twslam07
All-Star
No, not "cap space." I'm referring to the space below the 2nd apron.
We're not going to sign a max player in free agency. I'm talking about trading for someone who is on a max contract and how it works with our current contracts in place.
As for Murray & Ellis, I addressed that as well in the previous posts, but I'll show my work again. As I stated previously, I am assuming that Murray's extension will be on par with Trey Murphy's contract and Ellis' extension will be on par with Herb Jones' contract. Below is how the numbers shake out...
As you can see, we have $88.6 mil in space before hitting the 2nd apron in 2025-26, and we have $89.7 mil in space before hitting the 2nd apron in 2026-27. The max contracts range between $38.7-$59.5 mil (depending on how long that player has been in the league and depending on which year). That means if we added a max player/contract to LaVine, Sabonis, Murray, Ellis, & Carter, we'd still have $30.2-$49.9 mil in space before hitting the 2nd apron (depending on how long that player has been in the league and depending on which year).
In order to trade for such a player w/ a max salary, we'd be leveraging a combination of DeRozan, Monk, and/or Valanciunas, or if we trade a combination of those guys for Jrue Holiday (for example), we'd use Holiday's contract to make such a trade.
Lastly, that $38.7-$59.5 mil of space before hitting the 2nd apron definitely opens up after LaVine's max contract expires. For example, let's say we give LaVine an extension worth $25 mil per year. This is how that table would look...
That leaves us with $128.3 mil in space before hitting the 2nd apron, and assuming we have another max contract added to that core, we'd still have $62.8-$81.5 mil in space before hitting the 2nd apron (depending on how long that player has been in the league).
