LA Clippers: What the Projected Cap Means for the Offseason

Now that the projected numbers for the next NBA season are out, here’s what it means for the LA Clippers in the upcoming free agency.

We’re not sure yet when we’ll next see the LA Clippers playing basketball. The league is pushing for a Christmas start; we’ve looked at how that would benefit the team and how it would cause problems.

But in a piece for The Athletic (subscription requited), Shams Charania revealed that the salary cap is expected to be $109 Million and the luxury tax apron is expected to be $132 Million. That has a couple consequences for the LA Clippers in free agency.

The Clippers are currently at $115.8 Million in salaries. That’s before any potential extension (which may or may not come) for Marcus Morris, Montrezl Harrell, Reggie Jackson, Patrick Patterson and Johnathan Motley.

With previous projections of $115 Million, the Clippers would have had an easier time of freeing up some cap space if they needed it. If they renounced the cap holds of Morris or Trezz, a Patrick Beverley trade for a pick, for instance, could have put the team at $13 Million in space, which would have been enough to bring in a serious player.

Now, with the cap at $109 Million, that same combination of renouncing cap holds and trading Bev would only free up $7 Million, which may make it less likely that the Clips look into moving Bev.

In addition, this reduced cap has implications on the Mid-Level Exception for the Clippers. The MLE was described in more detail earlier on Clipperholics. The gist of it is that there are two levels of the MLE – one at about $5 Million, and one at $9.2 Million.

The Clippers can use the $5 Million to sign a player with no consequences; any player (or players) who want to join the Clippers can do so, so long as the total salaries don’t go over that number. But there are some drawbacks to using the $9.2 Million, and the reduced tax apron makes it less likely that they go that route.

If the Clips dip into the full MLE of $9.2 Million, then for the rest of the league year they are not allowed to go over the tax apron, no matter the reason. That’s why this is called the non-taxpayer MLE.

Let’s say the Clips sign a player for $9.2 Million. That puts them at $124 Million in salaries, before bringing anybody else back. It also leaves them with just ~$8 Million in room under the apron. They could free up an extra $1.7 Million by not guaranteeing Joakim Noah.

So, at most, they’re at $9.7 Million in room under the tax apron in this case. And they’ve got 10 players. We can say goodbye to Marcus Morris; there’s no way they can bring him in at a number he wants, which will probably be in the mid 8 digit range at least. They would basically have to fill out the rest of the roster using veteran minimums and hoping they can get some ring chasers.

The alternative is that they don’t use the full MLE, and instead use the mini-MLE of $5 Million. In that case, they’re perfectly allowed to go over the tax, and will be able to bring back Morris. The pros of being able to go over the tax far outweigh the jump in quality of player they can get going from $5 Million to $9.2 Million.

The change in cap may make it more likely that the Clips just run it back next season with the new coaching staff. How do you feel about that? Let us know on Twitter and Facebook, and keep up with us here for all things LA Clippers!