Marc Stein: Spurs are #1 on LaMarcus Aldridge's list

[hater]

Spurs won't land Lamar. With amy luck they sign the Ginobilly twins as backup PGs and call it a successful offseason

[hsxvvd]

Pop on courting free agents: "I’m not calling anyone at midnight. I’ll be in bed. And if that’s the difference, then I don’t want them" #NBA

Just read this on twitter.... great call!

[Killakobe81]

That is what I said a month ago. No CONTENDING TEAM has the cap space to sign LMA. Dallas is just a horrible fit with Dirk. The whole purpose of him leaving Portland IMO is to be closer to his son, WHICH HE LIVES IN SA.

It's the Spurs or just staying in Portland. All this other stuff is just fanfare. Why would he go to a team that is going to contend for awhile making less than he would in Portland and also he won't barely see his son during the year for the next 4-5 years.

Congrats, dont want him in L.A. at max money ... I prefer we go with youth and cheaper vets (tyson/Danny green) and wait for a truly big fish ... for Spurs it makes sense. you guys still have the le window open.

But God bless if you think a LMA/Kiwi one two punch is winning a le. When Tim leaves the the LOB's go with him ...

[spurspokesman]

Meh, Leonard wouldn't say a single word anyway.

Took the words out of my head tbh.

[Killakobe81]

Pop on courting free agents: "I’m not calling anyone at midnight. I’ll be in bed. And if that’s the difference, then I don’t want them" #NBA

Just read this on twitter.... great call!

Pop is a boss. Love that guy. Id rather steal Pop from SA than LMA in free agency ...

[spurspokesman]

No one deserves a ring. I have always been a big Dice fan, but he came up short in Game 7 2005 when he could have had one with Detroit. I was just watching that game today and he was pretty invisible when on the floor in the fourth. Porter had his shot in 2001 and got destroyed by Fisher. Nobody would care if one of these guys got a Mitch Richmond 2002 ring, just like no one remembers Glenn Robinson's 2005 ring (even though Robinson actually played a pretty nice role in bringing the Spurs back from down 17-4 in the first quarter of Game 1 vs Detroit).

I can agree with these points.

[Cowboys_Wear_Spurs]

Congrats, dont want him in L.A. at max money ... I prefer we go with youth and cheaper vets (tyson/Danny green) and wait for a truly big fish ... for Spurs it makes sense. you guys still have the le window open.

But God bless if you think a LMA/Kiwi one two punch is winning a le. When Tim leaves the the LOB's go with him ...

In the WC, this is true. With TP aging, the Spurs need to find another piece once Duncan hangs it up for good to be contenders again. But at least they have a legitimate shot of keep on extending their 50 game season winning streak and playoff streak. Without Duncan, believe me, I would be ecstatic if that is the case.

Spurs would have some huge shoes to fill once Duncan retires.

[Seventyniner]

Guys claim TX residences during the summer to avoid state taxes. shaq had a house in Htown during his playing days lol.

Stars like Shaq can have houses in many cities. Aldridge himself had houses in LA and Portland and perhaps in other places.

A player's state of residence doesn't matter for state taxes. They pay taxes based on where they play games. Playing for a Texas team helps because they play 45 games a year in Texas (41 at home, 2 on the road against each other Texas team), while playing for a high-state-tax team like the Warriors means they play 47 games a year in California. A Spur, though, still pays California state tax on 1/82 of his salary for every game he plays in California. His state of residency doesn't matter at all.

[doobs]

Stars like Shaq can have houses in many cities. Aldridge himself had houses in LA and Portland and perhaps in other places.

A player's state of residence doesn't matter for state taxes. They pay taxes based on where they play games. Playing for a Texas team helps because they play 45 games a year in Texas (41 at home, 2 on the road against each other Texas team), while playing for a high-state-tax team like the Warriors means they play 47 games a year in California. A Spur, though, still pays California state tax on 1/82 of his salary for every game he plays in California. His state of residency doesn't matter at all.

