07-26-2023, 10:28 AM
(07-26-2023, 12:27 AM)omahen Wrote: I said second apron would be 200 mil, not salary cap. An increase of less than 10 % in 2 years. Two supermax deals today are 100 mil, 2 supermax deals with projected increase will be roughly 110 mil (as I said).
I consider second apron as a hard cap where contenders will be. If you are giving away multiple supermax deals and want to be a contender, you will have to spend up to the second apron.
To make math easier and not complicate with 2 seasons ahead. Second apron today is 182 mil. 2 supermax deals are roughly 100 mil. This leaves 80 mil for rest of the roster. Easily 5 players with an average salary of 13 mil (65 mil) and the remaining 15 mil for rookies and vet min deals.
My apologies for not reading your post carefully enough. Originally it wasn't clear at all how you were defining a team's spending room ("Thinking more about it, it will be possible to build around 2 super max contracts. There just won't be place for 30 mil players. 6 or 7 guys paid on average some 12 or 13 mil can still be very good supporting cast") but I read right past it when you then added that as the spending level you wanted to consider. My mistake.
Nevertheless, my reply was on point-- "The numbers to do a roster of 2-supermax, with another 6-7 MLE sized contracts to help them, puts a team far over the 2nd apron." In 2023, 2 supermax + 7 MLE + 6 mins lands you at about 197M. I wasn't suggesting Apron 2 as a preferred spending level, but just a reference point of how deep a team would have to go to carry that sort of roster. While on paper it looks like there is a lot of room to spend, it doesn't go as far as it might look.
The number of players making above the minimum has to get shorter to even stay under Apron 2, And it's shorter still if you decide that you need the added flexibility of Apron 1 or tax line, which is where I think teams will opt to operate.
As for whether teams will use Apron 2 as their spending level, I'm not sure that will be the outcome, as there are limiting rules in the new CBA that tend to prevent teams from wanting to keep operating in that range between Aprons 1 and 2, but that's a different question.