Call Your Ideal Off-Season

[LeBowen]

Butler doesn't care about regular season, we need someone who does.

[Ariel]

I imagine you understand this, but there is an asymmetry to how partially-guaranteed money is applied. For the Spurs, Graham's deal only counts as the guaranteed portion for matching purposes, but the other team has to be able to take his full contract into space or an exception. Therefore, the Spurs are renting more than $12 Million from the other team. If that team uses a TE, the non-guaranteed portion does not get added back. If they use cap space, they have to avoid making other moves that could drop them below $13 Million until after they complete the trade and waive Graham. Considering the absolute flood of seconds the Spurs have, it's well worth it for them to secure that cap space with a reliable partner rather than shopping the deal around hoping for a lower price.

As I recall, that is only for trade matching purposes, but once the trade is completed, then you can waive the player and only the guaranteed portion of the deal becomes dead money. So in this case, yes, you'd have to find a team that can accomodate Grahams ENTIRE salary (12.65M total: 2.85M guaranteed + 9.8M nonguaranteed) but then you waive him / buy him out and only the 2,85M guaranteed become dead money (see Gallinari, Lamar Stevens, even Graham himself if waived). I don't see that as a big problem that would restrict the options the Spurs have.

I'm skeptical of this reasoning. There's a massive difference in renting one year of cap space after the market has locked in and renting a year and change before the off-season starts. Yes, it could happen, just like the Spurs took Graham's two remaining years for Richardson and seconds. But the Spurs were deep in a rebuild, fully tanking for Wemby. I don't know if there will be an equivalent situation for Flagg. I don't think the Spurs should wait until 2025 to make moves anyway, so it might be worth it for them to trade the extra value to put Collins in a deal rather than trying to save money at the expense of improving their roster. But only time will tell how PATFO approaches this situation.

You're basically asking a team to take one more year of salary for picks, For reference, Dallas took Richaun Holmes from Sacramento in exchange for the 25th pick (Olivier-Maxence Prosper), it was slightly more salary (about 13M annually) but for TWO seasons, and if you take into consideration the projected raise of the cap, Collins salary in 2 years will roughly be equivalent to that amount 2 years ago. And in the scenario I laid out the third team would only be asked to take on ONE extra year. So I'd think if a late first was enough to rid you of 2 years of such a contract, then a few 2nds could be enough to get a team to add one more year of (roughly) similar salary. There are always rebuilding teams. And in any case, I'd NEVER put a lottery pick on the table to rid yourself of a mid salary, short term deal like Collins. Seems like a gross mismanagement of assets.

Brogdan's cap hold is $33 Million. There's no way the Spurs should be planning on keeping that hold on the books in 2025 in order to re-sign Brogdan afterwards. It's hard to imagine dude warrants a deal starting at more than that.

Yeah, this one I'd give to you. I didn't realize Brogdon's cap hold was THAT large. Definitely lowers the price I'd be willing to pay if there are viable free agents for next offseason (Donovan Mitc , Lauri Markkanen, Derrick White, etc) so that you can safely renounce him without regret if necessary.

[TD 21]

I imagine you understand this, but there is an asymmetry to how partially-guaranteed money is applied.

I didn't bother reading the rest of this, but for future reference, this is essentially what I mean when I say something like "I follow the league closely".

It's not for the nefarious reasons you infer, but to say with the exception of certain CBA minutia, presume I already know or understand.

[R. DeMurre]

The more I look at it, the more I think that a few minor adjustments are all that will be done outside of the draft. There are no splurge-worthy free agents, so I look for the Spurs to search out bargains. The two I'm liking at the moment are Delon Wright and Goga Bitadze. Wright has size, defense, and combo guard skills, and Goga has illustrated he can be an impactful back up center. Neither breaks the bank.

[Chinook]

Well now that we know the picks the Spurs have, we can see the Spurs have $131 Million in committed (but not necessarily guaranteed) salary for next year. With the MLE, LLE and cap holds, that means the Spurs are currently over next year's cap. They're currently looking at $117 Million in guaranteed salary. It gives them right around $24 Million in cap space they can make without trading away or stretching anyone. If they're going to waive Graham, I think it's irresponsible to not pay someone else to eat the guaranteed salary. If they do that and stretch/waive Collins, they would JUST open up enough room to sign a first-tier max like Quickley or Claxton. Seeing as those guys are RFAs on top of their questionable fit, I don't think that's the best way to go. I don't think many scenarios justify paying Collins $7 Million a year for five years to not play for them. It does mean with a bit of effort the Spurs can pitch their potential for cap space to make a special deal work out. I've spilled enough ink talking about why that's not the ideal route to go in my mind. But they have that option.

[Chinook]

I didn't bother reading the rest of this, but for future reference, this is essentially what I mean when I say something like "I follow the league closely".

It's not for the nefarious reasons you infer, but to say with the exception of certain CBA minutia, presume I already know or understand.

I'm not going to open up that can of worms again, Teeds. Just as I didn't post my long reply to the last exchange we had, I am not going to post the long response I had this time. All I'll say is that I'm not going to stop talking about stuff like this if what you said gives me the impression that you don't understand the situation in the same way I do. I don't talk about that to be condescending. I do it because I'm taking it seriously enough to dig to the roots of the argument and explain where I think the disagreement comes from.

[MultiTroll]

FFS bring them back.

A look back at the Silver Dancers, a Spurs staple for more than three decades (mysanantonio.com)

[scott]

Well now that we know the picks the Spurs have, we can see the Spurs have $131 Million in committed (but not necessarily guaranteed) salary for next year. With the MLE, LLE and cap holds, that means the Spurs are currently over next year's cap. They're currently looking at $117 Million in guaranteed salary. It gives them right around $24 Million in cap space they can make without trading away or stretching anyone. If they're going to waive Graham, I think it's irresponsible to not pay someone else to eat the guaranteed salary. If they do that and stretch/waive Collins, they would JUST open up enough room to sign a first-tier max like Quickley or Claxton. Seeing as those guys are RFAs on top of their questionable fit, I don't think that's the best way to go. I don't think many scenarios justify paying Collins $7 Million a year for five years to not play for them. It does mean with a bit of effort the Spurs can pitch their potential for cap space to make a special deal work out. I've spilled enough ink talking about why that's not the ideal route to go in my mind. But they have that option.

At this point I think we just gotta roll with Collins until such time his contract is needed as ballast for some other trade. Same with Keldon, imvho