You’re right about the 15% trade kicker. I failed to incorporate it. But keep in mind that LaMelo can waive that kicker. It will be interesting to see if he did that. I actually think he will because I think he’s really excited to be coming here, wants to win and realizes that waiving the $6+ million kicker can materially improve the Wolves chances of building a championship roster. But we’ll see.
LaMelo can't go over the 25% max for his years of service so his trade kicker will be significantly less than 15%. If this trade had happened a year from now he could get the full kicker due to graduating into a different years of service bracket which allows him to go up to 30% of the cap.
Good info, Phenom. Thanks!
Yeah, I was trying to figure out why the trade kicker was limited, and I was coming up empty!
That adds one more of the many reasons Charlotte was willing to entertain moving LaMelo. There are a bunch of them, not related to on the court production.
Melo is already making max for what he is allowed. So why would they even include a trade kicker in his max contract if he cannot make more than the max. That literally makes no sense.
To me this reads as:
If player A is on a 20 million annual contract and their max potential was at 45 million, that means there is 25 million available to include a 15% trade kicker on top of his 20 million.
But if someone is making 45 million max and the max is 45, they cant do a 15% trade kicker cause they cannot go above the 45 million max salary.
I'm honestly pretty confused why folks are so determined to get off Green right away at the cost of another rotation player.
Green has a reputation of being a capable defender who essentially shoots 40% from 3. In 24' he played 24 minutes a game for the Mavs, a finals team.
Most importantly he's an expiring contract! He's built in cap relief next season.
I understand that he's a bit redundant at this point and there are a lot of guards on the team, so much so that the current rotation pushes several of those guards into the forward position. However, haven't we learned from the Spurs and Thunder that this may not be that much of a problem? Having a bevy of bodies that you can throw at the perimeter who can also shoot is a good thing.
We got exactly what we wanted yet we're all still trying to make moves to get another all star to play PF? I don't get it
Let's tinker around the edges, find cheap up and comers who might just need a different environment, develop the few young players you have and let's roll.
Idk what to make of Ball's basketball character, the national narrative isn't kind to him, and that certainly concerns me, but this team has had the exact perfect start to the off-season given the existing constraints and variables. There are obviously risk, but this was the right gamble imo, and continuing to chip away at potential assets to acquire inferior but known ones is the wrong direction to go imo
Mnwild1128 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 8:54 am
Melo is already making max for what he is allowed. So why would they even include a trade kicker in his max contract if he cannot make more than the max. That literally makes no sense.
To me this reads as:
If player A is on a 20 million annual contract and their max potential was at 45 million, that means there is 25 million available to include a 15% trade kicker on top of his 20 million.
But if someone is making 45 million max and the max is 45, they cant do a 15% trade kicker cause they cannot go above the 45 million max salary.
I'm sure when Ball signed his deal there was no thought of him being traded this quickly into the deal. Most guys of his caliber are traded with a year or two left. If he was traded literally a year later he'd have an extra year of service which opens up a higher max possibility. This is why guys who have been in the league longer have higher max potential. He literally cannot make more than 25% of the cap until next year. If he had previously hit other benchmarks like winning MVP he could have opened up a higher percentage earlier. This is part of the Derrick Rose rule in conjunction with the NBA's years of service protocols.
AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 8:56 am
I'm honestly pretty confused why folks are so determined to get off Green right away at the cost of another rotation player.
Green has a reputation of being a capable defender who essentially shoots 40% from 3. In 24' he played 24 minutes a game for the Mavs, a finals team.
Most importantly he's an expiring contract! He's built in cap relief next season.
I understand that he's a bit redundant at this point and there are a lot of guards on the team, so much so that the current rotation pushes several of those guards into the forward position. However, haven't we learned from the Spurs and Thunder that this may not be that much of a problem? Having a bevy of bodies that you can throw at the perimeter who can also shoot is a good thing.
We got exactly what we wanted yet we're all still trying to make moves to get another all star to play PF? I don't get it
Let's tinker around the edges, find cheap up and comers who might just need a different environment, develop the few young players you have and let's roll.
