Who will take the money and run in 2015?

[Mecca]

Of all the top players eligible for new contracts this Summer, how many are likely to take long-term deals?



NBA teams using internal data are projecting the salary cap to jump to between $88-92 million per team, sources told ESPN. To compare, this season the cap is set at $63 million and next season it is projected to land at about $66 million. To put it into perspective, the largest salary-cap jump in history is $7 million in one season. What happens in 2016 could triple that leap.

Only seven teams have $40 million or more committed past next year—Chicago, Golden State, Houston, the Clippers, New York, Oklahoma City, and Washington. Of those, only the Clippers (at about $58 million) are over $50 million in commitments. That means that 23 teams currently have the potential to enter the 2016 free-agency period with at least $50 million in cap space. Six figure to have around $40 million. And one will have almost $30 million.

Alan Hahn: Can't expect many long-term deals this summer in #NBA free agency. A lot of player opt-outs. @TheNBPA sees $$$ coming in '16. Smart business


Will be interesting to see if players with options (Kevin Love, Dragic, Afflalo etc) chose to NOT opt-out this summer

 

[Mecca]

I think guys like Aldridge, Rondo and Marc Gasol will think it's too risky to leave that much money on the table.

Those guys have had recent injuries. But, Lebron and Love will likely wait.

Who will benefit the most from such a large influx of Cash?

The Teams with a blank slate or the ones with major pieces already in place?

That is a shit ton of extra money.

* mentally prepares for the lockout *

 

[Arizona_Sting]

Teams that lock up good players this offseason to reasonable contracts will have the advantage without a doubt. Not only will they have a good core player or two, but they'll still have tons of cap space to go after another max-deal type player to add with them.