Note that while a team can never have cap room and exceptions at the same time, the Knicks are in position to be one of the few teams that has both in the same offseason.

Also note that there is no specific date by which free agents need to be renounced. They can put off renouncing their free agents until the last moment, which keeps their options open as long as possible. Renouncing is only necessary when they need to clear the cap room to sign a free agent. This means they can come to a verbal agreement with a player, then renounce their own free agents, and finally sign the player with their newfound cap room. If they strike out in the free agent market, they can still come to terms with their own players.

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A third strategy might be to take advantage of temporarily being over the cap, which gives them the use of their exceptions. If they first sign two players with their Mid-Level and Bi-Annual exceptions, and THEN renounce their free agents, they would have $25.59 million in committed salaries, and six roster charges totaling $2.84 million, giving them a total of $28.43 million, Their trade exceptions would drop off the books, and they would be left with $24.57 million in cap room. After signing a maximum free agent for $16.57 million they'd have $8.00 million left for the rest of their roster – but they'd have a free agent signed to a maximum contract, players signed with their Mid-Level and Bi-Annual exceptions, AND an additional $8 million in cap room to show for it.

A fourth option would be to use their Mid-Level exception, then renounce all of their free agents except Lee. This would leave them with $23.51 million in salaries, Lee's $10.5 million cap hold, and six roster charges totaling $2.84 million, for a total of $36.85 million. They would have $16.15 million in cap room – slightly less than they'd need for a maximum offer to LeBron James, but perhaps they could adjust for this by spending slightly less than the full $5.73 million to sign a mid-level player. Spending $5.31 million on a mid-level player would leave them with enough cap room to give the maximum to James. So all told, with this scenario they'd keep Lee, sign a maximum free agent such as James, sign one additional player for slightly less than the mid-level, and still have to fill out the rest of their roster with minimum salary players.

Read more: http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?STORY_ID=15454#ixzz0h47lFkQL

VDesai wrote:So what is this telling me?

They can sign McGrady for the MLE
They can sign Sergio for the LLE
They can sign Lebron for the MAX
They can sign David Lee for a 6 yr 63 mil contract starting at 8 mil and increasing by 1 mil annually

Theoretically yes, but Sergio and McGrady don't require exceptions to sign...since they have bird rights. I think the scenerios that are outlined apply more to FAs from other teams.

I think that part of the article was more confusing than informative. Not sure he is right about the QO being the total caphold for Sergio either. But this is Coon we are talking about, so I must give him the benefit of the doubt.

AnubisADL wrote:

EwingsGlass wrote:The paragraph on Exceptions is a technical nuance. Money is fungible. There is no beneficial difference to signing a player to the MLE at $5.8M or signing him to a $5.8M contract. In fact, you are limited to 8% raises by using the MLE. AND, if Walsh used the LLE instead of just signing a player to a $2M contract with cap space, he'd be a real idiot because Walsh should retain the right to use the LLE next year (it Bi-Annual!-- can only be used every other year).

I think that part of the article was more confusing than informative. Not sure he is right about the QO being the total caphold for Sergio either. But this is Coon we are talking about, so I must give him the benefit of the doubt.

Bingo. I didnt read the article so I was trying to figure out what was the point of it.

We covered all this pretty much in the summer concerning Lebron with livintoolive

KNICKS CAP HOLDS

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