What Exactly Is The Suns Current Salary Structure?

[George O'Brien]

I don't have a better source than HoopsHype on the year by year salaries. They are sometimes incorrect, but generally they are close enough to be useful. HoopsHype - Suns

Right now they are listing the Suns at $28.001 million. But in reading Mark Cuban's BLOG, he sounded like he thought he Suns had a higher salary structure. "So I tried to figure out what the Suns could offer Steve. I knew that with salaries and cap hold, they had just under 30mm committed for the year. So if the cap would come in at a very generous 45mm dollars, they would have 15.5mm dollars in cap."

The cap hold for two players should not total more than $1 million. Unless I'm missing something, his numbers and HoopsHype differ by at least $1 million. This is a huge difference in this context.

Do we have any other sources that give breakdowns by year?

 

[elindholm]

This is a stab in the dark, but it's possible the Suns have not renounced their million-dollar exception.

 

[George O'Brien]

This is a stab in the dark, but it's possible the Suns have not renounced their million-dollar exception.

You mean the Lower Level Exemption?

 

[elindholm]

You mean the Lower Level Exemption?

Yes, although I've never heard or read anyone other than you refer to it that way. It's usually called the "million-dollar" exception, even though its value has now risen beyond one million dollars.

 

[George O'Brien]

You mean the Lower Level Exemption?

Yes, although I've never heard or read anyone other than you refer to it that way. It's usually called the "million-dollar" exception, even though its value has now risen beyond one million dollars.

That makes sense, but since the veteran exemption often runs up to $1 million (Scott Williams used that one) it gets confusing. I'm not sure how it works, but it is my understanding that veteran exemption can be used even if the team starts under the cap and gets right to the cap. Is that correct?

 

[Suns_fan69]

I believe you are correct George, because isn't a portion of the veterans exception paid for by the league?

It could be only the portion the team pays for that is counted which I believe is less than 600k.

 

[elindholm]

Yes, players can always be signed for the veteran minimum. It's also a salary-cap exception, but since its use is unlimited (you could bring on five more minimum guys if you wanted, regardless of your cap status), it doesn't usually get a special "exception" name. At least not that I've read.