Salary cap update (as much as I can figure out and basing some of it on the post I made in December which relied some on an article David Moore wrote in the Dallas Morning News) [Standard disclaimer, as with any cap discussion: the following is to the best of my knowledge and may not be totally correct.] Releasing Donald Hodge did not change the Mavs' cap status - the Mavs are still paying his contract. His release just came 4 months earlier than expected. The league salary cap will be a minimum of $24.5 million on July 1 (the cap is based on the revenue generated this season and could be more). The free agent race starts July 1 - that's the date contracts end. Mav free agents and the salary they earned this season: Lorenzo Williams ($1.55 million), Scott Brooks ($750,000), Lucious Harris ($725,000), and David Wood (guess - $225,000 league minimum). Hodge earned $1.2 million. In addition, Terry Davis earned $1,920,000 this season and has one more year on his contract. If the Mavs are able to find someone to take Terry for a draft pick, his full salary would be subtracted from the cap (but they were unsuccessful in trading him before the trading dealing and his recent injury is going to make trading him in the off season even more difficult unless we make it a very lopsided trade [ie, Davis and a 1st round draft pick for a 2nd round pick]). If the Mavs release him, I believe, half of what his salary is for next season (and I don't know the number) would be subtracted from the Mavs' cap. There is a nasty little rule that the salary of a free agent's last year counts 150% (if the salary was under $2.1 million) or 200% (if over $2.1 million) against the team's salary cap until the free agent is re-signed by the team, the team renounces their rights to the player (meaning they can not sign the player until sometime into the season), or the player signs with a different team. [I just learned of this rule a few weeks ago when Keith Grant mentioned it on the Mavs hour.] David Moore had figured that if the Mavs renounce the rights to Williams, Harris, Brooks, and Hodge (Wood wasn't in the picture then and probably won't change the picture anyways as the Mavs probably won't re-sign Wood), the Mavs would be $3.5 million under the cap. In that scenrio, according to Moore, they could offer a 7 year, $39.2 million contract (starting year salary of $3.5 million with the maximum 20% increase per year). yearly salary contract total per year avg base 3,500,000 2 yr 4,200,000 7,700,000 3,850,000 3 yr 4,900,000 12,600,000 4,200,000 4 yr 5,600,000 18,200,000 4,550,000 5 yr 6,300,000 24,500,000 4,900,000 6 yr 7,000,000 31,500,000 5,250,000 7 yr 7,700,000 39,200,000 5,600,000 8 yr 8,400,000 47,600,000 5,950,000 If I throw Terry into the mix: (guestimated Terry's contract to be this year's salary (1,920,000) plus the difference between this year and last year's salary ($1,560,000) = 2,280,000 1/2 = 1,140,000) Base = 3,500,000 + 1,140,000 yearly salary contract total per year avg base 4,640,000 2 yr 5,569,000 10,208,000 5,104,000 3 yr 6,496,000 16,704,000 5,568,000 4 yr 7,424,000 24,128,000 6,032,000 5 yr 8,352,000 32,480,000 6,496,000 6 yr 9,280,000 41,760,000 6,960,000 7 yr 10,208,000 51,968,000 7,424,000 8 yr 11,136,000 63,104,000 7,888,000 These numbers seem a low for the big names (including Mutombo). [Then again, I might be over-estimating how much the free agents are going to command.] BTW, mucking with these numbers has brought up several questions in my mind regarding other team's cap numbers that are being branded around by the media (and the teams). When the numbers are being mentioned as "freed up", are they referring to the actual money under the cap they will have to use (if the team salary will still be over the July 1 cap, they won't have the full salary, if any, to use) or purely the player's salary without regard to the cap? And when they say they will be so much under the cap, are they taking into consideration the rule regarding how the team's own free agents count against their cap? Are the numbers that teams can offer base year numbers or average salary? If average salary, how long is the figured contract? I have the feeling that there are a lot of false numbers being branded around. patricia