odd move if they plan on keeping Lin -- at best, it shows (I think) that they're worried about Lin making it through another season with that knee.

The Knicks are dumping Lin, tonight. The Camby purchase, combined with Felton, now makes sense.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Tue Jul 17, 2012 11:03 pm

Hahaha, the fucking Knicks.

New Yorkers deserve James Dolan. They deserve him so much.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 2:33 pm

Lin's gone, back to the Rockets.

Also, there's a great article out today about Denver signing JaVale McGee for $44 million for 4 years. That's good for OKC because it was rumored that he was going to go for $60 million. The reason it's good for OKC is because McGee is very similar to Ibaka in stats and size. If Ibaka wants $60 million then we can't keep both him and Harden; the dollars and the math simply aren't there. They're saying anything over $20 million a year for the two of them will bust the budget. If we could get Ibaka at $11 million and Harden at $9 million, it's all possible. It's all possible, people!

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Thu Jul 19, 2012 7:14 pm

I had never heard of Jevon McVale and I live out here. $44 million to a guy I've never heard of. Now, I do not watch Nuggets games and change the channel when CERTAIN boring talk show hosts go on and on about them. But still, I would have thought that I would have just "picked up" his name somewhere.

It's cute to see these floundering teams without a superstar try to make do.

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sat Oct 27, 2012 8:14 pm

Flack wrote:Harden's the one most likely to jump

Flack wrote:Lin's gone, back to the Rockets.

Harden just got traded to the Rockets five minutes ago.

Shit.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 12:37 am

You did call this a few months ago. Sometimes, in sports, it sucks to be correct about things.

Do you feel this trade was better than getting a year out of him and letting him walk?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:04 am

From what I heard last night, OKC offered him $54 million for 4 years to stay, and Houston may have beat that by as much as $20 million. It's tough to hate a likable guy over $20 million dollars. I like my job, but for a $20 million dollar bonus, I would be willing to work elsewhere.

It sucks to see all these other teams building up. The Lakers, the Knicks, and the Rockets have been doing some pretty hefty trades. Meanwhile, the Thunder is right at the cap, loses Harden and a few others, and got some new young guards. From an article:

"The Thunder acquired guards Kevin Martin and Jeremy Lamb, two first-round picks and a second-round pick in the surprising deal that was completed Saturday night. Oklahoma City also sent center Cole Aldrich and forwards Daequan Cook and Lazar Hayward to Houston."

So, that's what the Thunder does. We get first round draft picks and new guys and hope they work out and if they get popular and expensive, we trade them. I guess it's a workable business model, even though it doesn't necessarily lead to a long term stable core team. I guess we'll see what happens.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:03 am

Every move like this does just make your team more lovable. I have no particular interest in the Nuggets, perhaps it's time for me to.... jump on the Thunderwagon?!? Is there room? We no longer have to grow giant beards like you and Harden did, right?

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Sun Oct 28, 2012 10:47 am

The beards are optional, but highly recommended.

CO · Post by CO » Sun Oct 28, 2012 6:12 pm

Seattle should be forgiving the Thunder these days because we've apparently got a stadium deal done and the retiring guy has committed to getting us a team (sacramento apparently).

Flack · Post by **Flack** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 2:28 pm

ESPN ran a story of the top 25 NBA news stories of the year. The Thunder made the list twice, kind of. Number 7 on the list was the Harden trade. Number 24 is, will the Thunder be contenders this year without Harden.

Maybe this is blind team loyalty here but ... okay, yes, the Harden trade hurts us in a couple of ways. He was sixth man of the year, which means any time one of our starters was having a bad night, Harden went in and performed. There's no denying that. And that keeps your starters on their toes too, knowing there's a guy on the bench waiting to come in and do your job better than you're doing it. But there were also times, like in the finals, where he fell apart. He had no answer for Miami. None.

So I will give you this -- there were several nights (let's say 10) where Harden got the team moving. We just replaced him with two guys who average more points per game than Harden does (Harden averages 16.x; KMart is 18 and the other guys is 17). So it's not like we're bringing in a couple of mongos. Yes, it sucks opening week to have to reconfigure your offense, but it appears everybody's doing it.

The first year the Thunder were here we had Tyson Chandler and when he left we were all crying. Now we all laugh about that. So maybe in a year or two we'll all be laughing about Harden leaving. I don't know. You guys who have had sports franchises longer than 5 years, help me out here.

Ice Cream Jonsey · Post by **Ice Cream Jonsey** » Wed Oct 31, 2012 3:28 pm

Let's see. Here are some of the worst moves I've ever seen:

1) Jim Finks thinks the NFL salary cap is a fad. We lose Sam Mills, Morten Andersen and later lose Rickey Jackson. RESULT: A complete debacle, that dead fuck set the team back 15 years.

2) Roy Halladay leaves the Jays to go to the Phillies.
RESULT: Doc pitches the second no-hitter in post-season history and wins a Cy Young. We get three minor league players. The pitcher we got just had his second - SECOND - "Tommy John Surgery." The catcher is a star in the making, we hope. The centre fielder we got does everything you want except hit and hit for power. If he can't hit he can't play, but man, is he a psychopath on the basepaths, and man does he have a great arm and great range.

Fuck sports.