Yes, the CBA has more new rules/restrictions for the Suns to adapt to.
The Phoenix Suns have bought out, waived, and stretched Bradley Beal, thus releasing them from being a second apron team. With this move, although they are above the cap, they are below the luxury tax and first apron lines.
If you think getting below the tax aprons signals a return to the simpler rules that you were familiar with before the new CBA went into effect, think again. There are changes for teams under the tax aprons too, and I’m going to try to acquaint you with the most important ones.
First, here are some of the most important options now open to the Suns.
- Can aggregate salaries in a trade.
- Can taking back more salary than what was sent out in a trade.
- Can send out cash in a trade.
- Can use the Mid-Level Exception.
- Can use the Bi-Annual Exception.
- Can acquire a player via Sign-and-Trade.
- Can sign a buyout player who made more than NTMLE on his previous contract.
- Can use a TPE that was created in the prior season.
Feeling free again? The chains of the second tax apron are gone, which opens up a multitude of new options for the Suns. And when we’re talking about trades, under-the-apron teams actually have more leeway than before as far as salary matching goes. These came with the new CBA too.
Under the tax aprons salary matching rules
- Up to $7.25 million in outgoing salary can bring back up to 200% plus $250,000.
- $7,250,001 to $29 million can bring back up to the outgoing salary plus a flat $7.5 million.
- Outgoing salary above $29 million will be limited to a return of 125% plus $250,000.
While these rules open up even more possibilities, there are also some other new rules that can limit the usefulness of these three. I’m specifically talking about the new hard cap rules. A hard cap was something the Suns have so far had no reason to be concerned with because once a team was above the second tax apron, there was no hard cap, just extremely harsh restrictions and tax penalties.
Now they will have to pay attention to the hard cap rules as they attempt to retool the team. Why? Because presently they are just under $8.9 million below the first tax apron, and triggering a hard cap at that apron means they cannot spend past that point for the remainder of the season. And unlike the tax aprons, which teams can maneuver to get under during the season, once a hard cap is triggered, there is no way out until the season ends.
Being hard capped isn’t necessarily a bad thing but the ability to do certain things that are now available to the Suns are hard cap triggers and teams cannot use anything that triggers a hard cap and simultaneously puts them over that hard cap level. I’ll give you some examples of those things shortly but first, here are the first apron hard cap triggers.
And I’ll remind everyone here that once a team is hard capped, the total team salary cannot exceed that point under any circumstances. They cannot sign a player to a veteran minimum contract or even sign someone to a 10-day contract (which was something Dallas had to deal with at one point last season) if that would put the total team salary over the hard cap.
Hard cap triggers
A hard cap is triggered at the first tax apron by a team doing any of the following:
- Taking back more salary than it sends out in a trade.
- Using more than the taxpayer portion ($5,685,000) of the mid-level exception ($14,104,000).
- Using the bi-annual exception ($5,134,000).
- Acquiring a player through a sign-and-trade.
- Using a TPE that was created in a prior season.
- Signing a buyout player who made more than the NTMLE on their previous contract (only applies to in-season signings, not offseason ones).
One thing I’ll point out right away is that although the Suns have access to using the full MLE, they can’t use it in full because doing so would simultaneously hard cap them at the first tax apron and put them over the first tax apron. They could use up to $8.9 million of it, but that would also hard cap them and leave them with no way of signing any other players, even at the vet minimum salary. And if the team wasn’t up to the minimum of 14 players on its roster, then the Suns couldn’t do it at all.
The same problem could come up when aggregating players to make a trade in which they take back more salary than they send out (which also triggers a hard cap). If there’s not enough salary space left under the hard cap to fill out a full roster, the trade wouldn’t be allowed.
In short, there is a whole new CBA minefield for the Suns to attempt to navigate as an under-the-tax apron team.
The harsh second apron penalties aren’t there anymore, but that doesn’t mean this is going to be a cakewalk. But, despite all of these new obstacles, life below the tax aprons will open up quite a few more possibilities. It’s just not going to be as simple as some might have hoped it would be.
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