Atlanta Hawks Salary Cap analysis and important dates to remember

Let's get the raw details out of the way in case that is your main concern:

Player	2014--15	2015--16	2016--17	2017--18	Total
Al Horford	$12,000,000	$12,000,000	---	---	$24,000,000
Paul Millsap	$9,500,000	---	---	---	$9,500,000
Jeff Teague	$8,000,000	$8,000,000	$8,000,000	---	$24,000,000
Kyle Korver	$6,253,521	$5,746,479	$5,239,437	---	$17,239,437
Thabo Sefolosha	$4,150,000	$4,000,000	$3,850,000	---	$12,000,000
Mike Scott	$3,333,333	$3,333,333	$3,333,334TO	---	$10,000,000
DeMarre Carroll	$2,442,455	---	---	---	$2,442,455
Shelvin Mack	$2,433,333	$2,433,333	$2,433,334TO	---	$7,300,000
Kent Bazemore	$2,000,000	$2,000,000	---	---	$4,000,000
Elton Brand	$2,000,000	---	---	---	$2,000,000
Adreian Payne	$1,855,320	$1,938,840	$2,022,240TO	$3,100,094TO	$8,916,494
Dennis Schroder	$1,690,680	$1,763,400TO	$2,708,582TO	---	$6,162,662
John Jenkins	$1,312,920	$2,228,025TO	---	---	$3,540,945
Pero Antić	$1,250,000	---	---	---	$1,250,000
John Salmons	$1,000,000	---	---	---	$1,000,000
Dexter Pittman	$915,243NG	---	---	---	$915,243
Mike Muscala	$816,48250%G	$947,276NG	$1,015,696NG,TO	---	$2,779,454
Jarell Eddie	$507,336NG	---	---	---	$507,336
Total (Guaranteed)	$59,629,803	$39,451,985	$17,089,437	$0	$116,171,225
Total (All inclusive)	$61,460,623	$44,390,686	$28,602,623	$3,100,094	$137,554,026
Notes: TO-Team Option, NG-Nonguaranteed, 50%G-50% guaranteed

(Contract data used from ShamSports.com and BasketballInsiders.com)

With the salary cap set at $63.065 million, this leaves the Hawks with $1,604,377 in cap space at the moment. The Hawks still retain their Room Mid-Level Exception of $2.732 million.

OK now let's go through this jumbled mess and figure out what the Hawks did, when they did it, and how this affects the team going forward.

Timeline of Events

June 26th, 2014: Draft

Going into the draft, the Hawks had the 15th and 43rd picks. They selected Adreian Payne and Edy Tavares with those selections. The Hawks also sent a future second round pick (Brooklyn's) to the Milwaukee Bucks for the rights to Lamar Patterson, the 48th pick.

Adreian Payne is restricted to the rookie scale contracts due to him being a first rounder and this also carried a caphold. For Edy and Lamar, they are not constrained to a rookie scale and do not come with a cap hold. They can sign for as little as the minimum salary ($507,336 this season) or for as much as the maximum salary for a player with 0 years experience ($14,746,000 this season).

June 30th, 2014: Trade

The Hawks traded away Lou Williams ($5,450,000) and the draft rights to Lucas Nogueira ($1,468,900) to the Toronto Raptors for John Salmons ($7,000,000).

July 10th, 2014: Waive

The reason why the above trade was made was that John Salmons' contract was only guaranteed for $1,000,000 if he was waived before July 10th. The Hawks decided to waive John Salmons on this day in anticipation of using their cap space, and saved money, to sign other contracts.

July 15th, 2014: Trade

The Hawks acquired Thabo Sefolosha on a 3 year contract from the Oklahoma City Thunder along with the rights to Georgios Printezis and $550,000 in exchange for the draft rights of Sofoklis Schortsanitis. An important consequence of this deal is that the Hawks have been hard capped at $80.829 million because they acquired a player via sign-and-trade. With the current salary cap standing of the Hawks, this is of little importance to the team.

