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I just checked that the Heats cap position 2010. Have you guys been aware of their positioning?
Warranted salaries for 2010/11: 000.000,- $

It seems as if they are are in the drivers seat.
They should be in the the front runners for Dwyane Wades services,
they could pick up the option on Michael Beasley at about 6 mio $,
And in a class with:
LeBron James,
Chris Bosh,
Yao Ming,
Amare Stoudamire and
Joe Johnson
all probably entering free agency, they further will at least have enough cap space to sign 2 of these guys as well.

Wow, due to this situation it might not make all that much sense for the Bulls trying to create cap space. I'd even consider to resign Ben Gordon now, since it would not even matter anyway.

It's nearly impossible to sign 3 players to a max contract ($60mln+ per season). You will have:

Wade $20 + Beasely 6 + Chalmers due for extension (I think) = $30 million+ and with the cap at $55 mln you have only $25 million left to sign one max free agent, one avg. joe, and one MLE. And you still have "only" a good team at best. Plus you would have to fill your bench with at least 7-9 more players earning the league minimum. Good luck

that's the idea

feel free to trade for one of amare or bosh if you can, well just take sloppy seconds

^ also chalmers is signed through 2011 as we gave him an extra yr on his rookie deal to save even more cap for 2010

And, Wade could leave and they have nothing but Beasley and Chambers.

BullsFan123 wrote:It's nearly impossible to sign 3 players to a max contract ($60mln+ per season). You will have:

Wade $20 + Beasely 6 + Chalmers due for extension (I think) = $30 million+ and with the cap at $55 mln you have only $25 million left to sign one max free agent, one avg. joe, and one MLE. And you still have "only" a good team at best. Plus you would have to fill your bench with at least 7-9 more players earning the league minimum. Good luck

The hard thing about signing 3 players to max deals would be getting them away from their existing teams. Otherwise, the only hard thing is having to pay some luxury tax. But if you were Miami and you could get, say, Wade, LBJ and Bosh, wouldn't you pay some luxury tax?

I don't know that they'll necessarily go for 2 extra max free agents PLUS Beasley. They might have to trade Beasley as part of a S&T for one of the max FAs who has signaled a desire to leave his team. Or they could just keep him and get one max FA, and since I see Beasley as a 'Melo type of player that would be 3 all-star players (with Wade as not only an all-star but a superstar).

The point, to me, is that they can trade Beasley now and probably get either Bosh or Amare, whichever one they want, and then STILL have enough capspace to make a bid for one of the other elite talents in 2010. That's not so far-fetched at all. South Florida is a very attractive location.

Of course wade could leave, but on the other hand: in 2010 they do not have a single bad contract on their payroll, they do not have to wait in order to make a restart, no more wasted years, which could be a tempting situation for Wade to resign, since he'll turn 28 next year.

I think Miami and Chicago are in perfect position in 2010 and in a even better position than NY. But for Miami it also depends on whether or not Wade signs with the Heat this summer or at the very least gives a verbal commitment next year. Reason being is that i'm not sure a FA like Lebron, Bosh or amare would go to Miami unless they know Wade will be there because Wade is the only player on that franchise that will attract a prime FA. On the bulls front they have the ROY in Rose and big men like Amare and Bosh i'm pretty are salivating over possibly playing with a young PG like him that will set them up. So yeah like the miami fan said, if the heat get bosh than the bulls have a good chance of landing Amare and vice versa. The knicks are in a real tough position that i'm not sure they'll be able to get out of because if Lebron resigns with Cleveland, i doubt bosh or amare will want to play in NY if the roster is full with scrubs. I for one will be happy if the knicks lose out on lebron, amare, wade, bosh, etc. and end up with no names.

Ben B. you hit the nail with your analysis.
If we could have learned something out of our free agent disaster in 2000, than that:
1) you should have as much cap space as possible (no bad contracts) as a leverage for the current team of your targets.
2) Once they fear to lose their guys for nothing you need to have some cheap assets (draft picks or talented young players on rookie scale contracts) to get things (sign and trade do make your targets some extra money) done.

Ben B. wrote:

BullsFan123 wrote:It's nearly impossible to sign 3 players to a max contract ($60mln+ per season). You will have:

Wade $20 + Beasely 6 + Chalmers due for extension (I think) = $30 million+ and with the cap at $55 mln you have only $25 million left to sign one max free agent, one avg. joe, and one MLE. And you still have "only" a good team at best. Plus you would have to fill your bench with at least 7-9 more players earning the league minimum. Good luck

The hard thing about signing 3 players to max deals would be getting them away from their existing teams. Otherwise, the only hard thing is having to pay some luxury tax. But if you were Miami and you could get, say, Wade, LBJ and Bosh, wouldn't you pay some luxury tax?

