The Cleveland Cavaliers are stacked. They’re a nearly perfect team on paper.

They’re also going to be very expensive next year.

Want to see how expensive?

I had a fun-filled 45 seconds creating the excel document below for someone who asked me for it. I thought you might enjoy it too. Pick whatever numbers you want. See how ludicrous (or how reasonable) you can make their 2015-16 payroll obligations!

You can change any of the numbers with light grey backgrounds. You can make them whatever numbers you want (within the parameters of what is legal; if you make a mistake, the number will change color to red to alert you). If you don’t want a player to return, simply delete his salary (or set it to $0).

If you’re feeling particularly ambitious, you can even model potential trade scenarios into this. But bear in mind that the Cavs have limited assets for trade. They still have their 2015 first round pick, but because of a swap right given to the Chicago Bulls, it will likely be a very low pick (the pick attributable to whichever of the Bulls or Cavs finish with a better regular season record), and it can’t be traded until after the selection is made anyway. And because they owe their 2016 first round pick to the Boston Celtics, which is top-10 protected through 2018 and unprotected in 2019, thanks to the Ted Stepien rule, they are restricted from trading any further first round pick until that which is two years after the obligation to the Celtics is fulfilled. Do you really want to be trading picks that could extend out to 2021? As far as second round picks, the Cavs don’t even have any until the year 2020.

I have added notes for each row to guide you along. If you mess up, just refresh the page and start over. Enjoy!

These numbers, of course, need to be viewed in context.

Dan Gilbert, owner of the Cavs, has an estimated net worth of $4.5 billion. His basketball team has an estimated valuation of nearly another $1 billion. The Cavs produced an estimated operating profit of $20 million last season, and that was without LeBron James. And the league’s new national TV rights deal, which kicks in two years from now, will add an immediate $18 million to per-team profitability (which amount shall further increase by 5 percent every year thereafter).

On the other hand, the Cavs are, by the league’s definition, a small-market team (the 11th smallest in the NBA). The estimated $20 million of operating profit from last season was generated on the basis of a total player payroll (net of luxury tax and escrow reimbursements) of about $60 million. And while revenues will surely increase substantially with the addition of LeBron James, any increases will restrict the team’s ability to receive revenue sharing distributions (an ugly consequence faced by the small-market Miami Heat last season).

What does it all mean? As you generate projected total salary obligations well into the nine-figure range, it would be reasonable to conclude that the Cavs could turn unprofitable, even sharply so, at least for one season. After that, however, with the new national TV deal and potential lockout to serve as potential catalysts, the Cavs could actually become surprisingly affordable.

It was a simple twist of fate. Had it not been for Chris Andersen’s sprained ankle, Chris Bosh’s strained calf and Josh McRoberts’ torn meniscus, he might not even be here. And yet, 7-foot rookie center Hassan Whiteside, the Miami Heat’s mid-season acquisition, is quickly becoming one of the team’s most vital players.

Whiteside has become the focal point of a fan base desperately seeking out hope for the future during a painful post-LeBron-James transition. He’s rewarding us all with boundless energy, youthful exuberance, and quick ascent. In his limited experience, Whiteside has been rampaging through the NBA with reckless abandon, utilizing his massive 7-foot-7-inch wingspan to throw down monstrous alley-oop dunks, snatch rebounds out of the sky from high above the rim, swat basketballs as Godzilla would planes, and generally wreak havoc on both ends of the floor.

Whiteside is averaging a staggering 16.6 points, 14.4 rebounds and 4.4 blocks per 36 minutes played. He is shooting 69.2 percent from the field, while players he is defending are shooting just 43.3 percent.

He was never supposed to be this good this quickly. For a city so long starved for anything approaching decent play at the center position, the extraordinary exploits of the budding 25-year-old have been a joy to watch.

But Whiteside is quick to clarify one thing: He is not a rookie, at least in terms of NBA designation. And that distinction, however technical, is more significant than you may realize.  Read more…

The Memphis Grizzlies, aiming to bolster their scoring and playmaking options on the wing in the increasingly competitive Western Conference, are having discussions about trading for the Miami Heat’s Luol Deng or the Boston Celtics’ Jeff Green in advance of the Feb. 19 trade deadline, according to Marc Stein of ESPN.

