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I was wondering about JJ's salary. I know that if he is medically unfit to play & retires, his salary counts against Bulls cap.

However, I wondered if the salary can be excluded from Lux Tax.

I asked - and got a personal response from Larry Coon!! Yay!!

I dont know if you guys knows that he posts here on RealGM

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=911819

Larry says: the Board of Governors can exclude the salary of disabled players from the luxury tax, and typically does so.

Seems like Paxson really got a heck of deal in exchange for Hughes

OK, JR - sign Ben...no Lux Tax excuses from you!

WHAT? That's fantastic news...

Go Larry Coon. You beautiful bastard. Good news indeed.

Wow. That really is great news. This gives us many more possibilities trade wise with Kirk if we decide to go that way. Having the ability to keep Ben and not hit the tax is huge! Outstanding information gathering Tommy!

And how much does JJ make?

Good sleuthing there, TU6.

Shamsports.com says 6.6 million

I love you, Jerome.

Now, assuming we are keeping Ben moving forward and trading Kirk as Doug told us, where are the likely destinations? What can he realistically fetch for us?

Now we've got to make sure James is declared medically unfit to play. You can't just assume that, because Jerome James gots to get paid, and it's a contract year.

Did the Bulls already know this, considering their keep Gordon comments?

Also, how much can we now offer Ben as a starting salary? Will we be able to sign other free agents as well with the exceptions or does that put us over the tax?

The important thing is that Jerome James gets to retire as a Bull.

Red Larrivee wrote:Did the Bulls already know this, considering their keep Gordon comments?

That is what I suspected - they had a secret & it took me a while to figure it out. They were just so confident of getting BG back. There had to be a little secret that they were not talking about.

Remember: ..... said Commissioner David Stern recently, “nobody in the NBA understands the intricacies of the salary cap better than Irwin Mandel” ...


http://www.nba.com/bulls/news/irwin_mandel.html

BrooklynBulls wrote:Now we've got to make sure James is declared medically unfit to play. You can't just assume that, because Jerome James gots to get paid, and it's a contract year.

No problem.

Cliff Levingston wrote:The important thing is that Jerome James gets to retire as a Bull.

Right - no more trade proposals or buy out demands.......

Chicago total salaries combined next season guaranteed are $63,026,783. That also included if we let go of Roberson which is unlikely as he costs less than a million. With a draft pick, that will also cost us around a million. That means we should be at around 65 million next season. We're going to need an additional million or two for FA's, so it's likely we will still only have around 10 to 11 million to spend on Gordon, however if this is true and we can force Jerome James to retire, then it's likely we still will find a way to resign him.

This could also help another team clear cap space as well netting Bosh/Amare.

So James would have to retire as a Bull this year? I'm a little confused

I am happy but he still has to retire to make this work. I mean if he doesnt want to retire then what do we do. Its not like someone can just take a crowbar to his knee or something. I mean, not legally.

Cliff Levingston wrote:The important thing is that Jerome James gets to retire as a Bull.

I propose we hang #31 from the rafters...or a giant chocolate chip cookie.