Waived Players

[Lipoli390]

I'm not sure, but I think the Wolves can sign waived players without pushing them over the luxury tax threshold. If I'm right, there are some interesting possibilities. Here's a list of players I'd like the Wolves to sign in order of preference:]]

1. Moses Brown
2. Enes Freedom
3. D'Andre Bembry

Thoughts?

[Coolbreeze44]

Lip, I believe we would be responsible for a pro-rated portion of their contract. So it depends what they were making.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, I believe we would be responsible for a pro-rated portion of their contract. So it depends what they were making.

That makes sense, Cool. In that case, we should be able to sign Moses Brown or Bembry without hitting the luxury tax threshold.

Signing him for the balance of the season should be a absolute priority for the Wolves right now. I'm not sure what was going on with Brown in Dallas. He had terrific stats and averaged over 20 minutes per game last season with OKC. Yet, he hardly played at all with the Mavs this season and they end ended up waiving him. It seems strange. He might have some issues between the ears. Nevertheless, he's a physically impressive 7'2 player who averaged nearly 9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game last season. And he's only 22 years old.

I don't think we can sign Mr. Freedom without going over the luxury tax line.

[mrhockey89]

Enes Freedom please. He's one of the few people I follow on twitter.

[Monster]

Lip, I believe we would be responsible for a pro-rated portion of their contract. So it depends what they were making.

That makes sense, Cool. In that case, we should be able to sign Moses Brown or Bembry without hitting the luxury tax threshold.

Signing him for the balance of the season should be a absolute priority for the Wolves right now. I'm not sure what was going on with Brown in Dallas. He had terrific stats and averaged over 20 minutes per game last season with OKC. Yet, he hardly played at all with the Mavs this season and they end ended up waiving him. It seems strange. He might have some issues between the ears. Nevertheless, he's a physically impressive 7'2 player who averaged nearly 9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game last season. And he's only 22 years old.

I don't think we can sign Mr. Freedom without going over the luxury tax line.

Vet min salaries counting against the cap have a limit. It looks like that is about 1.7 million this year. I believe it's capped at what a player with 2 years experience would get for the vet min so if the Wolves have over 800k available at this point of the season with less than 30 games to go they should be able to sign pretty much anyone to a vet min deal especially if they don't sign anyone for a few more days. If they are able to sign a vet min guy then there was no reason to give up a 2nd rounder to clear the way to sign someone or make a deal for some sort of decent vet. They might be able to get someone better that gets waived or bought out. Some of the guys they could have traded for will probably be available.

[Coolbreeze44]

If you put in a successful waiver claim, you are responsible for whatever is left of their salary.

[Lipoli390]

Lip, I believe we would be responsible for a pro-rated portion of their contract. So it depends what they were making.

That makes sense, Cool. In that case, we should be able to sign Moses Brown or Bembry without hitting the luxury tax threshold.

Signing him for the balance of the season should be a absolute priority for the Wolves right now. I'm not sure what was going on with Brown in Dallas. He had terrific stats and averaged over 20 minutes per game last season with OKC. Yet, he hardly played at all with the Mavs this season and they end ended up waiving him. It seems strange. He might have some issues between the ears. Nevertheless, he's a physically impressive 7'2 player who averaged nearly 9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game last season. And he's only 22 years old.

I don't think we can sign Mr. Freedom without going over the luxury tax line.

Vet min salaries counting against the cap have a limit. It looks like that is about 1.7 million this year. I believe it's capped at what a player with 2 years experience would get for the vet min so if the Wolves have over 800k available at this point of the season with less than 30 games to go they should be able to sign pretty much anyone to a vet min deal especially if they don't sign anyone for a few more days. If they are able to sign a vet min guy then there was no reason to give up a 2nd rounder to clear the way to sign someone or make a deal for some sort of decent vet. They might be able to get someone better that gets waived or bought out. Some of the guys they could have traded for will probably be available.

I'm not sure what the rule is. I don't think a vet minimum player's salary is prorated. I think the proration only applies to a waived player. I could be wrong, but I think that's why the Wolves still can't sign Monroe without going over the luxury tax. Maybe Cam or Cool can weigh in on this. They both have a better understanding of salary cap rules than I do.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

As it stands right now, Minnesota has approximately $873K to work with, which means that they have just enough wiggle room to sign a free agent to a pro-rated vet minimum salary for the rest of the season and stay below the luxury tax threshold.

However, Taurean Prince has two incentives in his contract that pose a potential conflict in the Wolves being able to make such a move. His contract includes a $335K bonus if his team posts a defensive rating below 105 with him on the floor. He gets another $335K if he attempts 7.6-plus three-pointers per 36 minutes and shoots better than 41.5-percent on those. Those bonuses are not baked into the Wolves current cap number. My understanding is that if they triggered it would mean the team could NOT sign a free agent without going over the luxury tax threshold.

Prince currently has a 109.9 defensive rating and attempts 6.4 three-point shots per 36 minutes on 39.3-percent shooting. If I was a gambling man, I'd wager that Prince won't receive either of those incentives, but it's a potential roadblock for the front office to consider.

[Monster]

Lip, I believe we would be responsible for a pro-rated portion of their contract. So it depends what they were making.

That makes sense, Cool. In that case, we should be able to sign Moses Brown or Bembry without hitting the luxury tax threshold.

Signing him for the balance of the season should be a absolute priority for the Wolves right now. I'm not sure what was going on with Brown in Dallas. He had terrific stats and averaged over 20 minutes per game last season with OKC. Yet, he hardly played at all with the Mavs this season and they end ended up waiving him. It seems strange. He might have some issues between the ears. Nevertheless, he's a physically impressive 7'2 player who averaged nearly 9 rebounds in 21 minutes per game last season. And he's only 22 years old.

I don't think we can sign Mr. Freedom without going over the luxury tax line.

Vet min salaries counting against the cap have a limit. It looks like that is about 1.7 million this year. I believe it's capped at what a player with 2 years experience would get for the vet min so if the Wolves have over 800k available at this point of the season with less than 30 games to go they should be able to sign pretty much anyone to a vet min deal especially if they don't sign anyone for a few more days. If they are able to sign a vet min guy then there was no reason to give up a 2nd rounder to clear the way to sign someone or make a deal for some sort of decent vet. They might be able to get someone better that gets waived or bought out. Some of the guys they could have traded for will probably be available.

I'm not sure what the rule is. I don't think a vet minimum player's salary is prorated. I think the proration only applies to a waived player. I could be wrong, but I think that's why the Wolves still can't sign Monroe without going over the luxury tax. Maybe Cam or Cool can weigh in on this. They both have a better understanding of salary cap rules than I do.

If we sign Keith Van Horn (or any other player that's a FA) to a vet min deal it would cost a prorated amount of the vet min deal according to what is left in the season. The free agent gets paid for what is left of the season they aren't getting a contract that pays them a vet min deal with a value of an entire season.

If a team claims a player on waivers the entire contract would count against the cap just as if it was a trade. That's why in some cases teams need an exemption to claim a player if it's over the vet min. These are reasons why some teams are not going to make a trade (or claim a player) because some guys can be sign for very little money and give up nothing (including having to acquire more salary) in the deal.

[Camden [enjin:6601484]]

Furthermore, the Wolves could make a waiver claim on any player making $4.75M or less using the trade exception they created from the Ricky Rubio deal. Obviously, they're working against the luxury tax threshold so the exception exceeds what they would be able to fit financially. They can also claim players using the vet minimum exception. It's unlikely this will come into play, but there you have it.