Any Grizzlies offer for Deng or Green is likely to feature the $7.7 million expiring contract of Tayshaun Prince, as well as the promise of future draft compensation or additional players.

It is not immediately clear how willing Miami would be to trade Deng, who is not even halfway through the first of a two-year, $19.9 million contract he signed with the Heat in the wake of LeBron James’ return to the Cleveland Cavaliers via free agency this past summer.

After James departed, Heat president Pat Riley said “I want this team to be as competitive as it’s ever been.” But he spoke of pursuing two distinct and simultaneous courses of action: trying to stay in the playoff race for the following two seasons – even while the Heat’s 2015 first round pick is owed to the Philadelphia 76ers via Cleveland if it is outside the top 10 – but with a clear focus on maintaining flexibility for the expected availability of several top free agents in the summer of 2016.

With the Heat already at 15-20 as it begins a challenging five-game road trip out west, it is unclear as to how willing Riley might be to sacrifice the former for the benefit of the latter. Doing so could, among other things, put at risk the Heat’s ability to clear its first round pick obligation off the books this summer. The pick obligation to the Sixers is top-10 protected through 2016, and becomes fully unprotected in 2017 if not previously conveyed.

Nevertheless, all trade proposals would surely be considered even if not ultimately pursued.

But trade scenarios are complicated.

Deng is earning $9.7 million this season – he has a $10.2 million player option for next season as well – but he also has a trade bonus which, by rule, he cannot waive, in whole or in part, except to make a potential trade legal.

Deng’s trade bonus would be valued at 15 percent of his remaining salary for the season, the amount of which would depend upon the exact day he is traded. If Deng were to be traded today, his bonus would be $840K; if he were traded at the trade deadline, it would be $480K. The amount of the trade bonus, if any, would be allocated entirely to this season.

A straight up trade of Deng for Prince would be legal, but only if Deng were to agree to surrender the vast majority of his trade bonus (all but $20K). Deng would therefore effectively hold veto power over such trade discussions.  Read more…

The Miami Heat lost Josh McRoberts for the rest of the season after he underwent surgery to repair the torn lateral meniscus in his right knee last Monday. As a result, the league office has granted the Heat a disabled player exception equal to half his salary, or $2.65 million.

The Heat can use the exception to acquire one player to replace him:

• The Heat can sign a free agent to a contract for the rest of the season only, with a salary of up to $2.65 million.

• The Heat can trade for a player in the last season of his contract only (including any option years), who is making no more than $2.75 million.

• The Heat can claim a player on waivers who is in the last season of his contract only (including any option years), who is making no more than $2.75 million.

McRoberts’ status with the team will not be affected. He will continue to count as one of the NBA-maximum 15 players on the roster. He can return to the active roster before season’s end if he is able to do so (and any replacement player would not be affected). He can be traded while injured. However, if he does return or is traded before the Heat has used the exception, the team would lose it. Otherwise, it expires on March 10.

The Heat had hoped to use the exception to lure free agent forward Josh Smith to Miami. The Detroit Pistons made an abrupt and shocking move to release Smith last Monday, despite $36 million in guaranteed money still to be paid on his contract. Players that good who are owed that much money virtually never hit the open market in such fashion. Smith, however, chose to sign with the Houston Rockets.

The Heat must now look elsewhere in its search for a player who can replace the injured McRoberts and help improve a thin power rotation. Potential targets are both intriguing and problematic.  Read more…

The Miami Heat formally applied to the league office for a disabled player exception on Monday, shortly after Josh McRoberts had season-ending surgery to repair the torn lateral meniscus in his right knee, in a move they hope will help them land soon-to-be free agent Josh Smith.

The Detroit Pistons made an abrupt and stunning move to release Smith earlier in the day, despite $36.0 million in guaranteed money still to be paid on his contract. His contract has an additional $9.0 million still to be paid on his $13.5 million salary for this season, and calls for salaries of $13.5 million in each of the following two seasons as well.

