FanPost

Blazers 2019 Roster & Salary Cap - UPDATED After Pau Gasol Signing

UPDATED AFTER 2019 NBA DRAFT - The Blazers drafted Nassir Little with their #25 pick.

UPDATED AFTER BAZEMORE TRADE - The Blazers traded Evan Turner for Kent Bazemore.

UPDATED JULY 2 - After acquisition of Rodney Hood (TP-MLE), Hassan Whiteside (traded Meyers Leonard & Moe Harkless), Mario Hezonja & Anthony Tolliver (Minimum Salary Contract Exceptions)

UPDATED JULY 3 - After Jake Layman traded to Minnesota

UPDATED JULY 25 - The Blazers sign Pau Gasol for 14th roster spot.

I've written a separate FanPost about preserving $21M of 2020 Cap Room.

2019-20 Roster

The Blazers Roster to start the 2019-20 Season is nearing completion. They currently have 14 Players under contract and 1 open roster spot. Teams are required to have a minimum of 14 (non-two-way) players. Neil Olshey often prefers to leave the 15th and final spot open for a future acquisition via a 1-for-2 player trade, or to pick up a Free Agent later.

The Blazers have also signed Jaylen Hoard to a 2-way contract. He does not count against the team salary, luxury tax, nor their 15 possible roster spots.

2019-20 Team Salary

The team salary for the 14 current contracts is $139.9M. They also have $5.1M in dead money (the stretched contracts of the waived players Ezeli, Varejao, and Nicholson), which counts against their team salary.

Therefore, the total team salary for those 14 players plus the Dead Money is $145.0M. The Salary cap is $109.14M, putting the Blazers $35.9M over the cap. The Apron is $138.9M, which puts the Blazers $6.1M over the Apron.

2019-20 Luxury Tax

If the roster remains unchanged on the last day of the season, the Blazers Taxable Team Salary would be $143.8M (there is a $1.25M adjustment to the team salary because Nurk will not earn his "likely" Bonus as result of not playing enough games due to his injury recovery period). That is $11.2M over the Luxury Tax Threshold ($132.6M) which will produce a $19.2M tax. The Blazers total salary including tax would then be $162.9M.

PORTLAND 2019-20
1 Damian Lillard 29,802,321
2 C.J. McCollum 27,556,959
3 Hassan Whiteside (Expiring Bird) 27,093,019
4 Kent Bazemore (Expiring Bird) 19,269,662
5 Jusuf Nurkic 13,250,000
6 Rodney Hood (P. Option, Early Bird) 5,717,934
7 Zach Collins 4,240,200
8 Skal Labissiere (Potential RFA) 2,338,847
9 Anfernee Simons 2,149,560
10 Nassir Little 2,105,520
11 Mario Hezonja (P. Option Non-Bird) 1,737,145
12 Anthony Tolliver (Expiring Non-Bird) 1,620,564
13 Pau Gasoll 1,620,564
14 Gary Trent Jr 1,445,697
15
Subtotal (14 Players) 139,947,992
Dead Money 5,091,108
Subtotal w/Dead Money 145,039,100
Salary Cap 109,140,000
Over Cap 35,899,100
Apron 138,928,126
Above Apron 6,110,974
Salary Tax Adjustment (Nurk) (1,250,000)
Taxable Team Salary 143,789,100
Tax Level 132,627,000
Over Tax Level 11,162,100
Tax 19,155,250
Total Salary with Tax 162,944,350

Minimum Salary Contract Exception

The Blazers can still use the Minimum Salary Contract Exception to add a 15th player to the current Roster. That exception allows teams to add players at a player’s minimum salary even when the team is over the salary cap and has no other exceptions they can use. The minimum salary for rookies is about $900K this year. Players with 3 years or more experience on a 1-year minimum salary contract count against the team salary the same as a 2-year player’s minimum salary (about $1.6M this year) and the league pays the additional salary to the player.

2019-20 Transactions

The Blazers used the Traded Player Exception to acquire Kent Bazemore for Evan Turner, and Hassan Whiteside for Moe Harkless and Meyers Leonard. They acquired Rodney Hood with the TaxPayer Mid-Level Exception (MLE). They acquired Mario Hezonja, Anthony Tolliver, and Pau Gasol with the Minimum Player Exception.

Because Hezonja was given a 2-year contract (2nd year Player Option) the Blazers are charged the entire $1.7M of his minimum salary contract. Because Anthony Tolliver and Pau Gasol were given a 1-year minimum salary contracts the Blazers are charged only $1.6M (the minimum salary for a veteran with 2-years of experience) and the NBA pays the remaining $1M of their $2.6M minimum salaries (as 10+ year veterans).

Hard-Cap

The Blazers are NOT hard-capped because they did not use the Bi-annual Exception, any of the Non-TaxPayer Mid Level Exception (MLE) in excess of the $5.7M TaxPayer MLE, and they did not receive a player in a Sign-and-Trade deal. They are now prohibited from receiving a player in a sign-and-trade deal for the remainder of the season because they used the TP-MLE.

Trades for Teams Over the Salary Cap

Teams that finish a trade over the salary cap can take back no more than 125%+$100K of the salary they send out in a trade.

Expiring Contracts - Free Agent Bird Rights - Blazers' 2020 Maximum Contract Offers

Players with expiring contracts, or players whose contracts could expire because of options, can not be traded after the end of the season. i.e. They can not be traded leading up to, on, or after Draft Day,

Rodney Hood - Player Option for 2020 - Early Bird Rights, maximum $10.0M

Mario Hezonja - Player Option for 2020 - Non-Bird Rights, maximum $2.08M

Anthony Tolliver - Expiring Contract - Non-Bird Rights, maximum $3.1M

Pau Gasol - Expiring Contract - Non-Bird Rights, maximum $3.1M

Kent Bazemore - Expiring Contract - Full Bird Rights, player's maximum salary

Hassan Whiteside - Expiring Contract - Full Bird Rights, player's maximum salary

Skal Labissiere - Restricted Free Agent after $3.48M QO - Full Bird Rights, match any offer sheet