In the early days of free agency on July 3, the Milwaukee Bucks had a meeting with free-agent point guard and former MVP Derrick Rose. According to ESPN's Chris Haynes, the two sides are discussing a possible second meeting that could occur this weekend in Los Angeles.
The apparent mutual interest is complicated because Rose reportedly is interested in a larger contract than the Bucks can offer. In fact, what the Bucks have to offer _ to anyone _ right now is relatively little.
With the re-signing of Tony Snell, the addition of first-round pick D.J. Wilson and the acquisition and signing of second-round pick Sterling Brown, the Bucks are about $1.6 million over the tax line, according to Haynes.
Being over the luxury tax by that amount would trigger a payment of about $2.4 million and would exclude Milwaukee from receiving a portion of the pool of taxes paid by other teams this season. Only non-tax-paying teams receive tax payouts.
By being over the tax line and with their roster currently filled with 15 contracts, the Bucks don't have much wiggle room. To add Rose, the most they could currently offer would be $4.4 million of the mid-level exception in order to stay below the luxury tax apron of $125.2 million. Exceeding the apron would cut off the Bucks' ability to use several future exceptions and could trigger a hard cap.
The Bucks have only paid into the luxury tax once, in the 2002-03 season. That year, their luxury tax bill was $4.73 million.
After a year in which the salary cap spiked a record $24.1 million, spurring a league-wide spending spree last summer, the cap only went up about $5 million for this season to $99.1 million. That's about $3-8 million less than the early projections from last summer, which is causing a crunch for numerous teams, including the Bucks.
Regardless of what they do with Rose, the Bucks have an incentive to shed some salary to get under the tax line, something they have the whole season to do. If the Bucks decided not to sign a free agent, the team could lower its salary by making a trade at any point in the year or utilizing the stretch provision to release a player and spread his salary over multiple years.
If the Bucks want to add a free agent over the summer, especially one like Rose, they would have to get some salary off the books via a trade. That situation could prove difficult.
The most plausible players to move would be center John Henson, who still has three years, $32 million left on his contract; Mirza Teletovic, who has two years, $21 million left, and Matthew Dellavedova, who has three years, $28.8 million left.
Center Greg Monroe, who opted into the final year of his contract at about $17.8 million, has been rumored to be in trade discussions since the first day he arrived in Milwaukee. But the Bucks would logically have less incentive to deal him considering his deal is expiring and his impact on the court has been substantial off the bench.
Henson, the longest-tenured Bucks player at five seasons, has seen his playing time dwindle over the past two seasons due to a combination of injuries and coaching decisions.
Considering their cap situation, the Bucks would likely have to sweeten any deal with draft picks if they wanted to move a player.
The question then for the Bucks would be what are they willing to give up in order to create some cap flexibility now and into the future, especially considering Jabari Parker is up for a contract extension this fall?
