Re: Salary Cap

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

On Fri, 23 May 97 11:13:48 -0600, you wrote:

>Item Subject: cc:Mail Text
>     FYI
>    =20
>     I was on the Celtic Home Page (www.ics.com/~drisko/celtics.html) to=
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>     find out how much we are under the cap.  Now the Rick Fox declared=20
>     free agency we have $6.1M to spend.  Current salaries total $18.1M=20
>     which 66% of that is from 3 players (Radja, Barros & Brown).  What =
a=20
>     mess!  But on the other hand we should be able to get a quality FA =
for=20
>     $6.1M or less.  Hopefully we don't do something stupid with it.  =
Next=20
>     year the cap will increase to $25.6M from $24.3.  That adds another=
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>     $1.3M next year plus a $1M exemption for a FA, if we haven't =
already=20
>     used it.  I don't think we did.
>

Not quite correct.

=46rom Jason's Page (and Kudo's as usual to Mr Drisko)

PLAYER                  SALARY          YRS REMAINING
Dino Radja           $5,313,000         3 years
Dana Barros          $3,400,000         4 years
Dee Brown            $3,250,000         3 years
Todd Day             $2,915,000         free-agent *
Greg Minor           $1,800,000         5 years
Pervis Ellison       $1,760,000         3 years
Rick Fox             $1,750,000         3 years (out clause this year)
Antoine Walker       $1,620,000         2 years
=46rank Brickowski     $1,500,000         free agent *
Eric Williams        $1,008,000         1 year
Alton Lister           $500,000         free agent *
David Wesley           $350,000         free agent
Marty Conlon           $247,500         free agent
Steve Hamer            $220,000         free agent *
Brett Szabo            $220,000         free agent *
Nate Driggers          $220,000         free agent *

* Players that the Celtics will surely renounce

Remember that while Fox and Wesley are F.A.'s, 150% of their 1997
salaries count against the cap until the Celtics renounce their rights
(and loose the ability to exercise the Larry Bird rule to exceed the
salary cap in signing them).   Also the salaries of the two first
round draft picks will also count against the cap.  I would estimate
this at approximately 4 million dollars.

salaries for player                18,151,000
currently signed=20
for 97-98

Salaries for F.A.s                   3,521,250
the C's might not
renounce.

Estimated salaries                 4,000,000
for #3 and #6 picks
                                             ________
Total                                     25,672,250 =20

If the Celtics renounce the rights to Fox this will drop to
                                              23,047,250

And if they renounce every single free agent from last years roster
that will leave them with

                                              22,151,000

Even in the last case this would leave them with 3,449,000
under the cap.   Just enough to sign one point guard (probably not as
good as Wesley) and round out the roster with a new group of CBAers.

The Celts aren't going to get any appreciable help via the free agent
market until the Brown, Dino and Ellison contracts expire after the
1999-2000 season, barring a dramatic trade.

So should the Celts sign Wesley, Fox or Conlon?  Obviously it depends
on how much it would take to sign them.  I'm not quite sure where
Dennis got his salary cap figure (25,600,000) from.  If that's a
correct figure, it's far less than the estimates that I was seeing
during last years free agent signings.  If the salary cap only
increases by 5% a year, all those big contracts with the 20% escalator
clauses are going to be eating up a lot of cap room.  The money
available around the league for Free Agent may be much less than was
available last year.  So Wesley and Fox may not be getting the huge
pay days that everyone is anticipating.

Conversely, though, it doesn't make sense to sign free agent contracts
that tie up salary cap in the season where you really can make a big
killing, and just inflate your teams record, costing yourself draft
position, without gaining players that will help your club in the long
run.  Look at Toronto.  They went out this past season and signed
players like Popeye Jones and Walt Williams, which allowed them to
improve their record fairly dramatically.  Williams was a one year
signing, and it's hard to believe that in 3 or 4 years, when the
Raptors might be ready to compete that Popeye will still be around.
And they got the 9th (?) pick in the draft.=20

I think that if the C's sign Wesley, there is a good chance that he
will still be around when their ready to compete.  Also I think it's
very frustrating for young players to try to play without a point
guard.  As much as I like Rick Fox, though, I can't help but feel that
there are teams in the league that are a better match for him than the
Celts right now.  I'd love to see him catch on with one of the several
good teams in the league that have a gaping hole at the 3 spot
(Atlanta, for instance).  It would be great to see Rick get a chance
at the playoffs.=20

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com

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