2nd Round Picks and the Salary Cap

[Rick]

Hey All,

We have a few capologists on this board and I had a question in regards to how second round picks impact the salary cap. Ive done a quick look around, but it appears to me the Rookie Exception is only for first rounders. If you want to sign a second rounder, above the minimum, which area of the cap does this impact? Surely you dont have to use the MLE, I thought that was only for free agents, and a second rounder has never been a free agent.

Any info would be great.

Cheers

Rick

[Admin]

I'm no capologist but I'm pretty sure that you don't have to use your MLE on it. I think the only difference between a 1st round contract and a 2nd round contract is that the 2nd rounder is not guaranteed ... but I could be wrong.

[coachx]

And since this question is more than likely pertaining to David Andersen, I'll go a little deeper. Trevor Ariza wasn't signed using the Rockets' MLE, the Rockets petitioned the league for a Disabled Players Exception on Yao Ming this upcoming season. They received it and used it to sign Ariza. The Rockets still have their MLE to be able to sign Andersen. So I guess my previous response wasn't complete, you can actually sign 2nd rounders with the Disabled Player Exception. But that exception is so rare its not really worth talking about.

I wish the Hawks would have done the same (Disabled Players Exception) for Speedy since he did not play for basically 2 seasons. I know he is not as important or as highly paid as Yao but it seems the situation would qualify since Speedy was definately a dispabled player.

Edited July 17, 2009 by coachx

[Rick]

Rick you are right the Rookie Exception only works for 1st rounders (they are also restricted to a pay scale). As for 2nd rounders, a team has a few options for signing them above a minimum contract. That would be using cap space, the LLE, or the MLE. The MLE and LLE can be used to sign 2nd rounders, its what the Rockets used a few years ago for signing Scola.

While in Coon's FAQ it does say the MLE is used for "free agents" and a 2nd round pick isn't a free agent since they can only negotiate with one team, its more of a misuse of the word "free agent" by Coon. Maybe Coon should have used the word like "available players" which would imply you could use it on 2nd round picks (available for you to negotiate) and any free agent? Poor choice of words but I would say its hard to point to alternative words that would suit the description better.

Thanks hawksfanatic for the explanation. I was looking at Coons site and trying to find a specific explanation in regards to second rounders. I understand what you are saying about him using the words "free agent", just not in the true definition of it, he kind of includes second rounders in it.

And since this question is more than likely pertaining to David Andersen, I'll go a little deeper. Trevor Ariza wasn't signed using the Rockets' MLE, the Rockets petitioned the league for a Disabled Players Exception on Yao Ming this upcoming season. They received it and used it to sign Ariza. The Rockets still have their MLE to be able to sign Andersen. So I guess my previous response wasn't complete, you can actually sign 2nd rounders with the Disabled Player Exception. But that exception is so rare its not really worth talking about.

You are right it was pertaining to David Andersen, but I was more thinking how would we have signed him. At the kind of money he was wanting we probably would have had to give up around 50-60% of the MLE, so I started thinking about how teams actually sign second rounders when they are over the cap, without chewing into their MLE. So they pretty much make them sign for the minimum, or like the trend is, sign a euro player and only bring them over if its worth giving them a share of the MLE.

Thanks for all your help.

Cheers