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This is going to be another area where the Knicks have a fighting chance at some Free Agents. FA's with only Early Bird Rights can't get a Max deal from their home team.

The crucial difference between Bird rights and Early Bird rights involves limits on contract offers. While Bird players can receive maximum salary deals for up to five years, the Early Bird exception cannot be used to offer a max deal. The most a team can offer an Early Bird free agent is 175% of his previous salary or 104.5% of the league-average salary, whichever is greater. These offers are also capped at four years rather than five, and must be for at least two years.

A guy like Kent Bazemore is a prime target since the Hawks would be limited to paying him about $8 mil based on 104.5% of the league average salary which is about $4 mil. Hassan Whiteside has the same status. I believe DJ Augustin is also a guy in that situation. I could be wrong but I think PJ Hairston is also a player that doesn't have Bird Rights.

If anyone knows an article that lists all the players in this situation i'd love to see it.

You presume that ATL will not have cap space to offer a max. The exception only kicks in if they have no cap space.

EwingsGlass wrote:You presume that ATL will not have cap space to offer a max. The exception only kicks in if they have no cap space.

Yeah I do think they have to look to get better and he's just a status quo guy for them. I don't see them signing him using up precious cap space before they can sign more important players.

Just for reference this is the Hawks cap situation.

Atlanta Hawks
SIGNED
PLAYER (11) POS. USING BASE SALARY DEAD CAP CAP FIGURE CAP %
Paul Millsap PF Bird $20,072,033 ($41,544,441) $20,072,033 21.82
Tiago Splitter PF Bird $8,250,000 ($8,250,000) $8,550,000 9.29
Jeff Teague PG Bird $8,000,000 ($8,000,000) $8,000,000 8.70
Kyle Korver SG Bird $5,239,437 ($5,239,437) $5,239,437 5.70
Thabo Sefolosha SG Cap Space $3,850,000 ($3,850,000) $3,850,000 4.18
Mike Scott PF Early Bird $3,333,334 $3,333,334 3.62
Dennis Schröder PG Rookie $2,708,582 ($2,708,582) $2,708,582 2.94
Tim Hardaway Jr. SG Rookie $2,281,605 ($2,281,605) $2,281,605 2.48
Mike Muscala PF Cap Space $1,015,696 $1,015,696 1.10
Walter Tavares C Cap Space $1,000,000 ($1,000,000) $1,000,000 1.09
Lamar Patterson SG Minimum $874,636 $874,636 0.95

2016 Cap Hold
PLAYER (4) POS. CAP FIGURE CAP %
Al Horford PF - - - - - $18,000,000 -
Kirk Hinrich SG - - - - - $5,692,415 -
Kent Bazemore SG - - - - - $2,600,000 -
Kris Humphries PF - - - - - $1,200,000 -

2016 Cap Totals
CAP TYPE CAP TOTAL
2016 NBA Salary Cap Max $92,000,000
Active Contracts $56,925,323
Cap Holds - - - - - $27,492,415
Total Salaries $56,625,323 - $84,417,738
Cap Max Space $7,582,262
Luxury Tax Space $54,074,677

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/atlanta-hawks...

nixluva wrote:This is going to be another area where the Knicks have a fighting chance at some Free Agents. FA's with only Early Bird Rights can't get a Max deal from their home team.
The crucial difference between Bird rights and Early Bird rights involves limits on contract offers. While Bird players can receive maximum salary deals for up to five years, the Early Bird exception cannot be used to offer a max deal. The most a team can offer an Early Bird free agent is 175% of his previous salary or 104.5% of the league-average salary, whichever is greater. These offers are also capped at four years rather than five, and must be for at least two years.
A guy like Kent Bazemore is a prime target since the Hawks would be limited to paying him about $8 mil based on 104.5% of the league average salary which is about $4 mil. Hassan Whiteside has the same status. I believe DJ Augustin is also a guy in that situation. I could be wrong but I think PJ Hairston is also a player that doesn't have Bird Rights.
If anyone knows an article that lists all the players in this situation i'd love to see it.