I disagree with you here, but I could be wrong because I am not quite an expert in the CBA. If you have no players under contract in 2010 and assuming a $55 mln cap, you can sign 3 players starting at $18 million per and have no cap room left. That leaves you with one MLE player and one Bi-annual exception player to fill up the starting five.

For your bench you can draft two scrubs with your draft picks and fill in the remainding six spots with league minimum players.

So, I disagree with you that the only hard part to signing 3 max free agents is getting them to part with their team. I think that the way the CBA is structured it is virtually impossible, and the lux tax has nothing to do with it, because you can't just go on signing players indefinitely after you use your cap space.

Like I said, I am not an expert in the CBA so correct me if I am wrong.

Why would you assume a $55 million cap in 2010? Right now it's around $58.7 million. $61 million is a fair assumption, although it could be a little less, and right now the Heat only have around $25 million committed in 2010 (including Wade, although his extension would presumably up that number by a little bit). Add in two max contracts and you get $61 million. Fill out the roster with scrubs.

I don't know how the cap hold situation works, though, so maybe that would make it a bit tougher.

I do see your point, though. Signing 3 free agents outright to max contracts would be very hard. And depending on the cap hold situation, it might not be possible. They could certainly trade in order to get 3 max guys, though.

I heard from various rumors that the cap will be going down, because owners are losing money. But even if the cap is at $61 million, my theory still holds water.

I agree that they could trade to get three max guys, but that scenario is very unlikely as well. They would have to get two stars via trade before the trade deadline, because if they only get one then they will be in the same boat in the 2010 offseason (Wade and Star 1 earning $40 and $20mln in cap space). Sign a 3rd star and you have no cap space and have to fill your roster with super scrubs.

The whole CBA is very complicated and that is why teams hire specialists just to understand the CBA and make contract decisions based on it. That is why Portland kept their assistant GM and promoted him, so as not to lose his expertise on the subject.

I am sure that both you and I have a very low level understanding of the CBA and we are most likely both wrong in our arguments.

I'm fairly certain that if a team has cap space, they cannot use exceptions to sign players once that cap space has been filled up. The MLE and BAE are exceptions to the cap, as their names indicate, which give teams over the cap a chance to sign players. I don't think that you can have space, cap yourself out, and then use them afterwards.

BullsFan123 wrote:
I agree that they could trade to get three max guys, but that scenario is very unlikely as well. They would have to get two stars via trade before the trade deadline, because if they only get one then they will be in the same boat in the 2010 offseason (Wade and Star 1 earning $40 and $20mln in cap space). Sign a 3rd star and you have no cap space and have to fill your roster with super scrubs.

Boston has 3 max-level stars and has managed to fill out its roster pretty nicely, no?

Ben B. wrote:

BullsFan123 wrote:
I agree that they could trade to get three max guys, but that scenario is very unlikely as well. They would have to get two stars via trade before the trade deadline, because if they only get one then they will be in the same boat in the 2010 offseason (Wade and Star 1 earning $40 and $20mln in cap space). Sign a 3rd star and you have no cap space and have to fill your roster with super scrubs.

Boston has 3 max-level stars and has managed to fill out its roster pretty nicely, no?

Ben, I think that they key difference is that Boston traded for both of their two additional stars, and were over the cap when they did so, so they still had exceptions to fill out the roster (Posey, House, other guys). In this scenario, capspace is being used, so Miami wouldn't be able to use those exceptions; they could only sign the minimum salary guys that anyone, regardless of their cap situation, can get. "Super scrubs", as BullsFan123 put it.

Consequence wrote:
Ben, I think that they key difference is that Boston traded for both of their two additional stars, and were over the cap when they did so, so they still had exceptions to fill out the roster (Posey, House, other guys). In this scenario, capspace is being used, so Miami wouldn't be able to use those exceptions; they could only sign the minimum salary guys that anyone, regardless of their cap situation, can get. "Super scrubs", as BullsFan123 put it.

Then I'm forced to agree with the last statement that BullsFan123 made.

Ben B. wrote:

BullsFan123 wrote:
I agree that they could trade to get three max guys, but that scenario is very unlikely as well. They would have to get two stars via trade before the trade deadline, because if they only get one then they will be in the same boat in the 2010 offseason (Wade and Star 1 earning $40 and $20mln in cap space). Sign a 3rd star and you have no cap space and have to fill your roster with super scrubs.

Boston has 3 max-level stars and has managed to fill out its roster pretty nicely, no?

They traded for them both in one offseason, and I agreed with you that it is only possible for miami to get 3 max guys if they trade for 2 stars before the February trade deadline. But I don't think they have the assets to pull it off.

On the other hand we could trade for Bosh this offseason, and then S&T another one in 2010 and have 3 superstars (Rose, Bosh, Wade?) in 2010. Can't say the same for Miami.