It matters for endorsement income. I would venture a guess that the majority of high-profile professional athletes with endorsement income establish residency in no income tax states, particularly Florida.

[Sean Cagney]

In the WC, this is true. With TP aging, the Spurs need to find another piece once Duncan hangs it up for good to be contenders again. But at least they have a legitimate shot of keep on extending their 50 game season winning streak and playoff streak. Without Duncan, believe me, I would be ecstatic if that is the case.

Spurs would have some huge shoes to fill once Duncan retires.

You cant fill Tims shoes... He is a rare talent that comes along once in a lifetime.

[Richie]

Chinook I know you've spoken about sign and trade before but I've just seen Zach Lowes piece on Grantland and he talks about base year compensation.

Edit: This was all a bunch of nonsense, removing it so as not to confuse anyone

I'm such a CBA geek, I love it when I find out some new trick. Not sure if I'm 100% right about it though.

[DPG21920]

Chinook I know you've spoken about sign and trade before but I've just seen Zach Lowes piece on Grantland and he talks about base year compensation.

Edit: Wait, I looked at the wrong salary, lemme rewrite this

Don't think that is correct. Your premise is correct if the numbers were, but LA BYC is off - Luckily BYC doesn't come into play for LMA I don't think..

Also, Richie, don't think I've said this before, but . You have been a really good poster on ST - appreciate it.

[Chinook]

Chinook I know you've spoken about sign and trade before but I've just seen Zach Lowes piece on Grantland and he talks about base year compensation.

In essence, Aldridge salary for trade purposes stays at his current $14.1m. Sending out Splitter and Reggie Williams unguaranteed comes to $9.5m, meaning the most we can take back as a non taxpaying team is 150% + $100k, explicitly $14.25m which is fits Aldridge perfectly.

If you wouldn't mind linking me to that piece? I do know that BYC is essentially irrelevant, since Portland is well under the cap right now. Also, Aldridge made a bit over $16 Million according to Sham, so he's not a BYC player anyhow. Even so BYC affects the sending team, not the receiving team.

[Richie]

If you wouldn't mind linking me to that piece? I do know that BYC is essentially irrelevant, since Portland is well under the cap right now. Also, Aldridge made a bit over $16 Million according to Sham, so he's not a BYC player anyhow. Even so BYC affects the sending team, not the receiving team.

I dunno it's all a bit confusing but Zach Lowe mentions it in footnote 3 here http://grantland.com/the-triangle/th...ncy-questions/

It worked almost too well when I thought Aldridge was making $14.2m which he made in 13-14, but his salary last year was $16m which means his max ($18.9m) is short of the 20% pay rise you need to trigger the base year compensation clause during a sign and trade.

Nevermind.

[Richie]

I'm also unsure what CBAFAQ means by 'over the cap'. The Blazers are technically well over the cap if you include the cap holds for all their free agents but I'm not sure if that's exactly what they mean.

[DPG21920]

I dunno it's all a bit confusing but Zach Lowe mentions it in footnote 3 here http://grantland.com/the-triangle/th...ncy-questions/

It worked almost too well when I thought Aldridge was making $14.2m which he made in 13-14, but his salary last year was $16m which means his max ($18.9m) is short of the 20% pay rise you need to trigger the base year compensation clause during a sign and trade.

Nevermind.

Don't worry about it. The good news is the part you wrote about taking back salaries has nothing to do with BYC. Like we said, not only does BYC not matter for LMA, but even if it did, it's about the team sending out the player, not receiving. But the Spurs in a S&T can still do what you said - that doesn't change.

[Richie]

Don't think that is correct. Your premise is correct if the numbers were, but LA BYC is off - Luckily BYC doesn't come into play for LMA I don't think..

Also, Richie, don't think I've said this before, but . You have been a really good poster on ST - appreciate it.

Mate I just love cap gymnastics. To me it's just a fascinating puzzle to be solved.