Smith will now spend 48 hours on waivers, during which time any team with the necessary cap space or a qualifying exception large enough to absorb his $13.5 million salary cap hit can make a claim to pick up the remainder of his contract. The only such team is the Philadelphia 76ers, which is not about to do so.

At 5 p.m. on Wednesday, Smith will clear waivers and become an unrestricted free agent, free to sign with the team of his choosing. Players this good who are owed this much money virtually never hit the open market in this fashion.

A number of teams have expressed an interest in signing Smith once he clears waivers, including the Heat, Houston Rockets, Dallas Mavericks, Sacramento Kings, Los Angeles Clippers and Memphis Grizzlies.  Read more…

According to NBA rules, Pistons center Greg Monroe is now eligible to be traded. According to the Sporting News, he wants that, badly. The Heat have reportedly made an initial inquiry.

But, according to the Sporting News, teams seeking Monroe will need to cough up a first-round pick, and that’s a serious sticking point. It’s a rich asking price for a player who will become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season, at which point any team can sign him without sacrificing anything in return.

Under normal circumstances, that’d be ok. Because the audience would be different. In free agency, the audience for a player would be limited to teams with the necessary cap room to sign him. The audience for a player in potential trade scenarios might include a handful of teams which don’t project to have the cap space to sign him the following summer, and might be willing to pay a hefty price to gain access to the Bird rights which give them the opportunity to do so. Bird rights are what allow a player’s prior team to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him, for up to as much as a maximum salary. Under normal circumstances, Bird rights tag along with a player in trade.

But Monroe’s predicament is anything but normal.

Monroe, selected by the Pistons with the seventh overall pick in the 2010 NBA draft, completed the fourth and final season of his rookie-scale contract last year. Players coming off rookie-scale contracts can be made restricted free agents – a more restrictive form of free agency whereby the player’s prior team gains a right of first refusal to match a contract he signs with any other team – but only if they first issue a qualifying offer. The qualifying offer is a standing offer for a one-year guaranteed contract, which becomes a regular contact if the player decides to sign it. This ensures that the team does not gain the right of first refusal without offering a contract itself.

Monroe’s representatives steered other teams away from presenting Monroe with any offers last summer because they didn’t want the Pistons to match, and keep Monroe for another four seasons. Instead, Monroe accepted his $5.5 million qualifying offer. Now, after playing out his one-year contract, Monroe will have the freedom to pick his new team in July, and that’s what he wanted: control of his future.  Read more…

Update (12/22/14): Josh McRoberts had the torn lateral meniscus in his right knee repaired (versus partially removed). A repair approach has a significantly longer recovery time, but much better long-term prognosis. The surgery will be season-ending. The Heat has applied for a $2.65 million disabled player exception. 

The Miami Heat announced that Josh McRoberts has torn the lateral meniscus in his right knee.

McRoberts injured the knee late in the fourth quarter of the Heat’s win in Phoenix last Tuesday when he fell awkwardly to the court while pursuing a loose ball. He is scheduled to undergo surgery this week, and could miss the rest of the season.

“This will not be a short-term thing,” head coach Erik Spoelstra said. “He’ll be out a while, if he even does make it back this season.”

Injury Overview

Each knee has two menisci, which are C-shaped wedges of fibro-cartilage positioned between the femur (thighbone) and the tibia (shinbone), one on the medial (inside) compartment of the knee and the other on the lateral (outside) compartment of the knee.

The mensci serve several functions:

• They safely transmit loads across the knee, the most weight-bearing joint in the human body. The forces across the joint can reach up to two to four times your body weight while walking and up to six to eight times your body weight while running. The lateral meniscus bears more of the load than the medial meniscus.

• They act as shock absorbers that protect the femur and tibia from constantly pounding into each other, thus maintaining the health of the articular cartilage that resides at the ends of both of these bones. Articular cartilage is what prevents bone-on-bone interaction as the knee is flexed and extended, called osteoarthritis, which can be excruciatingly painful.

• They act as secondary stabilizers for the knee (in conjunction with the ligaments which connect the tibia and femur), protecting it from abnormal front-to-back motion.

Proper treatment of a meniscal tear is therefore vital, in order to maintain the structural integrity of the knee and to preserve the health of the articular cartilage.

