Cap ramifications for the Hamilton to New Jersey deal

On its surface the exchange of Richard Hamilton for Troy Murphy and Johan Petro is about realigning the Pistons roster, shipping out the unhappy Hamilton, and making the team more financially attractive to potential buyer Tom Gores.  But the real impetus for Joe Dumars to make a move lies in the 28 million dollars in expiring contacts he'll have come due this off season.  While fans have been clamoring for the Pistons to peddle Tay Prince's deal in exchange for a long term talent, it now seems more likely that Dumars will be looking to dip his toe back into the free agent waters that 2 years ago produced disappointing additions Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva.  Let's take a look at just how much the GM will have available to spend according to current practice.

2010-11s cap was set at approximately 58 million dollars.  The CBA is going to have major changes.  It may mean the cap number comes down convincingly (this would surprise me in year 1 since Stern wants no part in punishing the teams which have been fiscally conservative), it may mean the salaries of players already on this roster are headed down.  But if Larry Coon isn't willing to take a stab at what will come of next year than neither am I.  Instead I will assume that teams with cap space this year are entitled to use that space, and that the cap will land in nearly the same spot.


Next year the Pistons are committed to nearly 48 million in salary.  Sans Rip the total comes closer to 35 in locked in dollars.  I'll presume Jonas and Stuck both require cap holds if we keep them around. 5 million for Jonas (MLE for early bird or less if he signs for that) total pulling Detroit into the 40 million dollar range.  Stuck is a different story, we have to take his last salary and multiply it by 300%.  That makes him close to 10 million dollars as a hold.  We'll let Summers walk for purposes of this discussion, and add on an additional 3 million for our own 1st round pick next year, and we total 53 million with only 11 roster spots accounted. If we do in fact get a 1st round pick from the Nets in this deal that salary will have to be factored in.  Better pick, higher salary.  I'll suppose any pick for next season will be heavily protected, so lets price it at just over a million dollars.  Now, if we add Petro in this deal we'll factor in his salary as 2.5 million for next year. If not we only need to meet the requirement of 12 players, which means 500K rookie minimum (please keep in mind this hold will be released whenever the Pistons sign a player not already using one of the above slots).  So, to play it safe, we're going to the free agent dance with 57 million maximum locked into 12 players and 2 first round picks.  Again, that's with both Petro and the pick from the Nets being a late 1st next year, so no need for the hold.



This leaves us with 2 serious questions however, what to do with the contracts of Jonas and Stuckey.  Jonas should resign with us for less than the MLE, let's figure a deal similair to the one Will Bynum received this off season.  3 million to start which reserves another 2 million for Joe to play with with his cap hold removed.  Stuck is another question altogether, but to make this fun I'm going to say we let him go and his 10 million dollar 4th year Early Bird hold along with it.  That means a set salary of 47 million dollars and approximately 11 million to spend on a first year deal for a free agent in a "worst case" scenario.  A future pick or escaping from Petro means additional dollars.

Check in tomorrow and I'll breeze through the 2011 free agent options, talk about the glut of restricted free agents, and get high while I share a really cheap and easy seafood enchilada recipe.