2013 NBA Free Agents: Atlanta Hawks Cap Status

Lucas Nogueira: 1.4M

Dennis Schroeder: 1.3M

Lucas Nogueira: 1.4M

Dennis Schroeder: 1.3M

Ok, so 63.81M and the Hawks need to get to 58.5 - ~11M to get Millsap and Carroll under.

So this is where the Hawks are right now. The hard part about renouncing is that you can't use your rights to do a sign and trade, like with Willie Green last year where the Hawks got a second rounder for facilitating that deal to the Clippers.

The Hawks could easily renounce their remaining free agents, get the almost 25.5M in cap room back. That would look like this:

63.81M - 25.55M = 38.26M

Then, you could take Millsap + Carroll, add them in and you have 38.26M + 11M = 49.26M.

The Hawks would have renounced everyone, except for Jeff Teague, who is at a modest 6M, signed Millsap and Carroll, have a roster full of players, and still have ~9M left under the cap to spend on a FA.

Here is what that final roster would look like:

Al Horford: 12.0M

Paul Millsap: 9M

Kyle Korver: 5.4M (assumed starting point of reported 4 year, 24 million dollar deal)

Lou Williams: 5.22M

DeMarre Carroll: 2.5M

John Jenkins: 1.258M

Jared Cunningham: 1.208M

DeShawn Stevenson: 2.24M

Mike Scott: 800K

Shelvin Mack: 900K

Mike Muscala: ~500K (based on Mike Scott 2012-13)

Jeff Teague: 6M

What about signing a player like Nikola Pekovic?

Pekovic, a restricted free agent himself, is a top player whose offer could start at 13M. In this scenario, the Hawks can only start around 9M, which is where Portland was when looking at Spurs restricted free agent center Tiago Splitter and Pekovic.

To get more room in this scenario, the Hawks would have to renounce Jeff Teague, claim that 6M in cap space to add to the 9M, and they would have enough to make a max offer for Pekovic.

Here is what that would look like:

Nikola Pekovic: ~13M

Al Horford: 12.0M

Paul Millsap: 9M

Kyle Korver: 5.4M (assumed starting point of reported 4 year, 24 million dollar deal)

Lou Williams: 5.22M

DeMarre Carroll: 2.5M

John Jenkins: 1.258M

Jared Cunningham: 1.208M

DeShawn Stevenson: 2.24M

Mike Scott: 800K

Shelvin Mack: 900K

Mike Muscala: ~500K (based on Mike Scott 2012-13)

This would equal 56.726M, less than 2M under the cap.

The Hawks have talked about doing a sign and trade w/Josh Smith to a team like the Rockets and take back less salary than Smith's cap hold like the Omer Asik rumors.

Let's see how the Hawks payroll would look with Smith gone and Asik in at his 8.37M cap hold. We'll show the cap holds for Pachulia and Johnson also.

Al Horford: 12.0M

Omer Asik: 8.37M

Kyle Korver: 5.4M (assumed starting point of reported 4 year, 24 million dollar deal)

Lou Williams: 5.22M

John Jenkins: 1.258M

Jared Cunningham: 1.208M

DeShawn Stevenson: 2.24M

Mike Scott: 800K

Shelvin Mack: 900K

Mike Muscala: ~500K (based on Mike Scott 2012-13)

Jeff Teague: 6M

UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENT CAP HOLDS:

Zaza Pachulia: 7.9M

Ivan Johnson: 1.25M

The total of this payroll is 55.336M. To add in Millsap and Carroll, though, it needs to be 58.5 - 11M = 47.5M

So the Hawks, in this scenario, would need to shave 7.836M, which is exactly what Zaza Pachulia's cap hold is.

(sad face)

This would also put the total roster spots at 15, so you can bet that the Hawks would start looking to knock off those non-guaranteed spots like Stevenson's quick.

Now, let's look at if Jeremy Lin were to come over in the Smith deal with Asik. This would add another 8.37M to that 55.336 number, making it necessary to eliminate 16.206M.

Pachulia + Johnson + Stevenson + Mack = 12.29M. That's not enough. Well, what if the Hawks renounced Jeff Teague?

Pachulia + Johnson +Stevenson + Mack + Teague = 18.29M. Now the Hawks might pull back Ivan Johnson, leaving the number at 17.04M, which is more than enough to accommodate both Asik and Lin, but little else.

If they did these, the roster would look like this, with Millsap and Carroll included:

Al Horford: 12.0M

Paul Millsap: 9M

Omer Asik: 8.37M

Jeremy Lin: 8.37M

Kyle Korver: 5.4M (assumed starting point of reported 4 year, 24 million dollar deal)

Lou Williams: 5.22M

DaMarre Carroll: 2.5M

John Jenkins: 1.258M

Jared Cunningham: 1.208M

Mike Scott: 800K

Mike Muscala: ~500K (based on Mike Scott 2012-13)

That would be 14 players @ 57.436M, just under the cap.

EXCEPTIONS:

From the CBAFAQ -- Please read it to understand each of the different exceptions --

If a team is below the cap, then its Disabled Player, Bi-Annual, Mid-Level (either the Taxpayer or Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level, whichever applies to the team) and/or trade exceptions are added to their team salary, and the league treats the team as though they are over the cap¹. This is to prevent a loophole, in a manner similar to free agent amounts (see question number 38). A team can't act like it's under the cap and sign free agents using cap room, and then use their Disabled Player, Bi-Annual, Mid-Level and/or trade exceptions. Consequently, the exceptions are added to their team salary (putting the team over the cap) if the team is under the cap and adding the exceptions puts them over the cap. If a team is already over the cap, then the exceptions are not added to their team salary. There would be no point in doing so, since there is no cap room for signing free agents.

So being under the cap does not necessarily mean a team has room to sign free agents. For example, assume the cap is $58 million, and a team has $51.5 million committed to salaries. They also have a Non-Taxpayer Mid-Level exception for $5 million and a trade exception for $5.5 million. Even though their salaries put them $6.5 million under the cap, their exceptions also count toward their team salary, increasing their total to $62 million, or $4 million over the cap. So the team actually has no cap room to sign free agents, and instead must use its exceptions to sign players.

Teams have the option to renounce their exceptions in order to reclaim their cap room. So in the example above, if the team renounced their Traded Player and Mid-Level exceptions, then the $10.5 million is taken off their team salary, which then totals $51.5 million, leaving them with $6.5 million of cap room which then can be used to sign free agent(s).

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS:

The Hawks could save 1.4M if Lucas Nogueira plays overseas this year due to a clause where the Hawks can send a letter guaranteeing Nogueira would not play in the NBA next year and this money would immediately go onto the cap.