2010-2011 salary cap going down $5-6 million

[picnroll]

2010-2011 salary cap is going down $5-8 million, what was said on a national radio sports show this morning, that the league is telling clubs, and to plan accordingly. I think this means either:

1. Spurs will be holding on to those expiring contracts of Finley, Bonner and Mason, even Mahinmi if he doesn't pan out, to lessen the luxury tax pain next year, the most likely scenario.

or

2. Those expirings will become extremely valuable between now and the trade deadline for teams trying to dodge the tax and willing to give up some very good resources to do it. Don't think Holt & Co. want to absorb that much pain though.

[completely deck]

http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130697 :toast
(http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130697)

[Aggie Hoopsfan]

http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130697 :toast
(http://spurstalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=130697)

Um, that thread is about the 2009-2010 cap. PnR is talking about the 2010-2011 cap.

[picnroll]

Maybe this is management posturing for the upcoming CBA, probably not. CBA negotiations may get pretty nasty.

[timvp]

Reason #452y5234 it was a good idea to forget about the 2010 Plan and trade for Jefferson.

[lurker23]

Reason #452y5234 it was a good idea to forget about the 2010 Plan and trade for Jefferson.

Exactly. Spurs got their big name player, and teams wanting to spend money for free agents will be much more limited.

Another point: players that Spurs have under contract that season are Parker, Jefferson, Duncan, Hill, and Haislip. They are also likely to have whoever they pick up this offseason for the MLE, Blair, Mahinmi if they pick up his option, and Ginobili if they extend him. That's a pretty solid core, considering other teams near or at the cap will have a hard time putting together a good team.

[picnroll]

Exactly. Spurs got their big name player, and teams wanting to spend money for free agents will be much more limited.

Another point: players that Spurs have under contract that season are Parker, Jefferson, Duncan, Hill, and Haislip. They are also likely to have whoever they pick up this offseason for the MLE, Blair, Mahinmi if they pick up his option, and Ginobili if they extend him. That's a pretty solid core, considering other teams near or at the cap will have a hard time putting together a good team.
Yeah, but while the premier players will get max offers, really good players will likely be falling out of trees for peanuts.

[Pistons < Spurs]

2010 cap may limit signings



The NBA's ballyhooed free-agent summer of 2010 might have quietly taken another hit late Tuesday night.

In a memo announcing next season's salary cap and luxury-tax threshold, sent out shortly before the league's annual July moratorium on signings and trades was lifted at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, NBA teams also received tentative projections from the league warning that the cap is estimated to drop to somewhere between $50.4 million and $53.6 million for the 2010-11 season.
:wow:wow:wow
The official league memorandum, obtained by ESPN.com, forecasts a dip in basketball-related income in the 2009-10 season of 2.5 percent to 5 percent, which threatens to take the 2010-11 cap down some $5 million to $8 million from last season's $58.7 million salary cap.

A significant drop for the luxury-tax threshold is also projected going into the summer of 2010. If basketball-related income drops by 2.5 percent in 2009-10, league officials are projecting a 2010-11 salary cap of $53.6 million and a luxury-tax line of $65 million. If BRI, as it is referred to in the NBA, decreases by five percent, teams would be looking at a $50.4 million salary cap and a luxury-tax line of $61.2 million in 2010-11.

"Teams should be aware of this projected BRI decrease," reads the memo, "and plan accordingly."

The new figures for 2009-10 just announced by the league have set the salary cap at $57.7 million per team -- down $1 million from $58.7 from 2008-09 -- and the luxury-tax threshold at $69.9 million.

Commissioner David Stern actually warned during the NBA Finals of a BRI shortfall of "maybe as much as 10 percent" from last season to next season, but Tuesday's projections were sufficiently dire for teams such as the New York Knicks that have been planning for months to make a significant free-agent splash next summer.

When Knicks president Donnie Walsh took the job in April 2008 -- before the global economic downturn that, as with most businesses, has hit the NBA so hard -- some teams around the league were projecting a 2010-11 cap ceiling in the $63 million range per team. So in the best-case scenario outlined by the league office Tuesday night, New York would have roughly $10 million less in spending money next summer than it originally planned for, although the memo did include a disclaimer stressing that these were "early" projections that could "change based on economic conditions and as more information on leaguewide business performance becomes available."

In June, when asked by Stern to give a group of reporters some perspective on what a 10-percent drop (or thereabouts) in leaguewide revenues might do to free-agent spending in the 2010 offseason, NBA president Joel Litvin said he'd anticipate a "significant impact" in terms of slicing into the amount of spending money many teams once expected to have.

