Assumptions:
Johnny Furphy signs a rookie minimum contract.
Kendall Brown's contract is guaranteed.
The Pacers do not want to pay the luxury tax next season.
They are above the cap and 18.6M below the tax. If they sign a vet to the minimum they'll be 16.5M below the tax. Then they'd have 13 guys on the roster. My understanding is that for tax purposes 14-15 roster spots that go into the calculation. Reports say Toppin is looking for something in the 15M range. The Pacers could extend him, or match if an offer comes in around there. If it's a little over they could bring him back and shed salary later to duck the tax. If the price is too high they can let him walk and sign someone to the full MLE at 12.9M, and stay under the tax. Unless I'm missing something those are the bullet points for the offseason, although a trade could upend much of that.
by BlueCollarGoldSwaggr
3 Comments
They’ll probably sign Tshiebwe, Newton, and Freeman to two-way contracts, which would be roughly $1.8 million also.
Apparently we haven’t paid the luxury tax since 2005-06. I know Simon isn’t much of a spender, and I agree he’ll probably not want to pay the tax this year, but if this team makes another run next year I’m curious if he’ll pay the tax for the first time in like 20 years to help get this team over the top.
Crazy how quickly you can go from an easy-going, cap-friendly team to a cap-restricted one. Here we are. It’ll make adding elite talent outside of in-house options pretty difficult going forward. Excited to see how they maneuver things over the next few years.