10-17-2022, 02:40 PM
(10-17-2022, 01:40 PM)F Gump Wrote: Yeah, that's my point -- that GS, like every team, does try to limit payroll and tax to a certain level that they find acceptable.
Interestingly, a 2023-24 payroll that's in that 200-or-so range, which you think is feasible for them to achieve, fits right into the ballpark of what they've been doing. If we plug in 202M as the number ...
Last season - payroll 175 and tax 170.
This season (so far) - payroll 190 and tax 170
2023-24 (projection) - payroll 202 and tax 170
If my assumptions are correct, that's 9 roster spots at ~$182M and a pretty big question mark in Dray, assuming he's still on the team and opts in would tack on $27m. By the time they get to 15, it's hard to imagine they'll be under that $200M number. $202M might be optimistic on your part, but I guess that depends on your personal thoughts about Dray. I think they work something out.
I'm just not sure I like the current cap rules or if the tax system really dissuades teams from going into it. It just feels like if you are willing to spend, you should keep spending that same amount to maintain flexibility (which we can probably circle back to the why the Mavericks should have figured out a way to keep Brunson). Repeater tax needs to be much heftier if they want teams operating closer to the cap. Credit to GSW though, they've done a lot of smart stuff over the years (drafting the core, developing players and turning the KD fallout into something positive) while getting a little lucky on timing (KD signing).
It's also kind of crazy that our payroll is only about 30M different than GSWs.