Minnesota Sports Forum

bleedspeed177 wrote:Couldn't we trade Pek for a player and they cut him?

They could but his contact would still count against the cap of that team

khans2k5 wrote:Are we sure Thibs and Layden know Pek is still on the team lol? He didn't play a game this year so I don't know why he isn't medically retired yet.

It would be financially incompetent to do anything with Pek's contract before the official end of the current contract season, which is after the draft. So don't bemoan any perceived inactivity in regards to Pek's contract.

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Are we sure Thibs and Layden know Pek is still on the team lol? He didn't play a game this year so I don't know why he isn't medically retired yet.

It would be financially incompetent to do anything with Pek's contract before the official end of the current contract season, which is after the draft. So don't bemoan any perceived inactivity in regards to Pek's contract.

A medical retirement doesn't make a difference if you do it now or next contract period. Insurance covers it, he comes off our cap and we owe him no more money unless he comes back and plays somewhere like Brandon Roy did with us. He's worth nothing in a trade because we are so far under the cap we don't need to match salaries because we can just eat the salary and we'd have even more of it if he was a medical retirement.

khans2k5 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Are we sure Thibs and Layden know Pek is still on the team lol? He didn't play a game this year so I don't know why he isn't medically retired yet.

It would be financially incompetent to do anything with Pek's contract before the official end of the current contract season, which is after the draft. So don't bemoan any perceived inactivity in regards to Pek's contract.

A medical retirement doesn't make a difference if you do it now or next contract period. Insurance covers it, he comes off our cap and we owe him no more money unless he comes back and plays somewhere like Brandon Roy did with us. He's worth nothing in a trade because we are so far under the cap we don't need to match salaries because we can just eat the salary and we'd have even more of it if he was a medical retirement.

We are under the cap this year by 10+ mil, or something like that. If Pek is medically retired and his salary removed from this year's cap, then we would be 20+ mil under the cap, and Glen would be writing a check for 20+ mil to the current players rather than 10+ mil.

Maybe you don't mind throwing an extra 10+ mil away, and even though Glen can afford it, I doubt he is going do it...

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Are we sure Thibs and Layden know Pek is still on the team lol? He didn't play a game this year so I don't know why he isn't medically retired yet.

It would be financially incompetent to do anything with Pek's contract before the official end of the current contract season, which is after the draft. So don't bemoan any perceived inactivity in regards to Pek's contract.

A medical retirement doesn't make a difference if you do it now or next contract period. Insurance covers it, he comes off our cap and we owe him no more money unless he comes back and plays somewhere like Brandon Roy did with us. He's worth nothing in a trade because we are so far under the cap we don't need to match salaries because we can just eat the salary and we'd have even more of it if he was a medical retirement.

We are under the cap this year by 10+ mil, or something like that. If Pek is medically retired and his salary removed from this year's cap, then we would be 20+ mil under the cap, and Glen would be writing a check for 20+ mil to the current players rather than 10+ mil.

Maybe you don't mind throwing an extra 10+ mil away, and even though Glen can afford it, I doubt he is going do it...

Well that's not how it works exactly. The cap isn't the floor. We're less than 3 under the floor and if Pek is a medical retirement Glenn may be able to not foot the bill for his salary this year (don't know exactly how that works) so the bill could be the same regardless. So Glen would possibly get off paying Pek 12 million and just pay the guys who actually played this year that money.

So would Pek's contract be a trading chip for a team trying to clear cap space? Could we trade him to a team for a player they don't want and draft picks for cap space?

bleedspeed177 wrote:So would Pek's contract be a trading chip for a team trying to clear cap space? Could we trade him to a team for a player they don't want and draft picks for cap space?

We have the cap space to just absorb that guy anyway. You only need to salary match when it puts you over the cap so unless someone is dumping a max deal on us we could likely do it without including Pek anyway.

khans2k5 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:So would Pek's contract be a trading chip for a team trying to clear cap space? Could we trade him to a team for a player they don't want and draft picks for cap space?

We have the cap space to just absorb that guy anyway. You only need to salary match when it puts you over the cap so unless someone is dumping a max deal on us we could likely do it without including Pek anyway.