Thanks! This is a great post. Question: Isn't 104.5% of the average salary of $4 million only about $4.16 million? 100% of 4 million is 4 million right? Either way, it sounds like Bazemore will definitely be available. And he might not be overly expensive either.

reub wrote:
nixluva wrote:This is going to be another area where the Knicks have a fighting chance at some Free Agents. FA's with only Early Bird Rights can't get a Max deal from their home team.
The crucial difference between Bird rights and Early Bird rights involves limits on contract offers. While Bird players can receive maximum salary deals for up to five years, the Early Bird exception cannot be used to offer a max deal. The most a team can offer an Early Bird free agent is 175% of his previous salary or 104.5% of the league-average salary, whichever is greater. These offers are also capped at four years rather than five, and must be for at least two years.
A guy like Kent Bazemore is a prime target since the Hawks would be limited to paying him about $8 mil based on 104.5% of the league average salary which is about $4 mil. Hassan Whiteside has the same status. I believe DJ Augustin is also a guy in that situation. I could be wrong but I think PJ Hairston is also a player that doesn't have Bird Rights.
If anyone knows an article that lists all the players in this situation i'd love to see it.
Thanks! This is a great post. Question: Isn't 104.5% of the average salary of $4 million only about $4.16 million? 100% of 4 million is 4 million right? Either way, it sounds like Bazemore will definitely be available. And he might not be overly expensive either.

You're right I wasn't even paying attention. I got $4.18 million. In any event the Knicks will have a shot at guys like this if they target them early on. It's gonna be a crazy summer contract wise. We actually know that the Max contracts will be given to the elite guys and the question is the levels underneath the elite guys.

So then these early bird guys will probably get much better offers from other teams than their own. It almost rules out Bazemore returning to Atl in my eyes.

Oh, and add Jon Leuer to that list. He played very well for Hornacek in Phoenix and they can't pay him much more than $1 million. Shoots the three too.

reub wrote:So then these early bird guys will probably get much better offers from other teams than their own. It almost rules out Bazemore returning to Atl in my eyes.
Oh, and add Jon Leuer to that list. He played very well for Hornacek in Phoenix and they can't pay him much more than $1 million. Shoots the three too.

IMO ATL has bigger fish to fry and the Knicks could offer him a bigger role as well.

I could see some interest in Jon Leuer. JH would have insight on him and Leuer would have that familiarity with what JH does. GOOD CATCH by you on Leuer.

nixluva wrote:Just for reference this is the Hawks cap situation.

Atlanta Hawks
SIGNED
PLAYER (11) POS. USING BASE SALARY DEAD CAP CAP FIGURE CAP %
Paul Millsap PF Bird $20,072,033 ($41,544,441) $20,072,033 21.82
Tiago Splitter PF Bird $8,250,000 ($8,250,000) $8,550,000 9.29
Jeff Teague PG Bird $8,000,000 ($8,000,000) $8,000,000 8.70
Kyle Korver SG Bird $5,239,437 ($5,239,437) $5,239,437 5.70
Thabo Sefolosha SG Cap Space $3,850,000 ($3,850,000) $3,850,000 4.18
Mike Scott PF Early Bird $3,333,334 $3,333,334 3.62
Dennis Schröder PG Rookie $2,708,582 ($2,708,582) $2,708,582 2.94
Tim Hardaway Jr. SG Rookie $2,281,605 ($2,281,605) $2,281,605 2.48
Mike Muscala PF Cap Space $1,015,696 $1,015,696 1.10
Walter Tavares C Cap Space $1,000,000 ($1,000,000) $1,000,000 1.09
Lamar Patterson SG Minimum $874,636 $874,636 0.95

2016 Cap Hold
PLAYER (4) POS. CAP FIGURE CAP %
Al Horford PF - - - - - $18,000,000 -
Kirk Hinrich SG - - - - - $5,692,415 -
Kent Bazemore SG - - - - - $2,600,000 -
Kris Humphries PF - - - - - $1,200,000 -

2016 Cap Totals
CAP TYPE CAP TOTAL
2016 NBA Salary Cap Max $92,000,000
Active Contracts $56,925,323
Cap Holds - - - - - $27,492,415
Total Salaries $56,625,323 - $84,417,738
Cap Max Space $7,582,262
Luxury Tax Space $54,074,677

http://www.spotrac.com/nba/atlanta-hawks...

Team 16-17 Maximum Cap Space Guaranteed Contracts Partial/Non-Guaranteed Contracts Potential Free Agents

Atlanta $34,652,234.00 9 3 3

New York $30,372,607.00 6 0 8

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysis/24...

Knicks · Free Agents With Only Early Bird Rights or None (page 1)