Salary Cap Implications of Allen Crabbe's Contract for the Portland Trail Blazers

做什么Portland Trail BlazersForward Allen Crabbe and克利夫兰骑士队中心Tristan Thompsonhave in common?

On the surface -€” not much. One is an athletic big man who earns his money rebounding and fitting into the Cavs' defensive schemes. The other is a wing collecting a paycheck with his outside shooting and quick hands on the perimeter.

但是看看合同，茁壮成长：汤普森和克拉布俩都是大笔资金到2020年作为各自球队成为榜样/边缘初学者。

在汤普森的情况下，克利夫兰去年夏天提供了5年的5年，8200万美元的合约被广泛质疑。正如几个媒体网点指出的那样，including Blazer's Edge, his production prior to the new contract was nearly identical to Ed Davis. In comparison, Davis signed a 3-year, $20 million contract last summer. Yikes.

所以这是一个明确的切割案例愚蠢的傻瓜过度多付的角色，对吗？不完全的。许多骑士球迷认为，签名实际上是一个聪明的举动 - €“即使是明显的选择。那个逻辑围绕着骑士在重新签署汤普森之前已经超过了薪水帽。他们的情况中的团队仅限于使用最低合同和低美元帽子例外添加新玩家，因此骑士队必须利用他们超越上限重新签署自己的自由代理或丢失关键角色玩家的能力他们的团队，即使它意味着重要的过支付。汤普森的代理人，了解这一现实，为他的客户赚取最多的钱举行了最多。结果：40万美元的球员8200万美元。

The Cavs' conundrum revealed a quirk of the NBA's salary cap rules: Once a team is one dollar over the salary cap they should overpay to retain their own semi-valuable free agent as there will be no other way to replace that player. (Note that this assumes the owner is willing to pay the extra salary and that the team is not exceeding the luxury tax threshold.) Further, if a team does not retain their free agents, they have reduced trade flexibility as they cannot take on additional salary in a trade and have fewer players to trade. In short, being one dollar over the salary cap and letting a free agent walk arguably puts a team in a worse short-term situation than retaining the player and being near the luxury tax.

So how does all of this apply to Crabbe and the Blazers? Without Crabbe's contract the Blazers would only have about $4 million or $8 million in cap space, depending on whether or not Moe Harkless signs his qualifying offer. Finding a player of Crabbe's caliber with a $4 million or $8 million pricetag would have been nearly impossible. Crabbe also provides skills the Blazers desperately need. Swapping outGerald HendersonforEvan Turner.certainly improved Portland's ballhandling but did nothing for their outside shooting. Crabbe is the only reliable 3-point shooting wing on the roster, and as such his floor spacing abilities are immensely valuable. Crabbe's additional salary also gives President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey another trade chip should a blockbuster deal present itself in the near future.

Olshey可能做这个心理微积分和决定that overpaying Crabbe and exceeding the cap was a better option than hanging on to a few million in cap space that could only really be used to acquire bargain basement veterans, or long-term project players.

也就是说，围绕着重新签名克拉布和汤普森的决定的情况并不完全相同的开拓者和骑士。2015年，克利夫兰在失去总决赛之后的冠军愿望是两个全明星。最据信他们是一个或两个球员，并且远离赢得冠军的好运。在那些情况下，留下了“全能”保留有用的球员的压力更多。燃烧者现在显然没有具有挑战性的冠军，但仍然可以通过指出自由的代理货架或多或少被选中干净，以便为克拉布的过度付出代理人来帮助球队明年赢得冠军。

重要的是要承认扩大克拉布不是对西装外套的无牺牲决定。当骑士队重新签署汤普森时，他们已经保证凭借其现有的合同凭借其现有的合同过多的帽子。他的交易对他们的长期灵活性做了什么。

Crabbe's contract, on the other hand, has some salary cap implications for the Blazers next summer. Without Crabbe on the books, and after making obvious personnel decisions such as extending qualifying offers toMason Plumlee和CJ麦考罗姆和拿起Noah Vonleh的团队选择，燃烧者将在锁定的帽空间中有大约9200万美元。如果他们选择不带回Festus ezeli，联盟目前的估计数约为1000万美元的CAP空间，或者如果选择，则会给予他们大约1000万美元的CAP空间。如果不太可能，薪酬上限数量将再次达成集体谈判协议后，这是可能的，如果不太可能会飙升，这将给燃烧器更加盖帽空间。这表明Olshey决定了他可以在明年夏天立即超过Crabbe的价值。鉴于西装外套的自由代理历史，特纳尽管如此，以及等待更多盖帽空间所涉及的不确定性是可取的。

更多关于西装外套的奢侈品未来。假设联盟的1.02亿美元估计为明年夏季准确，奢侈税将设定约1.22亿美元。燃烧者已经在明年夏天拥有约8900万美元的保证合同。抛出麦考烃的推定值得注意的2500万美元延长率为1.14亿美元，达到11400万美元，在ezeli的非保证薪酬，vonleh的团队选项，Plumlee的合格报价或欠第一轮选秀权的任何款项之前。在低端奢侈品税门槛上增加了这些义务，燃料队的薪水至少为1.3亿美元，至少800万美元。Crabbe的交易所有但保证了燃烧者将于明年的奢侈品税后或附近，除非他们对名册或联盟的上限规则进行了巨大改变的更大变化。

So, was matching Crabbe's contract worth it from a salary cap perspective for the Blazers? Tristan Thompson and the Cavaliers provide some precedent to explain that the answer is a resounding "YES" over the next 365 days. But that decision may become less palatable next summer as the Blazers, unlike the Cavs, are not in the position to win a title immediately, and must still make choices about whether or not to pass the luxury tax threshold to retain Ezeli, McCollum, Vonleh, Plumlee and others.