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[Joe Hironaka <j.hironaka@unesco.org>]

Hi list:

    Could one of you capologists ("Il Capo" in Italian) clarify
something for me.

    Last year the Celtics payroll was $46,152,875 compared to the $34
million NBA salary cap (according to Patricia Bender's Website). That's
a 12 million dollar difference. The new NBA cap figure for the 00-01
season will rise to at least $35.5 million depending on revenue
calculations, but the Celtics payroll will also rise by a certain amount
(Bat Girl's big extension and Fortson's four million offer kicks in,
while only Pervis comes off the cap).

    I asked BSG if dumping Antoine Walker's $9 million contract will
actually put Boston in a position to bid for free agents. BSG wrote me
back to say that the actual Celtics cap figure was closer to $37 million
(not $46 million), since certain cap numbers count less against the cap
than the actual salary. For example, a "base year compensation" player
like Antoine Walker counts only 4.5 million against the cap.

    So here are my questions:

1) Where does the $37 million cap figure came from? I couldn't find it
on any Website.

2) If Boston were to trade Antoine Walker this Summer, would this clear
$9 million from the cap or just the $4.5 million it counts on our cap
right now (of course, minus the cap figure of the player we will be
forced to receive in return)?

    If the answer is just $4.5 million, then Boston won't be in a
realistic position to bid for Austin Croshere merely by swapping Walker
for some cheaper contracts and draft picks. A lot of other contracts
would need to get dumped.

    Hence the raison d'être for the "fire sale" trade (in order to clear
cap space) kind of falls apart.

    On the other hand, if the figure is actually $9 million, then Boston
may well have 5 or 6 million dollars to offer a second-tier free agent
like Croshere.

    One last question. A contributor to this list mentioned that Boston
can add the 2.25 slot and 1.25 slot etc. together with any cap space
they have and offer it all to a single player. I assume this was a
misreading of how the CBA and veteran exception slots work.

    Thanks if you have any insights and the time to express them. I
guess my reason for asking is because I don't want to sit around all
summer (until August 1st) wondering whether the trade (Laettner in a
Boston uniform) is either bogus or plausible.

    Personally, I don't think Chicago fans (thanks to Sam Smith) nor
Jerry Krause have any interest in trading for Antoine Walker. He
generally plays truly lousy, erratic ball against that team, for one
thing. Detroit makes much more sense, since Antoine could be a
statistical clone of Grant Hill if he gets his act together.

Joe


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