Re: Capulations, diatribe

[Adam Suchocki <asuchocki@wireless.tellabs.com>]

You are making some assumptions that are incorrect.  First and foremost, Dino's contract was not bought out.  You are correct, that when a contract is bought out that it only counts against the cap for the year it was bought out, and for the amount paid that year (buy out money plus any contract money paid).  This can only be done if there is a clause in the contract allowing a buyout, and even then the clause must specify a specific date and a specific amount at which the buy out can occur.  This, of course, must be agreed to by both the team and the player before the contract can ever be signed.  You can never buy out a player who does not have such a clause in his contract.  If you could, why
would San Antonio continue to pay Charles Smith, or for that matter, why didn't the Celtics buy out Reggie Lewis' contract instead of continuing to have him count against the cap for three years after he died.

In Dino's case, several things were done that gave the appearence of a buyout.  First, the Celtics waived Dino Radja.  This meant he was no longer a player on the team, and could not be resigned by the Celtics for roughly half of a season.  Once a player is waived, there is a short period (I believe it is two weeks), where any team can claim his contract.  If this had happened, he would have automatically become a player of another team, and that team would have had to pay him his contract in full, while the Celtics would no longer have to pay him or have him count against the salary cap.  No team did claim him.

Once a player clears waivers, he is a full free agent.  He can sign with any team (both NBA or any other league), and his original team is still fully liable for his contract, both in terms of salary cap and actually having to write the checks.  (This is how we got  Marty Conlon for league minimum - another team, Phoenix I believe, was already paying him 1.1milion, as they had waived him because they had too many players.)This was the risky part of Dino's deal.  At this point, a contender could have stepped in and offered him a minimum deal (that wouldn't count against the salary cap) and the Celtics would have had to continue to pay his full contract and have it count against the salary cap.
There was some low key speculation that the Bulls would pick him up to reunite him with Kukoc.  In that case, the Celtics would have had Dino's roughly 5 million a year contract against their cap, the bulls would have had roughly 250 thousand above their cap, and Dino would have collected money from both teams and gotten a ring.

The main reasons this didn't happen were:
1. Dino wanted to return to Europe, and his agent had already negotiated a deal in Greece.
2. Dino and the Celtics had an under the table agreement before he was waived - they'd waive him so he could play in Europe if he didn't clear waivers and sign with another NBA team, sticking the Celtics with his full contract.

Once Dino had cleared waivers and worked out a deal in Greece, the final part of the deal was settled.  Dino agreed to void all of the non-guaranteed portions of his contract (roughly half of the contracts overall value was tied to performace clauses, players options, etc.) in return for a lump some of cash.  This was the scary part for the Celtics.  After clearing waivers, Dino could have just kept collecting everything from the Celtics, and they would have been stuck paying out 5 million a year and having it count on the salary cap.  There was some arguing on both sides, because the Celtics wanted Dino to accept less than the full value of his contract as a pay off (they figured since Dino was
getting money from a team in Greece, they shouldn't have to pay that portion) while Dino's agent was basicly demanding full value or he wouldn't make a deal.

Finally a deal was reached, which involved Dino getting a big lump some payment from the Celtics in return for voiding the non-guarnteed money.  I do not know if the Celtics settled the rest of the money (the guaranteed portion) or continue to pay him each year (if they didn't settle, the lockout would actually affect his payments).

Anyway, this convolvuted deal resulted in the strange, lingering half of Dino's contract.  Regardless of whether Dino received a lump some payment for it or not, the guaranteed portion of his contract counts against the Celtics salary cap each year until the contract expires.  This is why the Celtics keep carrying 2.5 million even though Dino's full contract was for roughly 5 million a year.  The benefit to the Celtics was that they immediately freed up the other half of his contract against the salary cap.  As the payments were made to Dino after he was waived, they in no way counted against the salary cap.  Dino voided the non guaranteed portions of his contract, effectively making the money
disappear from the cap.  This is why we were immediately able to use the money to sign Massenburg, Bowen, and DeClerq.  This was all reported on rather heavily by the globe last year.  (Peter May even gave some updates on the acrimonious negotiations going on after Dino had been waived, but before he voided the non-guaranteed money).

Anyway, the net result is this.  We got half of Dino's money removed from the salary cap LAST season.  We spent this as soon as we got it.  The rest (the 2.5 million that is being argued about), is on the cap until the contract expires.  This is because it, like almost all money in NBA contracts, was guaranteed.  Once the deal is signed, unless there is an out clause in the deal, there is no way to get the player off the salary cap until the contract expires - even if both sides want to tear up the contract.

I hope that helps clear things up,

Adam


> Sorry, but number of posts is hardly a valid decider. Everyone can make
> mistakes -as shown by the above correction of the excellent Pat Bender. And
> in the bit posted on the subject from her (along with many of the past
> postings on the subject), it only mentioned his being released, which would
> of course still leave his salary on the cap. That was the point I was making
> - -he wasn't just released, the contract was bought out, making it null and
> void. No longer in effect, with not number of years for it to carry over.
> I've posted before on the subject as addressed in Tony Minkoff's salary cap
> (to which Pat Bender is listed as a contributor) and hearing it said on
> interviews with Chris Wallace and Pitino -that was the primary reason for
> the buyout, as they explained -to create cap room. Since there was minimal
> dollar savings, there would have been no real reason to go through with it,
> requiring a large payment now rather than spread over the life of the
> contract, otherwise. And since the buyout means that Dino is no longer under
> contract with the Cs, but *WAS* at the beginning of the year of the buyout,
> having it only count against the cap during that first year is the only
> logical outcome. You can't have a player not under contract on your cap
> - -under contract being different from on the roster. You or whomever it was
> at the time didn't accept those as definitive sources. Which is fine, but
> they're certainly no less definitive than list postings, I've yet to find
> the FAQ wrong on any other point, and it makes sense. Which buying out a
> contract without cap relief and without significant cost savings, does not.
> The only truly definitive source is the NBA CBA, which is not available.
>
> <snip>
> >It is my 10th anniversay tomorrow, so I will be gone for about a week, like
> >anyone really gives a damn.
>
> Happy Anniversary, Greg
>
> - -Kim
> Kim Malo
> kmalo19@idt.net
>
> ------------------------------