$162M is tax level in 23/24. The team has $136M tied up in just six players: CJ, BI, Zion, JV, Graham and Dyson Daniels. Add Nance and his $10.5M that’s not reflected in the link. That makes it $147M for 7 players and $15M under the cap just with contracts on the books.
TM3, Herb and Jose have team options that almost certainly will be picked up (approximately $7.2M). That leaves $8M left before the tax comes into play.
Hayes has a $20 million cap hold on top of a $9.1 million qualifying offer. There’s almost no way with Nance re-signing that you can afford to pay Hayes even less than market value.
Kira has a $5.8M team option, then almost $8M qualifying offer. With Dyson and Jose currently backups, Kira doesn’t seem to have a future.
Maybe they’ll pickup Billy’s $2.6M option, as he does provide backup minutes as a 1/4 of the cost of Hayes.
They’ll almost certainly decline Temple’s team option, and possibly do the same with Naji.
The team has at least one first round pick: the better of its pick or the Lakers. This pick has a guaranteed salary.
Thus, the team will need to move Graham in order obtain talent but also stay under the luxury tax. You could see a pick, Hayes and Lewis being attached to that deal for a player with a $20M salary or so. I don’t necessarily believe Griffin when he says that Gayle will pay. Maybe if they get to WCF, but anything short of that you won’t see an influx of cash to move the needle. I also don’t see the team keeping the 2023 draft pick, as the pick with the roster as currently constituted likely pushes the team over the cap.
Let’s see some big wins this season so Gayle is forced to open up the pocketbook.
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$162M is tax level in 23/24. The team has $136M tied up in just six players: CJ, BI, Zion, JV, Graham and Dyson Daniels. Add Nance and his $10.5M that’s not reflected in the link. That makes it $147M for 7 players and $15M under the cap just with contracts on the books.
TM3, Herb and Jose have team options that almost certainly will be picked up (approximately $7.2M). That leaves $8M left before the tax comes into play.
Hayes has a $20 million cap hold on top of a $9.1 million qualifying offer. There’s almost no way with Nance re-signing that you can afford to pay Hayes even less than market value.
Kira has a $5.8M team option, then almost $8M qualifying offer. With Dyson and Jose currently backups, Kira doesn’t seem to have a future.
Maybe they’ll pickup Billy’s $2.6M option, as he does provide backup minutes as a 1/4 of the cost of Hayes.
They’ll almost certainly decline Temple’s team option, and possibly do the same with Naji.
The team has at least one first round pick: the better of its pick or the Lakers. This pick has a guaranteed salary.
Thus, the team will need to move Graham in order obtain talent but also stay under the luxury tax. You could see a pick, Hayes and Lewis being attached to that deal for a player with a $20M salary or so. I don’t necessarily believe Griffin when he says that Gayle will pay. Maybe if they get to WCF, but anything short of that you won’t see an influx of cash to move the needle. I also don’t see the team keeping the 2023 draft pick, as the pick with the roster as currently constituted likely pushes the team over the cap.
Let’s see some big wins this season so Gayle is forced to open up the pocketbook.