Add that to the 85.4 million and you are looking at a payroll of 153.4 million dollars with one open roster spot (for Mickey or Jackson or someone else).
There is no way Boston is holding a 150 million plus payroll. None at all. That is just too high even for a legit contender.
Payrolls are going to change with the new cap though.
With the $50m-60m-ish cap we had for the last 10 years, we constantly saw teams in the $80m-$90m range. Though there were fewer after the most recent luxury tax rules were implemented, there were still like 2-4 per year, right?.
$60m cap, $80m-$85m payroll is 133%-142% of the cap. 2018 and 2019 salary cap are projected to be $102-$108m. Luxury tax is usally 120% of the salary cap so will be about $130m, and if we apply the same percentages we've seen teams go over in the past, that gets you in the $140m+ range, $150m+ on the higher side.
Portland's already at $120m this year and supposed to be $126m next Cleveland's at $130m now. I wouldn't be surprised to see teams start getting in that $140m-$150m range over the next few years, and if the C's can add a max contract and keep everyone, you'd have to hope they'd be contenders that ownership would be willing to pay.
Of course part of this assumes they adjust the current luxury tax rules to the higher salary cap. Doesn't make sense (to me at least) to keep the same fixed dollar amount luxury tax penalty thresholds with the much higher cap. I guess we'll see if this is addressed in the new CBA they're currently negotiating. Even if it's not, the top threshold is currently $20m over the luxury tax line (which could be $130m), so I still think we'll see a few teams get to around, if not right under $150m. Might not sound so outrageous in a couple of years.