Saltlover quote:
But the bigger deal is cap space. According to Eric Pincus, the max for a 7-9 year player currently projects to $28.3 million. Without any trades, if you assume that Zeller is gone (a safe assumption), but do account for 1st round draft holds, the Celtics have about $30-33 million in cap space (depending on how many of Young/Hunter/Mickey are kept, and where the Nets pick winds up), before accounting for Olynyk at all. Without a trade, there's simply not enough flexibility to extend Olynyk at this point, and depending how the numbers shake out next year, there might not be enough to keep him at all.
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Saltlover is right. If C's sign a big FA next summer, there will probably be no room for KO. Next summer he will have a qualifying offer of 4.3 mil, but more importantly have a cap hold of 7.7 mil. Posters say oh we can sign him at the end of the summer after signing FA's, but that cap hold is sitting there all summer. Next year a 10 year max contract will be about 33.6 mil. Saltlover is getting to 30 to 33 million in cap space, before taking KO's cap hold of 7.7 million into account. Let's split the difference and use 31.5 mil, then subtract 7.7 for KO, leaving 23.8 in cap space. 23.8 mil is not going to sign Blake, Russ, Kevin Durant, etc. Rescinding their rights to KO does get them there. Rescinding or trading KO is the path of least resistance in terms of clearing additional cap space. If he takes the first half of the year to get on the court/find his form, he could be gone in the summer.