There are two recognized surgical treatments for meniscal tear: repair and removal (i.e., meniscectomy).  Read more…

It all traces back to a September 1934 court ruling that settled a battle between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the IRS.

In those days, MLB contracts had a one-year term with a standard renewal option (called a “reverse clause”). The reverse clause gave the player’s team the right to renew the contract each year upon expiration at a salary to be negotiated between the parties. If they were unable to agree on a salary, the team could, within certain limitations, fix the player’s salary. Although the team could not force the player to accept the renewal, it did hold the exclusive right to his services and could prevent him from playing for any other team. The player was, in effect, bound to his team for his entire professional career. For teams exercising their renewal options, players effectively had two choices: accept or retire from the game of baseball.

Player contracts were therefore valuable assets, which were bought and sold for cash amongst MLB teams. For tax purposes, the Pirates expensed the cost of the contracts they bought in the year incurred.

The IRS disagreed. Its position was that the Pirates were purchasing not only the right to use the services of the player for a year, but also the right, at its option, to continue to use his services for the entirety of his career. Therefore, the cost of the contracts should not be deducted in full in the year of purchase, but rather capitalized onto the balance sheet and then depreciated over the length of his projected career (contracts at the time had an average life of three years).

The court sided with the Pirates on the grounds that there was no guarantee that the purchasing team would be able to utilize its renewal rights, as nothing could prevent the player from quitting pro baseball(1).

More than a decade later, the ruling would give flamboyant baseball entrepreneur Bill Veeck an idea that would forever change the economics of team ownership, not just in baseball, but in all team sports. He would employ the ruling to fabricate a tax shelter designed exclusively for sports team owners, and then utilize specious logic to convince the IRS of its legality.  Read more…

“At first glance, [it] is not that attractive, I won’t lie. But we’re studying it to figure out if there really is some advantage for players.”

That was NBA players’ union executive director Michele Roberts last week, describing her aversion to salary cap “smoothing” in the wake of the league’s massive new national TV rights deals.

The new deals with Disney and Turner will pay out $23.4 billion over nine seasons, starting with 2016-17 and running through 2024-25, an average of $2.6 billion per year. That’s a huge increase from the current deals, which pay out $7.44 billion over eight seasons, an average of $930 million per year.

The new deals escalate over time, starting at $2.1 billion and climbing to $3.1 billion. The current deals will pay out just over $1.0 billion in their final season in 2015-16, which means the league’s national TV revenue will jump by nearly $1.1 billion in 2016-17.

The salary cap is tied directly to league revenues, and this will be the largest injection of revenues in NBA history. It alone will cause a $16 million spike, above and beyond any increases from sources other than national TV money.  Read more…

Fantasy sports is a huge business – 41.5 million people in the U.S. and Canada spend $3.6 billion on fantasy league and related fees each year.

A relatively small(1) but fast-growing sub-segment of the industry is daily fantasy sports. As that part has grown, sports leagues are taking notice and looking to get in on the trend. With that in mind, the NBA announced yesterday that it has signed a four-year strategic partnership with venture-backed FanDuel, the largest player in the space with an estimated 75 percent market share, to promote the one-day fantasy sports website.

The agreement establishes FanDuel as the NBA’s official daily fantasy basketball outlet. FanDuel will unveil the first “Official One-Day Fantasy Basketball Game of the NBA,” that will be free to all fans on NBA.com and FanDuel.com, the prizes for which will include regular-season tickets, unique NBA experiences, NBA merchandise and memorabilia. While the NBA and its properties will only promote the site’s free fantasy games, FanDuel retains the right to have pay-to-play versions of such free games as well, with cash prize payouts. Other fantasy sports websites will still be able to offer fantasy basketball to customers, but FanDuel will be the only such company featured on the league’s digital properties, including its official website and mobile apps.

The NBA is hoping the partnership will drive more engagement with, and more interest in, the league among its fan base. Fantasy participants spend an average of 8.7 hours per week on fantasy and, after placing a bet, increase their weekly intake of sports TV programming from 17.5 hours to 24 hours. The NBA will also receive an undisclosed ownership stake in FanDuel as part of the deal.  Read more…