I know you can't go over the cap by signing a free agent. You CAN go over by matching a deal on your own restricted free agent.

So let's say Rockets sign Melo/Bosh/etc and then match on Parsons. They're now well over the cap with only a few players under contract. How do they sign more role players to fill out the team if they're already over?

The NBA salary cap is a nightmare. There are a million exceptions and ways to use them, and since it's a soft cap with progressive penalties and teams have many sources of income, it's a little hard to tell what importance the cap really has team by team.

But yes, the Rockets are currently screwed trying to build a good, deep team due to the Harden/Howard/Lin contracts plus having to pay Parsons what he's worth. Those 4 together will probably take up 80% or more of the cap, and it only gets worse if you add a marquee free agent to the mix.

If we add a marquee free agent, Lin and Asik will be gone, just FYI

Asik is already gone. Fyi.

But still, can anyone directly answer the question? What rules of the cap allow the rockets to sign players after Melo + Parsons?

quote:

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If we add a marquee free agent, Lin and Asik will be gone, just FYI

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Howard 21 + Harden 15 + Lin 8 + Parsons 10 = 54, which is actually around 85% of the cap. I'm not sure what Parsons will make, but 10 is probably not an overestimate if people are talking max money for Gordon Hayward. If they get rid of Lin and add an 18 million dollar player (which is reasonable for the kind of player Houston keeps chasing), then they add 10 million to 54 and are over the cap with just 4 players. As I said: it gets even worse if they add a marquee player.

If they get rid of Parsons AND Lin, they have three players eating up 54 million of a 63 million salary cap, that same 85%. 9 million dollars left, 10 roster spots to fill. This at a time when the league minimum ranges from 500K to 1.5mm and Jodie Meeks gets 6 million per.

Houston is going over the cap to field a team, the only question now is how much over the cap. They are going to have to get pretty creative to avoid a situation like Miami (too top heavy) and Brooklyn (180 million payroll + lux) had last year.

I'm no cap expert, but it seems to me that their only option to avoid either and still sign a big free agent involve getting rid of Howard or Harden + letting Parsons go. Maybe Houston's ownership is ok with spending uber money for a year or two in a bid to win another playoff series.

[This message has been edited by Ulrich (edited 7/5/2014 3:31p).]

The team ownership pays fines for every dollar the team salary is over the cap. Not sure on the details though

I was listening to a podcast saying if the heat had a player signed making 7 million they would have paid 20 million in luxury tax. Or something along those lines.

Last year the Nets paid Kirilenko 3 million dollars but it cost them something 13 million MORE in luxury tax plus whatever Prokhorov slipped him under the table*.

*AK47 opted out of his last year with the TWolves at 10mm to take a two year 6mm contract. Yeah, sure.

There are certain exceptions that teams over/under the cap can use, like the midlevel exception and biannual exception.

So all anyone knows is there are "exceptions" and "penalties". Got it.

JK thanks for trying anyway guys. I guess I just need to venture out to the real internet to find insight into the complicated world of NBA cap analysis.

If you're over the cap, you use exceptions to sign additional players. The exceptions available include:

-minimum salary exception: no limit on # of players you can use this on. Obviously you can only offer minimum salary, based on player's years in the league, and max contract length is 2 years

-Bird exception: no limit on # of players, this is for resigning your own free agents. Basically if a player goes 3 years without becoming a free agent or getting cut, the team he is on has his Bird rights

Taxpayer and non-taxpayer mid level exceptions (MLE): each team over the cap gets one MLE. This year they are worth about $3.2M and $5.3M respectively, and can be used on one player, or split.

Sign-and-trade: more complicated, but you can add free agent by including free agent and other players in a trade.

There are other exceptions, but those are some examples.

In the case of Parsons and the rockets, the rockets own his Bird rights, so after potentially using their cap space on an outside free agent, they can then go over the cap to resign him using the Bird exception.

[This message has been edited by Cdhaggie07 (edited 7/6/2014 10:04a).]

40M in profit and les Alexander ain't cheap. We'll find a way