Hoopinion: Less Than 72 Hours To Free Agency, A Salary Cap Update

[Hawksquawk]

There have been a few changes since I last covered the Atlanta Hawks salary cap situation in depth. Mo Evans picked up his option, the Hawks traded down to the 27th pick in the draft, they did, in fact, make a qualifying offer to Josh Childress, and, presumably, did not make a qualifying offer to Mario West.

Thus, the salary cap is $56.1 million and the luxury tax threshold will be approximately $68 million.

The Hawks owe $48,498,814 to nine players (Josh Smith, Jamal Crawford, Marvin Williams, Mike Bibby, Al Horford, Zaza Pachulia, Mo Evans, Jeff Teague, and Jordan Crawford). The cap hold for Josh Childress ($10.894 million, which could be in place all summer if Childress chooses to stay in Greece) alone puts the Hawks over the salary cap. Until Joe Johnson signs with a team (be it Atlanta, New York, Chicago, or another), the Hawks have a cap hold of $16.2 million to close a loophole involving his Bird rights. There's an additional cap hold of $854,389 for an empty roster spot.

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