Happy Fourth of July to all of our American readers!
With a moment to step back and breathe after a busy first few days of free agency, Hoops Rumors hosted a live chat today to field questions about the NBA’s complex new Collective Bargaining Agreement that has loomed over the 2024 offseason and made it more challenging for clubs to complete major moves.
This chat was focused exclusively on questions related to the salary cap and CBA.
Hi Luke, great chat, special thanks for that Yossi capsite link. Very useful.
I didn’t get this in time for the chat, but I’m wondering if this was changed in the new CBA. In the last CBA, an option year couldn’t have a lower salary than the previous year, but Woj is reporting that the Hield S&T is 4 yrs with,….”a $3M partial guarantee in 3rd year and player option on non-guaranteed 4th year.” Is that possible?
I don’t believe that CBA language has changed and I don’t think the specific terms laid out by Woj would be legal. Would imagine the final version of that contract looks slightly different (maybe they spread that $3MM partial guarantee across the last two years?).
Thanks, Luke. Sometimes they get careless in the rush to be first with the news.
I would imagine Woj’s info is coming straight from the agent or team, so it’s possible they put together a tentative deal forgetting certain rules, then will amend the terms before it goes official.
Don’t mean to belabor the issue, I don’t know why these things interest me. This is from another source, and I think it may be correct. It seems that as long as the salary (guaranteed or not) is not less than the previous year, the PO is valid.
“A players salary can generally only rise or fall a certain percentage based on how they sign (in this case 5%). So the 4th year salary Buddy can opt into cap has to be equal or greater than his 3rd year salary, but it can be guaranteed for any amount from 0% to 100%. Players and teams can often opt into a non guaranteed salaried year for a player.
The salary guaranteed can drop year over year, but it can’t drop and then rise. So, if the 3rd year is $3m guaranteed, the 4th year can’t be more than $3m guaranteed, but it can certainly be less guaranteed….
Mostly, this contract is basically built with a mutual option in the 4th year. Buddy can opt in, but GS can waive him for $0 gtd. GS could want him back, but Buddy could opt out, etc.
Don’t believe that’s accurate. This is the relevant section from the CBA referring to the option year:
“All other terms and conditions (other than with respect to the payment schedule for the player’s Base Compensation) in the Option Year shall be unchanged from those that applied to the last year of the stated term of such Contract (including, but not limited to, the percentage of Base Compensation that is protected).”
(Should clarify that I cut off the section right ahead of this that says an option year salary must equal or exceed the previous year’s salary. Specifically discussing the guaranteed portion here.)
Yeah, I looked it up so I read the whole thing. It sounds like that covers it. It will be interesting to see the final product. Thanks for taking the time to appease me.