Cinco de Mayo

I've recently inherited the commissioner job in a fantasy league in the Games and Fantasy Basketball forum (the Virtual GM league), and despite not being a CBA guru, I think this will go down as one of the most successful fantasy leagues in BBB.net history. However, as we are now done with the draft, we have moved into free agency, which I'm no expert on, so bear with me. A GM in my league has PM'd me the following questions:

The answer to the first question in #1 is "yes." Starting with the word "Also..." can someone (NCBullsFan) help me with the rest of the questions. I'm 60% sure on the answers, but I don't want to mislead anyone in the league. Thanks for anyone's time.

Storyteller

I'll give it a go....

You've got it right. Since they have the right to match, they have to have access to a copy of the contract details.

The team owning rights to a restricted FA can only match the offer if: 1) they have enough cap room to match, or 2) they have an exception big enough to match.

Example #1: Denver gives Maggette a $6 million offer sheet. The Clippers can match because they are more than $6 million under the cap.

Example #2: Denver gives Jason Terry a $6 million offer sheet. The Hawks can match because even though they are over the cap, they hold his Bird rights and can match under the Qualifying Veteran Free Agents exception (commonly called the Larry Bird exception)

Example #3: Denver gives Gilbert Arenas a $6 million offer sheet. The Warriors cannot match because they are neither $6 million under the cap, nor do they hold an exception big enough to match (the biggest they own is the MLE).

Does that make sense?

Only if the team wants them to count against their MLE. It's at the discretion of the team signing the FA. They can use part of their MLE, or they can simply use the Minimum Player Salary exception.

Example #1 - Dallas uses its MLE to sign 4 players (each with 10+ years experience) to $1.07 million each. This would leave a little of the MLE left over (something less than $1 million).

Example #2 - Dallas signs 4 players (each with 10+ years experience) to minimum salary deals of $1.07 million each. It then signs another FA (an undrafted rookie, perhaps) using the full MLE.

Both are legal scenarios.

However, if a team signs a player to higher than the minimum salary for his level of experience, they must be signed using the MLE, LLE, Bird exception, Early Bird exception, etc.

Example #3 - Dallas signs 2 players (each with 10+ years experience) to minimum salary deals of $1.07 million each (using the Minimum Player Salary exception). It then signs 2 players (each with 1 year experience) to deals of $1.07 million each. These last two cannot be signed under the Minimum Player Salary exception(a minimum salary for each of them would be $563,679), so portions of the MLE or LLE would have to be used to sign these two.

So, if a player signing can be done by more than one exception, the team has the option of deciding which exception is used to sign the player.


I'm pretty sure that I'm right on these answers. Anyone care to confirm? (or to correct me? )

Dan Rosenbaum

Looks very good to me, SCBF.

With all of their restricted (and unrestricted) free agents, the Clippers are likely to be well over the cap, but that is being overly picky.

SCBF, you are a great addition to this forum. Something landed on my desk yesterday that is going to eat up a lot of my time over the next month, so any help you can give me in here answering questions would be greatly appreciated.

Gibson

This is my exact scenerio in the fantasy league I am in. And I was wondering if by matching an offer for Jason Terry, would it count against, and thus, use up my full MLE?

Dan Rosenbaum

No, Atlanta has full Bird rights for Jason Terry, so they could match an offer for him and still use their MLE for other free agents.

Storyteller

Thanks! I'll try to make it over to this forum when I can - I'll be doing some travelling in a couple of weeks that will keep me from posting for a week or so, but until then....

I really enjoy following this side of the NBA - dialoguing about situations and continuing to learn about the CBA and financial issues from posters like yourself.

It also serves to distract me from dwelling on the fact that certain Blazer players who enjoy smoking illegal substances far too much......

Cinco de Mayo

If this is the case, then why is there such a fuss over Gilbert Arenas? Hoopshype.com has him listed as a restricted free agent. Why is there so much talk about how Golden State is going to lose him this offseason, if they could just match whatever offer another team gives him, regardless how big the offer may be?

Dan Rosenbaum

Arenas has only played for the Warriors for two years, so they do not have full Bird rights on him. They can only offer him up to the MLE because they are over the salary cap. If he signed a one-year contract with the Warriors, then they would have full Bird rights on him next year.

The Spurs likely will be in the same situation with Ginobili next year.

icehawk

What about Rip Hamilton? This was his first year as a Piston, do they have Bird rights on him? Also, if they are under the cap (by only 2.25 mil), can they use that money along with the MLE to match any offer?

__________________
"I'm just tired of being treated like a cheap prostitute" - Mike James

Dan Rosenbaum

Bird rights follow a player when he is traded, so the Pistons have full Bird rights on Hamilton. This is answered in Larry Coon's FAQ, which is always a good place to check for answers to these questions.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#23

icehawk

For some reason that site does not work for me. Every time I click a link to one of the questions, nothing happens.

__________________
"I'm just tired of being treated like a cheap prostitute" - Mike James

Dan Rosenbaum