Salary cap geeks rejoice: Shamsports is back...

[Roy H.]

... and they have a new cap calculator tool. Want to know what our cap would look like if we stretched Nader and Marcus played for the QO? Now you can. Plus, as always, they’ve got the best details about salary details out there.

http://www.shamsports.com/capulator

[saltlover]

So glad it’s back!

[CelticSooner]

Had no idea they were back. Thanks for the heads up, good stuff.

[colincb]

There's also this which I use. You can download and use in Excel:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T2Eg_zvqNqQD_5TpE4Ns6xhElatXdLpYG1roZtRLyvE/edit#gid=1118898359

[CelticSooner]

There's also this which I use. You can download and use in Excel:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T2Eg_zvqNqQD_5TpE4Ns6xhElatXdLpYG1roZtRLyvE/edit#gid=1118898359

Who updates that every year? I used to bookmark that until one year I couldn’t find the new one.

[colincb]

There's also this which I use. You can download and use in Excel:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1T2Eg_zvqNqQD_5TpE4Ns6xhElatXdLpYG1roZtRLyvE/edit#gid=1118898359

Who updates that every year? I used to bookmark that until one year I couldn’t find the new one.

My guess is Keith Smith as it's a pinned tweet in the link below and Smith, Keith shows up when you hover over the top right corner in worksheet cells with the black comment indicators.

https://twitter.com/KeithSmithNBA

[jay]

Nice!  I signed Smart for 4 years starting at $10 mil, signed Jabari Bird, stretched Nader, and had us under the tax with 14 total players.

[Roy H.]

Nice!  I signed Smart for 4 years starting at $10 mil, signed Jabari Bird, stretched Nader, and had us under the tax with 14 total players.

You may have forgotten to sign Robert Williams.  He'd put us slightly over the tax line.

The easiest way to get under is to trade or stretch Yabu, or trade Morris.

It's awesome to be able to do this quickly and easily.  Really amazing stuff by Sham.

[Vermont Green]

Assuming we keep Nader and Ojeleye under contract and sign Williams, aren't we about $8M under the tax threshold?

And assuming we stay under the tax, aren't we eligible for the non-tax MLE at about $8.6M?

If the above two are correct, we can spend about $8M on Smart (or someone else) and not be in the tax but also have very little flexibility.  I can't see us going into the tax for Smart and we can't and still use the non-Tax MLE on someone else.

More questions, could we hypothetically sign Smart with non-bird rights and then use what would then be the tax payer MLE on someone else?  I am not saying we should do this.  It does not make sense to trigger the tax for a $5M FA.  I think we are going to try and get Smart for less than $8M and if not, take the next best FA we can get for that money.

[Roy H.]

Assuming we keep Nader and Ojeleye under contract and sign Williams, aren't we about $8M under the tax threshold?

And assuming we stay under the tax, aren't we eligible for the non-tax MLE at about $8.6M?

If the above two are correct, we can spend about $8M on Smart (or someone else) and not be in the tax but also have very little flexibility.  I can't see us going into the tax for Smart and we can't and still use the non-Tax MLE on someone else.

More questions, could we hypothetically sign Smart with non-bird rights and then use what would then be the tax payer MLE on someone else?  I am not saying we should do this.  It does not make sense to trigger the tax for a $5M FA.  I think we are going to try and get Smart for less than $8M and if not, take the next best FA we can get for that money.

We have Smart's Bird rights, so we don't need to use the MLE to sign him.

So, yes, we could hypothetically sign Smart to whatever contract we wanted, and then use the Taxpayer's MLE.

[Celtics4ever]

Assuming we keep Nader

I hope we don't he is literally a waste of space.

[Vermont Green]

Assuming we keep Nader and Ojeleye under contract and sign Williams, aren't we about $8M under the tax threshold?

And assuming we stay under the tax, aren't we eligible for the non-tax MLE at about $8.6M?

If the above two are correct, we can spend about $8M on Smart (or someone else) and not be in the tax but also have very little flexibility.  I can't see us going into the tax for Smart and we can't and still use the non-Tax MLE on someone else.

More questions, could we hypothetically sign Smart with non-bird rights and then use what would then be the tax payer MLE on someone else?  I am not saying we should do this.  It does not make sense to trigger the tax for a $5M FA.  I think we are going to try and get Smart for less than $8M and if not, take the next best FA we can get for that money.

We have Smart's Bird rights, so we don't need to use the MLE to sign him.

So, yes, we could hypothetically sign Smart to whatever contract we wanted, and then use the Taxpayer's MLE.

Thanks, so  there really are not that many options for us. 

Option 1 Sign Smart:  I don't think they are going to into the tax to sign Smart.  I think they are making a calculated risk that they can get him for the QO (about $6M) or a short deal at $8M (say 4 years at $35M starting at $8M with an opt out after 2 years).  Whether we use the MLE or bird rights, we will stay under the tax.  Likely we do keep the MLE option available but I doubt we use it and go over the tax unless a really good FA becomes available.

Option 2 Don't Sign Smart:  If we don't sign Smart, we can use most of the non-tax MLE which will give us a little over $8M to shop for a FA without going over the tax threshold.  My guess is that we only use a portion of this in the near team and keep some flexibility for signing down the road.

Signing Smart with Bird rights gives us the most options but only if we are willing to go into tax.  It seems to me that we will end up with Smart after all.  If another team wants him, they could probably offer $9M starting and the Celtics wouldn't match due to tax issues.  Not sure he is going to get that though.  Maybe Philly?