Re: Question on Salary Cap

["Ronald H. Evans" <ronald_evans@pipeline.com>]

At 02:53 PM 7/14/97 +0000, you wrote:
>I'm confused about Rodman then, obviously since he wasn't with the Bulls 
>for 2 seasons he couldn't have been re-signed under the Larry Bird 
>exception. So does this mean his entire $9m salary fit under the Bulls 
>salary cap??? That's almost 1/3 of the total cap. Or was it structured 
>in such a way, using bonuses for # of games played, etc., that the basic 
>salary was much less? (in reality Rodman didn't collect all of his 
>salary due to games lost to injuries and suspensions).
I think the Larry Bird excemption works according to length of contract
rather than tenure on a team. From my research on the exception, I take it
to mean that a team can resign any of their free agents for as much as they
want, no matter how much their team is over the cap(but they have to do this
before they acquire any other FA's--that's why pitino let Fox go). So, since
Rodman and Jordan had been under contract for more than two years, the bulls
could sign them for as much as they(the bulls) wanted to.

>
>What are the rules on structuring salaries to include bonuses? It seems 
>that a bonus which depends on the # of games played is kind of a joke, a 
>way to pay someone without it counting against the cap. 

What I've read states that the average of any bonuses are averaged into the
total contract.
        On the subject of NBA insanity, what is happening in Orlando? They
are completely insane. Their best scorer(Penny) wants to be the PG, their
SG/SF has a combination of Shaq and Marjele syndrome and now their
overweight SF considers himself underpaid and wants to sit out a year. 
       This sort of thing makes me appreciate Pitino. So far he hasn't taken
any chances on players with bad attitudes and mitigated the malcontents we
already have. I think he's an ideal solution for a league with such rampant
greed and sloth. He uses a style well suited for today's NBA
player(transition and pressing--utilizing the surplus of athleticism while
hiding lack of skills). I was skepitical about Pitino at first, but he's
quickly replacing Riley as my pick for smartest coach. His combination of
basketball strategy(his press and utilization of his players) combined with
his skills as an amateur phsychoanalyst(feeding the success as a choice
stuff to his players), should make him a perfect fit in Boston(if we don't
ride him out on a rail).