The Knicks, for example, increasingly look as though they will be restricted to signing one maximum-salaried player that summer if the latest projections hold, which theoretically would only enhance the Cleveland Cavaliers' chances of retaining LeBron James, given the other holes in the Knicks' roster. New York's original plan to lure James was founded upon trying to sign James and a second marquee free agent in 2010.

Teams have been bracing for reductions in the cap and luxury tax, but seeing such numbers circulate was still jarring for many team officials.

"Real scary," said one Western Conference executive.

Said another from the West: "The figures for [2009-10] are better than I expected. It is [the summer of 2010] that will be scary."

So it also remains to be seen whether James, Miami's Dwyane Wade and Toronto's Chris Bosh -- all of whom are widely expected to pass on signing the contract extension each is eligible for this summer to ensure they'll have the opportunity to test free agency in 2010 -- will reconsider that stance on extensions because of the potential declines in cap space for external bidders, more teams straying into luxury-tax territory and the possibility that maximum salaries would be lower entering the 2010-11 season then than they are now.

Tuesday's memo also listed the seven teams that must make luxury-tax payments to the league office by July 22 based on last season's payrolls. The dollar-for-dollax tax, assessed to any team with a payroll above the $71.15 million threshold that was in place in 2008-09, will result in the following invoices to be delivered to the respective teams before Friday's deadline: New York ($23,736,207), Dallas ($23,611,661), Cleveland ($13,707,010), Boston ($8,294,664), Los Angeles Lakers ($7,185,631), Portland ($5,899,356) and Phoenix ($4,918,136).

The 23 teams that stayed below last season's tax threshold, meanwhile, will each receive just over $2.9 million, which is taken from the combined tax pool paid by the seven aforementioned teams. The memo notes that the remaining $20.4 million of undistributed cap funds is headed for the NBA's Revenue Assistance Plan, which distributes money to low-revenue teams.

The $1 million drop in the cap from 2008-09 to next season marks just the second time since the NBA instituted a salary cap starting with the 1983-84 season that the figure has fallen. The fact that the luxury-tax line also appears to be moving steadily downward could prove to be no less damaging to free-agent spending in this and subsequent summers, thanks to the dollar-for-dollar penalty which so many teams are determined to avoid.



http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4312837

[sonic21]

The salary cap has never dropped two years in a row, so this would be unusual.

[picnroll]

Undoubtedly lot of contracts, like advertising, that were in place have expired and aren't getting renewed or are being marked down.

Wonder if Holt and Co are beginning to hope Dice stays loyal to Detroit. :lol

[CubanMustGo]

NBA needs to consider modifying the salary cap rules. Making everyone cough up an extra $5M in lux tax next season isn't going to help anyone ... except those very few teams who can stay under the number.

[lurker23]

NBA needs to consider modifying the salary cap rules. Making everyone cough up an extra $5M in lux tax next season isn't going to help anyone ... except those very few teams who can stay under the number.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if the next CBA has some kind of safe-guard against wildly fluctuating salary caps, or at least a different way to calculate it. If it keeps it from going down or up ~10% on a yearly basis, both sides can probably agree that its a good thing.

[coyotes_geek]

The salary cap has never dropped two years in a row, so this would be unusual.

The recession we are in is unusual. Since the cap is tied directly to league revenue projections, it's going to go down as league revenues go down.

[coyotes_geek]

Undoubtedly lot of contracts, like advertising, that were in place have expired and aren't getting renewed or are being marked down.

Wonder if Holt and Co are beginning to hope Dice stays loyal to Detroit. :lol

:lol

I think we're safe on that front, but I do think the Spurs might decide to just try to dump Bonner and Finley on some team who can absorb their salary instead of looking to package them for someone who can help.

[loveforthegame]

2010-2011 salary cap is going down $5-8 million, what was said on a national radio sports show this morning, that the league is telling clubs, and to plan accordingly. I think this means either:

1. Spurs will be holding on to those expiring contracts of Finley, Bonner and Mason, even Mahinmi if he doesn't pan out, to lessen the luxury tax pain next year, the most likely scenario.

or

2. Those expirings will become extremely valuable between now and the trade deadline for teams trying to dodge the tax and willing to give up some very good resources to do it. Don't think Holt & Co. want to absorb that much pain though.

It was my belief that the Spurs would hold on to their expiring contracts should they land a big man in free agency even before this news. It'll be interesting to see this play out.

[K-State Spur]

The salary cap has never dropped two years in a row, so this would be unusual.

we haven't had 2 bad economic years in a row since the installation of the cap.

[vander]

Bad news for Manu