[DPG21920]

Mate I just love cap gymnastics. To me it's just a fascinating puzzle to be solved.

Agreed. I love the business of basketball almost as much as I love watching basketball. I could put a little more effort into the finer points of the CBA, but it's already fun with the working knowledge I have.

I just hope there's not another lockout and massive changes to the CBA

[houston spurs fan]

Don't worry about it. The good news is the part you wrote about taking back salaries has nothing to do with BYC. Like we said, not only does BYC not matter for LMA, but even if it did, it's about the team sending out the player, not receiving. But the Spurs in a S&T can still do what you said - that doesn't change.

Agree, RC and his team have already worked out all the math. They wouldn't be sending in the cavalry if they thought money was going to be an issue. He can get more only with the Blazers, but that isn't as big of a factor this year with the new imminent tv deal. Weather it's with LA or SA look for him to sign a deal that allows him to opt out in a couple of years and get bigger money...

[Chinook]

I dunno it's all a bit confusing but Zach Lowe mentions it in footnote 3 here http://grantland.com/the-triangle/th...ncy-questions/

It worked almost too well when I thought Aldridge was making $14.2m which he made in 13-14, but his salary last year was $16m which means his max ($18.9m) is short of the 20% pay rise you need to trigger the base year compensation clause during a sign and trade.

Nevermind.

He might have been talking about Green, who would almost certainly be BYC eligible in a sign-and-trade if the Spurs were to not make the S&T the priority.

[Dre_7]

I would love to land LMA but I am not getting my hopes up.

Whatever happens, I will be happy. Either they get LMA and have the best frontcourt in the league, or they re-sign DG and continue to have the best perimeter defensive duo in the league. It is a win-win situation for SA IMO.

[Mugen]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but retaining Aldridge and Green becomes a of a lot easier if Holt just bites the bullet and pays tax for this upcoming season (considering the cap rise next summer).

Salary dump Mills + Tiago, sign Aldridge, and then go over the cap to retain Green? Is that possible?

If Holt cheaps out after all Timmy has done for this team, then him and the front office should be crucified tbh....

[Richie]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but retaining Aldridge and Green becomes a of a lot easier if Holt just bites the bullet and pays tax for this upcoming season (considering the cap rise next summer).

Salary dump Mills + Tiago, sign Aldridge, and then go over the cap to retain Green? Is that possible?

If Holt cheaps out after all Timmy has done for this team, then him and the front office should be crucified tbh....

I think this is a foregone conclusion if Aldridge signs. The question, again if Aldridge decides to come, is do you do it via free agency or sign and trade. In a sign and trade we're hard capped to around $85m and Aldridge would have to sign for 3 guaranteed years which he might not want to do, however we would be able to retain Joseph and Belinelli's bird rights. Those bird rights won't mean anything if they want to get MLE level money though since we'll be hard capped.

If we go the free agency route he could sign a 2+1 which might be preferable to him but if he wants the max we'd likely have to give up both Mills and Josephs bird rights along with Splitter. Him taking slightly less than his max ($17.9m) means we can get him and not decimate out backup point guard rotation but that might not be good enough for him.

Again though, maybe Jospeh takes a lower salary than Mills meaning we can trade Mills, sign Joseph and squeeze out and extra few dollars for Aldridge. Really, there's so many balls in the air that it's impossible to predict.

[Chinook]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but retaining Aldridge and Green becomes a of a lot easier if Holt just bites the bullet and pays tax for this upcoming season (considering the cap rise next summer).

Salary dump Mills + Tiago, sign Aldridge, and then go over the cap to retain Green? Is that possible?

If Holt cheaps out after all Timmy has done for this team, then him and the front office should be crucified tbh....

The only way the tax comes into play is if the Spurs sign-and-trade for Aldridge. If the Spurs use cap space, they won't get near the tax, but they will certainly be limited on what they can spend much more tightly than Holt's wallet.

[ducks]

holt has paid tax before