Charlotte Bobcats: New Luxury Tax Rules May Help the Charlottes of the NBA
By Phil Watson
The Charlotte Bobcats opted to use their amnesty exception earlier this month to release once-promising power forward Tyrus Thomas, this clearing the nearly $8.7 million he is owed in 2013-14 and the almost $9.4 million due to Thomas in 2014-15 off their salary cap.
The Charlotte Bobcats freed up almost $18 million in cap space over the next two seasons by amnestying Tyrus Thomas. (NBA.com photo)
The Bobcats also got some more cap relief when DeSagana Diop’s obscene contract, which was a cap hit of more than $7.3 million in 2012-13, finally came off the books.
That gave the Bobcats room to bring in free-agent center Al Jefferson on a three-year, $41.1 million deal.
Whether you like the Jefferson signing or not (and Grantland.com’s Zach Lowe is clearly not a fan), the fact remains that the combination of the NBA’s new luxury tax rules and Charlotte’s management of the salary cap could mean the future for the soon-to-be Hornets might have some glimmers of hope.
Lowe wrote this week that the Bobcats are not generating a lot of good buzz because:
"Paying Al Jefferson $14 million per season is ludicrous, but you can understand Charlotte’s reasoning. Charlotte must prove itself as a viable free-agency destination, and that’s impossible while flirting with “Worst Team Ever” status every season. Splurging on Big Al’s flat-footed nondefense might be the perfect way to regain some relevance, transform into a run-of-the-mill bad team instead of a headline-grabbing embarrassment, and stay bad enough to try the top-five lottery gods one last time. Jefferson’s is the only long-term nonrookie deal on the books, so it’s not as if that contract is holding Charlotte back from future spending.He may hold back the development of Kemba Walker, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Jeffery Taylor, Cody Zeller, and others by monopolizing the ball on the way to 29 wins, but if that’s the only real damage here, we can all just move on."
But as Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer pointed out last weekend, seeing teams such as the Los Angeles Lakers with Metta World Peace and the Miami Heat with Mike Miller utilize their amnesty exceptions is a sign that the hard-fought CBA that led to the lockout of 2011 is beginning to have some effect.
Unless you’re the Brooklyn Nets, that is, but that’s another story.
The Bobcats have endured a ton of losses while getting their salary cap house in order over the last two seasons. And by bringing in Jefferson, Charlotte has something it has never had—a center who will actually force teams to bring double-teams to the post. With Bismack Biyombo, opponents hardly need a defender at all, and with Byron Mullins—now with the Los Angeles Clippers—spending most of his time on the perimeter as a stretch 5 who can’t really shoot all that well, the low block was never a concern for opposing defenses.
Is the new CBA solely responsible for Charlotte being able to land a player of Jefferson’s caliber? Probably not. But the ability of small-market clubs such as the Bobcats to recruit free agents is definitely getting better.
In a salary cap climate in which a team can be taxed up to 2.5 times the amount it exceeds the cap, that doesn’t leave a lot of teams out there who can fit a $13 million a year player under their cap without some sort of taxation consequences.
That, in turn, means that Michael Jordan’s Bobcats might have a chance to get players that the Lakers or the Heat or the New York Knicks would have blown over the cap to sign without a second thought.
For a league that for most of its existence has been starkly divided between haves and have-nots, it could be the dawning of a whole new era.