Mavs Dude

If a team is under the cap and they go over to sign a FA do they get the MLE? Like Laker fans keep on talking about re-signing Kobe then using the MLE on Dampier or Fisher.

Storyteller

No.

The Lakers are way over the cap. Free agents count against the cap until they are either renounced or sign a new contract. In the Laker's case, Kobe counts $14.2 million against the cap, Fisher counts $6.0 million, Medvedenko counts $2.3 million, etc.

Mavs Dude

So teams can go after their FAs that are UFA even if they are over their cap?

froggyvk

If they have their bird rights. That's why the Pistons had the MLE despite being under the cap. They had Rasheed's bird rights, so he had a cap hold of last year's salary ($16 million). That gave the Pistons the MLE, which they used on McDyess.

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Storyteller

Think of it this way.

If a team is over the cap, they cannot sign any players, unless they have an exception. Common exceptions include:

- Bird rights
- Early bird rights
- Minimum salary (you can always sign a player to the minimum salary)
- 1st round draft picks (you can always sign your own 1st round picks)
- the Mid-Level Exception
- the Million Dollar Exception

There are other exceptions as well....


A team over the cap can offer any player (their own free agent or a free agent from another team) a contract only if they have an exception large enough to cover the offer.