Here is my updated and final "new" thread on the Pistons salary structure heading into the 2006/7 season.

Notes:

REVISED July 17th ~ #8, 10, 11 and 12

1) Guessed the division of Lindsey Hunter's two year deal. It is probably accurate within $250,000 per year.

2) Assumed Will Blalock will sign at least a two year minimum contract with the second season as a team option. The second year # is much higher than year one because % raises don't really come into effect when the minimum salary of a one year vet supersedes them.

3) Adjusted Nazr Mohammed's deal to the average salary (Mid-Level Exception is equal to average player salary for first year) as reported by ESPN. Assumed full 8% raises in subsequent years.

4) Kept Alex Acker's qualifying offer on the roster, assuming he will either take it, or negotiate a longer term deal with the team. Right now, he is a restricted free agent, however based on the "Gilbert Arenas Provision" in the Collective Bargaining Agreement, they really are powerless to match any higher offers because they used their exceptions on new free agents. Technically, they have Acker's Non-Bird rights, but that is only 120% of the last contract year amount, which is less than the qualifying offer so why they made him restricted is beyond me...

5) Flip Murray's deal is the maximum two year length allowed for the Bi-Annual Exception. Assumed maximum 8% raise in year 2.

6) Salary Cap and Tax Threshold #s used per ESPN report.

7) The Ronald Dupree and Maurice Evans Trade Exceptions count against the cap, but not against luxury tax as far as I know. This means that the exceptions are included to determine if a team is over the cap (and has restrictions in trade and free agency) but the amount of the Trade Exceptions is not taxable should the team exceed the Luxury Tax Threshold. As I have mentioned in the past, Trade Exceptions are like tokens. They do not count as "real" money.

8) You will note that the Pistons, based upon my projections for Blalock, Acker and the assumed "taken" team option on Amir Johnson, are fielding only a 14 man roster a 15 man roster.

The Pistons have no more free agent money to spend on "new" talent unless that free agent player agrees to play for the league minimum (with the exception of Delk and Cato noted below) and they give up Blalock or Acker (note the roster position #s on the left hand side of Acker and Blalock are now highlighted to indicate they are PROJECTIONS).

They could;

* Sign their own draft pick Cheikh Samb to a minimum deal

* Sign any other free agent to a minimum deal

* Re-sign Tony Delk or Kelvin Cato to better than minimum deals because the Pistons hold "rights" on them. That is assuming that the Pistons did not renounce their rights to those players, allowing them to entire the general free agent pool.

Since there is no benefit to renounce those rights until they sign elsewhere, we will assume the Pistons can still bring back Delk or Cato to deals starting at a maximum of $1,366,200 and $14,946,000 respectively. The minimum amounts are $1,178,348 and $1,071,225.

9) Trade Exceptions are included in the Pistons Annual salary figure. For Cap purposes, the annual salary may be used. For Tax purposes, the Pistons are approx. $8,257,502 UNDER the tax level.

The Dupree Trade Exception expires (off the books) in October 2006.

10) Added Ronald Dupree with a two year minimum contract offer (amount goes up in year two because he will have another year of seniority). Year two is a player option per the Detroit Free Press.

11) Revised Nazr Mohammed's deal to 5 years which clocks it in at the reported $30 million total. Year 5 is apparently an option (per the Associated Press) and I decided it had to be a team option. No way Dumars let's him decide his own fate at age 33.

12) Removed forward projections for Will Blalock and Amir Johnson. I only included current salaries or minimum offers req'd for 06/07. This makes 2007/8 forward more accurate but also more open ended.

Thanks Micro... nice work.

The good news is that each time you explain this I understand more and more of it.

The bad news is that each time you explain this I understand more and more how deep the hole is.

@ dba - that is the idea. Anyone willing to look at this seriously will see the realities of our situation. Fact is always more powerful than an opinion.

Hopefully in the next week or so I will explain the ramifications of going into tax territory. That should be a big eye opener.

Btw, if nothing changes personnel wise this season, you can expect that we will either

1) Give Billups a deal starting at $12~13 million and do little to no FA shopping

or

2) Lowball Billups letting him leave and spend our MLE for future flexibility

or

3) S&T Billups taking back new talent (that hopefully fills holes) and do little shopping.

The Bi-Annual Exception is Bi-Annual. We won't have it to use next year.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

Thanks for taking the time on info.Also I'll take options 2 or 3 leaning towards option 2.I think Billups opts out and leaves after this season and we get nadda in return.If there is going to be little free agent movement form our end of things we better see what we have sitting on our bench before it rots and leaves along with the starters getting older.Didn't realize how tricky the cap actually is.

Excellent job, Roscoe the Accountant.

You know I am just biding my time until Joe calls with a front office job.

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Nov 13 LW Milan Lucic had an active night. He scored his first goal in eight games since his Oct. 25 hat trick and also pounded Michael Komisarek in a third-period fight. Lucic cut his hand in a fight with Michael Komisarek. "I'll be fine," he said. "(X-rays are) negative, but there's so many broken bones in there from before you can't really tell."

This tells me one thing, Billups is going to ask for at least $10-$12 mil a season. That is bad news.

Hard to imagine he isn't going to want to be in the same range as Rip and Tay. And if he has a decent year, also hard for me to imagine that isn't his worth - either here or somewhere else.

Regarding Trade Material Would Any One Be Interested In Dale Davis? Is There A Possibility Of Trading Him And Using Our 2.5 Mil In Trade Exceptions To Get A 6mil Player?? Is There A Player In That Price Range That Would Help?