Yeah, But we get rid of pek, Any trade that sends pek out the door is A+ in my book.. What do we get if we keep him? Cap space? Nothing? Saves glen money, But still a cap hit for us? Someone tell me how it works.

khans2k5 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

60WinTim wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:Are we sure Thibs and Layden know Pek is still on the team lol? He didn't play a game this year so I don't know why he isn't medically retired yet.

It would be financially incompetent to do anything with Pek's contract before the official end of the current contract season, which is after the draft. So don't bemoan any perceived inactivity in regards to Pek's contract.

A medical retirement doesn't make a difference if you do it now or next contract period. Insurance covers it, he comes off our cap and we owe him no more money unless he comes back and plays somewhere like Brandon Roy did with us. He's worth nothing in a trade because we are so far under the cap we don't need to match salaries because we can just eat the salary and we'd have even more of it if he was a medical retirement.

We are under the cap this year by 10+ mil, or something like that. If Pek is medically retired and his salary removed from this year's cap, then we would be 20+ mil under the cap, and Glen would be writing a check for 20+ mil to the current players rather than 10+ mil.

Maybe you don't mind throwing an extra 10+ mil away, and even though Glen can afford it, I doubt he is going do it...

Well that's not how it works exactly. The cap isn't the floor. We're less than 3 under the floor and if Pek is a medical retirement Glenn may be able to not foot the bill for his salary this year (don't know exactly how that works) so the bill could be the same regardless. So Glen would possibly get off paying Pek 12 million and just pay the guys who actually played this year that money.

This is wonky stuff but I think irs pretty clear the Wolves are much better off waiting till this year is over. Regardless the Wolves are under the floor. If they clear Pek's contract they have to pay that money. The question you bring up is what insurance is paying Glen and the Wolves.

If Pek qualified for the NBA's insurance policy unless something has changed (see article below) they would get 80% of his salary back based on this article. It doesn't talk about cap considerations but it doesn't seem that it effects the cap but I would have to look back at their cap from that year.

http://www.espn.com/blog/chicago/bulls/post/_/id/13432/insurance-helps-bulls-foot-roses-bill

So let's say Pek wasn't insurable because of previous injuries? The Wolves may have taken out a policy and we wouldn't know the terms of that but it's unlikely they insured for his entire contract for each year.

So...

Let's say the Wolves are getting 80% of Pek's contract in insurance one way or another (either the NBA's policy or another one) for this season that still leaves 2.42 million difference. That's not chump change. Regardless Pek gets his money. They have to pay that money whether he is on the roster or not. So they have to pay Pek 12 million bucks for this season if they had him retire this year. If they had his money come off the books this year they would have to pay that $12 million to Pek plus it seems highly likely since he didn't play they would get the insurance money. Then they would have to pay 12 million in floor fines. I'm sure Pek's teammates would love that but it makes no sense to do it. So they save money and likely get insurance money as well. Again it's wonky but I think that's why we have heard nothing about it plus Thibs and Layden aren't going to announce anything till there is something and Glen wants to protect his ability to save as much cash as possible which makes plenty of sense to do.

Hoops! I Did It Again! wrote:

khans2k5 wrote:

bleedspeed177 wrote:So would Pek's contract be a trading chip for a team trying to clear cap space? Could we trade him to a team for a player they don't want and draft picks for cap space?

We have the cap space to just absorb that guy anyway. You only need to salary match when it puts you over the cap so unless someone is dumping a max deal on us we could likely do it without including Pek anyway.

Yeah, But we get rid of pek, Any trade that sends pek out the door is A+ in my book.. What do we get if we keep him? Cap space? Nothing? Saves glen money, But still a cap hit for us? Someone tell me how it works.

He will medically retire. That will clear either all of his salary or all it like a million or something. If you are really curious about it follow Albert Nahmad on Twitter the guy is a salary cap guru and has been saying how the Chris Bosh situation played out which is similar enough to Pek to get the specifics. It's relatively complex I don't remember all the specifics. Trust me Pek and his salary won't be on the cap for next year. There will be no Pek trades. In addition the Wolves are the only team that can collect on any insurance on Em's contract so it makes zero financial sense to trade him it would actually cost the Wolves money because they wouldn't get that last year of insurance payments.