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Originally Posted by FINtastic
1) What is the salary cap (likely to be) set at next year?
2) Where does the luxury tax threshold start? I've googled around and the best I can see is that it's roughly $70 mil but I can't get a firm answer on that one. If that's the case we are going to be over that just filling out the rest of the roster spots with veteran minimum contracts.
3) How far is Cuban willing to go into that luxury tax to re-sign his veterans if they aren't willing to just play for the bare minimum? Kidd makes sense as a re-sign. Maybe Mahinmi as well. I'm not sure who else you think I'm leaving out (Terry likely gets traded in this scenario anyways because he's one of the few pieces you could include to make salaries match).
Probably best if we get those things established before we go much further.
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Next year the salary cap will be no less than $58, LT no less than $70. Those numbers should start going up as revenue increases, but will probably be around those figures next year.
If you're going to pay two superstars, you're going to have to pay luxury tax. So if they acquire Howard you can assume Cubes is willing to foot the bill. Not an unlimited bill, but a bill.
In a hypothetical, you could send Haywood somewhere for trade assets, send those assets along with Roddy, Jet, and maybe someone line Rudy. (For everyone reading, I realize this is far fetched, just setting up a hypothetical for looking at numbers).
That would leave you with (rough estimate):
Dirk - 20Mil
Dwight - 20Mil
Hedo - 11Mil
Marion - 8 Mil
Kidd - Who knows. Let's give him 5Mil
Brewer - 3Mil
Dom Jones - 1Mil
Carter - ????
You're basically at this year's luxury tax line with that, potentially a bit over depending on what Carter makes. But...I mean..that's a damn good team already, no?
Under that scenario, I think it's highly likely that you amnesty Marion. Now you have another 8 Mil to play with under the luxury tax, and you have the mini-mid level to give out along with veteran minimums.
So, basically, as long as Cuban is willing to be at , say, an 80Mil payroll, I think that works just fine. Plus In another two years (after this fictional trade) Hedo falls off the books and you still have Dwight and Dirk and a bit more financial flexibility. The beauty of getting Dwight specifically is that he takes so much pressure off Dirk. With that pairing your window is basically open as long as Dirk is playing, period. And when he stops playing you still have Dwight freaking Howard.