Idk what to make of Ball's basketball character, the national narrative isn't kind to him, and that certainly concerns me, but this team has had the exact perfect start to the off-season given the existing constraints and variables. There are obviously risk, but this was the right gamble imo, and continuing to chip away at potential assets to acquire inferior but known ones is the wrong direction to go imo
The key with trading Green is that A) his salary can get us, in theory a better player at big positions and B) if Green's salary slot falls off the books then the team loses a mechanism to have a player in that salary range as they can't just sign someone for 14 million dollars. That is probably the most important reason. They could always resign Green at that number but he probably isn't worth it.
AussieWolf3 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 8:56 am
I'm honestly pretty confused why folks are so determined to get off Green right away at the cost of another rotation player.
Green has a reputation of being a capable defender who essentially shoots 40% from 3. In 24' he played 24 minutes a game for the Mavs, a finals team.
Most importantly he's an expiring contract! He's built in cap relief next season.
I understand that he's a bit redundant at this point and there are a lot of guards on the team, so much so that the current rotation pushes several of those guards into the forward position. However, haven't we learned from the Spurs and Thunder that this may not be that much of a problem? Having a bevy of bodies that you can throw at the perimeter who can also shoot is a good thing.
We got exactly what we wanted yet we're all still trying to make moves to get another all star to play PF? I don't get it
Let's tinker around the edges, find cheap up and comers who might just need a different environment, develop the few young players you have and let's roll.
Idk what to make of Ball's basketball character, the national narrative isn't kind to him, and that certainly concerns me, but this team has had the exact perfect start to the off-season given the existing constraints and variables. There are obviously risk, but this was the right gamble imo, and continuing to chip away at potential assets to acquire inferior but known ones is the wrong direction to go imo
I think it’s because we need cap relief this season. It’s always nice to have it but if we don’t get it now we are 2nd apron. So the get rid of green talk stems from not wanting to have a 9th guy in the bench pushing you over the apron.
Whether he is making 25 or 30% i have read the trade kickers added to players current salary cannot exceed their maximum available salary. Melo is already at maximum salary. Therefore his trade kicker in theory should be forfeited. According to the rules i read. Now had his salary been at say, 30 million, there would be room to add the 15% on top of his 30 million and stay below his current max salary of 40.3..
Mnwild1128 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 9:28 am
Whether he is making 25 or 30% i have read the trade kickers added to players current salary cannot exceed their maximum available salary. Melo is already at maximum salary. Therefore his trade kicker in theory should be forfeited. According to the rules i read. Now had his salary been at say, 30 million, there would be room to add the 15% on top of his 30 million and stay below his current max salary of 40.3..
A couple of things: each year both the player’s salary and the salary cap change, and not by the same percentage. So there is room for the trade kicker to become more available. But the bigger factor, as phenom mentioned is when a player’s years of service cross from the 25% threshold to the 30%, there is plenty of room for the trade kicker in full. LaMelo needed one more year under his belt for his full trade kicker to kick in. Very fortunate for the Wolves!
Mnwild1128 wrote: ↑Sat Jun 27, 2026 9:28 am
Whether he is making 25 or 30% i have read the trade kickers added to players current salary cannot exceed their maximum available salary. Melo is already at maximum salary. Therefore his trade kicker in theory should be forfeited. According to the rules i read. Now had his salary been at say, 30 million, there would be room to add the 15% on top of his 30 million and stay below his current max salary of 40.3..
A couple of things: each year both the player’s salary and the salary cap change, and not by the same percentage. So there is room for the trade kicker to become more available. But the bigger factor, as phenom mentioned is when a player’s years of service cross from the 25% threshold to the 30%, there is plenty of room for the trade kicker in full. LaMelo needed one more year under his belt for his full trade kicker to kick in. Very fortunate for the Wolves!
When you are locked into a contract you are locked into it.
Or are you saying if his disclosed salary for 28/29 season, which is 46.3 million ends up as more than 25% cause suddenly the 28/29 league cap ends up being far less than 185.2, that he will get a pay cut even though his contract terms are already announced for future years and under pen and paper? So if it ends up being 180.2 league cap, his salary will drop to 45.05 million? I have never seen nor heard of any of this all the years i have looked at salaries. Never seen player salaries change from their initial announced terms.