This deal was done by the Hawks because they received money without giving away any meaningful assets. The Thunder did this deal because trading away Thabo Sefolosha created a traded player exception worth $4,150,000 that they have one year to use. As for the draft rights, they are close to worthless as it is unlikely either player has a desire to play in the NBA or either team has a desire to bring them over.

July 23rd, 2014: Sign

The Hawks officially signed Adreian Payne to his rookie scale contract. They signed him for 120% of the rookie scale across all years, which is standard business practice.

August 22nd, 2014: Re-sign

Shelvin Mack signed a 3 year contract with the Hawks. The total was for $7.3 million and the final year is a team option.

August 25th, 2014: Re-sign

Mike Scott signed a 3 year contract with the Hawks. The total was for $10 million and the final year is a team option.

September 10th, 2014: Sign and Re-sign

The Hawks announced that they signed Kent Bazemore to a 2 year contract and also re-signed Elton Brand to a 1 year contract. Because Elton Brand will have Early Bird Rights at the end of this contract, he has the right to veto any trade involving him this season. Subsequently, if Elton Brand does consent to a trade then he will not be able to acquire Early Bird Rights for the 2015 offseason. It is doubtful those rights are important to Elton or the Hawks.

September 29th, 2014: Sign

The Hawks announced that they signed Jarell Eddie and Dexter Pittman to non-guaranteed 1 year minimum salary contracts. These are typically called training camp contracts.

Important Dates Ahead

October 28th: Regular Season Begins

At this time, the Hawks will need to have 15 or fewer players on their roster. The obvious candidates to be waived are Jarrel Eddie and Dexter Pittman because their contracts are not guaranteed. The Hawks could still elect to waive someone with a guaranteed contract, although the guaranteed contract would remain on the cap if the player is not claimed through waivers.

October 31st, 2014: Team Option Deadlines

Both John Jenkins and Denis Schroder have team options on their rookie contracts that the Hawks need to notify the NBA if they plan to exercise. These both apply to the 2015-16 NBA Season. Last year, the Hawks had a similar decision with John Jenkins and Jared Cunningham. The Hawks exercised John Jenkins' option but failed to do so for Jared Cunningham.

If the Hawks do not exercise the team option for either John Jenkins or Denis Schroder, then the player will become an unrestricted free agent. The Hawks would also be limited in how much they could offer John or Denis if they did decide to bring either of them back. The maximum amount the Hawks could offer is the contract value if the team option was picked up.

December 15th, 2014:

Hawks are now permitted to trade Bazemore, Brand, Mack, Scott, and Thabo with the added caveat that Elton Brand can block any trade.

January 5th, 2015: 10-Day Contracts

At this point, the Hawks can begin the process of signing 10-Day contracts if they so choose.

January 7th, 2015 at 5:00 p.m. ET: Deadline for Guaranteed

The contracts of Jarell Eddie, Mike Muscala, Dexter Pittman all become guaranteed if the Hawks have not waived them by this time. The contracts do not become guaranteed until January 10th, but the players must clear waivers. A player stays on waivers for 48 hours, so this is why the guarantee date is 3 days earlier.

February 19th, 2015 at 3:00 p.m. ET: NBA Trade Deadline

This is always a busy time of the year for NBA rumors and we at Peachtree Hoops will keep you informed on any rumblings surround the Hawks.

March 1st, 2015, at midnight: Playoff Eligibility Waiver Deadline

This is a bit of a misnomer in that playoff rosters are not due by this time. A better way to phrase this date may be to say: Any player waived after March 1st is ineligible for the playoffs.

So this date is more important to a player than the Atlanta Hawks. Atlanta could sign a player after March 1st to rest-of-season contract and that player could be on the playoff roster. The only case this would not be true is if another NBA team waived the player after March 1st.

April 15th, 2015: Regular Season Ends

At this point in time, a snapshot is taken of the roster and corresponding salary obligations of each team across the NBA for calculation of the luxury tax. With a luxury tax of $76.829 million, the Hawks would have to make substantial roster moves in order to approach this value. Therefore, this is of little impact on the Hawks.

April 18th, 2015: NBA Playoffs begin

Go Hawks.