Not happy.  

Here's how it works.

The Suns are not under the cap and have no chance of being under the cap. What they're trying to get under is the luxury tax threshold which is different from the cap.

The 07-08 Salary Cap is 55.6M. Any team under that number can sign a player for however much they are under the cap plus 100K. So if you're 4M under the cap you can sign a player for up to 4.1M. If a team is over the cap then it can only sign players to a minimum contract unless it uses an exception. Such exceptions include rookie scale exceptions, Bird exceptions, Mid-level exceptions, bi-annual exceptions (which we used to sign Hill). Eventually, however if a team uses too many of these exceptions to exceed the Salary cap they'll reach the Luxury Tax threshold, which is where the penalties start.

The 07-08 Luxury Tax threshold is 67.7M. That means for every dollar a team spends over that threshold, they will have to pay another dollar to the league. So if you're 10M over the tax line then you owe the NBA 10M in addition to still having to pay your salaries.

So what the Suns are doing is trying to get under the Luxury tax threshold not the Salary cap. Before the KT trade, but with Marks' new contract, were right about at 77M. So we were 9-10M over the luxury tax. Because we traded away KT and his 8.1M dollar salary for an 8M trade exception (which doesn't count against our cap number), our number is now at 69M. So we're still paying about 1.3M in luxury tax which is not bad.

But there's more. First, don't forget that we got 3M dollars for the 22nd pick, so you can essentially subtract that amount from our number, since we'll be using it to cover salaries/luxury tax. So right now, essentially, we're at 66Mish, and under the tax. Unfortunately, however, we only have 11 players under contract. So we'll need to sign at least one more (likely two or three more).  Because the Suns are in savings mode, it's likely those salaries will be at or near the minimum, so you can expect another 2-2.5M in salary. This means our final number, subtracting 3M for pick money, is somewhere btw 68 and 69M, putting us slightly above the tax, which I hope Sarver can tolerate.

We should also talk about the Trade exception. We've got 8.1M dollars to work with. We can't use that money to sign players, but we can use it to trade for a player, but only in a single player trade. Also it expires in a year. Also we can split it up.

I don't really see the Suns using it, however, because whatever salary we acquire for the trade exception will count against our cap number and thus make us pay just as much tax as we were paying before the Thomas trade. So if the move was to save money, as it appears, then the Suns would screw their whole point by using the exception, since we'd just get the money back on our number.

So expect 2-3 more minimum or near minimum salary players, and a serious lack of frontcourt depth.

Ok - so my thoughts

First - Thank the blogolords for Rosewood and his legal eagle understanding of the CBA. I don't have the patience or temperment to be either a lawyer or appearantly a fully informed fan. Fortunately, we have our own "in blog" expert in Rosewood. Thanks!

Next - just yesterday I was talking about a deal w/ the Sonics that would have brought Wilcox and another player to the Suns for KT but I guess that wouldn't have helped get under the LT. That was a rumor someone else brought up btw.

Thirdly - CLEARLY the Suns have even more need for a big. Duh. I would have loved to see this deal include either Petro or Sene and throw in Pike as well. I look at the Sonics roster and this deal makes SO much sense. Pike could actually contribute on a Sonics team already LOADED w/ bigs. Oh, and with Petro you get another Frenchie and as far as I am concerned you can't have too many of those on your team.

Finally - there's no way the Suns are done. I don't know what PJ Brown's status is and if he qualifies for an exception or if the Suns have their eye on someone else but there is NO WAY this season starts with only two bigs and one of them named Marks even if the other is a 1st team all NBA stud. Perhaps the trade exception can be "packaged" w/ Banks to sweeten the deal and get back a big in the MLE range and stay about LT neuteral. I really think Banks has a bad rap and can play well for someone. Unfortunately on the Suns he's # 3 on the depth chart and there's a decent looking #4 (DJ) right behind him too.

So - I am not satisfied w/ the current roster but not in the least bit discouraged by this deal as of late July. If nothing happens by Oct then that's another story...

I still say we need the Predator (Turiaf) -- more than ever.  Diaw as STAT's back-up?!  Oh, man, I can't do this anymore.

Amare's "broad shoulders" are going to have learn to defend this summer.

Donaghy reffed the Game 3 against SA, in which Amare played only about 20 minutes.  Maybe Amare will finally get a fair shake.

Yes, it would've been expensive to keep KT, but for one more year?  For one more run at it?  Who the hell else are they gonig to get to fill in?

Please, please, please tell me that this was a move to get some more money to land KG.  Just lie to me so I can stay delusional for a litle while longer.