Is Trae Waynes a possible cut?

[CJD]

(03-24-2021, 10:42 AM)BoomerFan Wrote: If you cut him after 06/01 you get 5 million in freed cap, which is better than nothing if you really don't believe he'll contribute. I suppose you could spend that money in advance if you knew that were going to free it up later (basically using the $10 million we keep for injuries as the source of a temporary loan to ourselves.

I really don't understand dead cap though. How can Trae only have $15 million guaranteed (on a $42 million contract) and yet if you add up the dead cap over all 3 years you get $32 million??

I think you're double counting some dead cap.

For example, if they cut him now, there'd be 12M in dead cap. That would be 2/3 of his signing bonus, a total of 10M from his signing bonus over the two remaining years + the 2M roster bonus that I believe he's already collected (it became guaranteed on the 5th day of the 2021 league year, which was...Sunday I think). If they had cut him during 2020, I don't think he was guaranteed that roster bonus, but I am not sure since Spotrac tabulates things in real time, so once it's collected, it's dead money.

If they cut him after 2022, then the dead cap is 5M, which is the final 3rd of his 15M signing bonus (which we already counted in the above scenario). 

The dead cap for 2020 is listed as 20M on spotrac for the same reason that the roster bonus is considered dead money. His first year's salary of 5M has already been collected. Or maybe it was guaranteed and they just don't include the first year salary in the guaranteed money figure when the contract is announced because they assume if you're signing a guy for 42 million dollars, he won't be cut in training camp. I'm not sure.

The point is, if you cut him now that he's collected his roster bonus, you have 12M for 2021 because the final 3rd of the signing bonus is now moved to the 2021 cap, since he isn't under contract for 2022 anymore. If you cut him in 2022, then it's just the 5M dead, since he's already collected the other 7M.

Now, if you cut him after 6/1, then you'd have 7M dead cap in 2021 and 5M dead cap in 2022 rather than all 12M in 2021, but the numbers still come out the same. It's just what year they are put in that changes.

Hopefully I'm making sense as I ramble.