Let’s Make a Contender That Fits Under the Salary Cap

The cap: $58.044 million

Miami is somehow managing to put together what looks like a contender while staying under the salary cap (well, almost, they’re technically over the cap because you can sign minimum salary guys and vets for the veteran minimum without counting against you). Using the salaries from espn.com’s trade machine (http://games.espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine), let’s see what we can put together. Let’s not worry about how any team could swing the right trades, we’re just seeing what’s possible with the money. Since we’re having fun with it, let’s make it a hypothetical rival of the Heat – meaning I’m not putting any current Heat player on the roster.

1. PF - Dirk Nowitzki - $17.3 million
2. PG - Rajon Rondo - $9.1 million
3. C - Joakim Noah - $3.1 million
4. SG - O.J. Mayo $4.4 million
5. SF - Kevin Durant - $6 million (Note: poison pill provision - I’m not going to explain it, but let’s say that we’re putting our hypothetical team in OKC, because that will avoid the problem)

OK, so there’s our starting five, and we’re up to $39.9 million. Thank goodness for young players who don’t make what they’re actually worth. Now it’s time to fill out the team with some defensive specialists, undersized bigs, unproven young guys, and wily veterans.
6. SG/SF - Thabo Sefolosha - $3.2 million
7. SF/PF - Jeff Green - $4.4 million
8. PG - Darren Collison - $1.3 million
9. C - Brad Miller - $4.4 million

OK, so that’s our core of guys who are actually going to play as long as we don’t have any major injuries. We’re up to $53.2 million.

10. C/PF - Tony Battie - $0.85 million
11. C - Theo Ratliff - $0.85 million

No contender is ready until they have a couple of big old dinosaurs to bring off the bench to foul the opposing team’s big men. Ratliff actually might even get a couple of legitimate blocks if he’s ever asked to remove his warm-ups. We’re up to $54.9 million.

12. PF - Trevor Booker - $1.0 million
13. SF - Pape Sy - $0.49 million

Just for the heck of it, we’ll say we haven’t received any extra draft picks or traded our draft picks, that we had picks 23 and 53, and we actually signed both picks. That gives us Booker, signed to the amount of the rookie salary scale, and Pape Sy, making the league minimum. We now have a full active roster (12) plus one more player. That leaves us with just over $1.6 million left, which we can split on a couple of D-league players or former NBA players who are in Europe but looking to make a comeback. I’m not familiar enough with those guys to fill out the roster myself, but our hypothetical NBA team has talent scouts who would tell us who to pick up for those last two spots. It’s not like it matters, they’ll probably never be activated anyway.

Now while my starting five isn’t necessarily better than Miami’s likely starting unit, it is more balanced. The Heat will probably be starting Joel Anthony and Mario Chalmers. Just keep that in mind.

If they could work together, Dirk and Durant should combine for about 55 ppg. Noah is one of the best defensive centers in the game, and works hard on every possession, even if he is annoying. We’ve seen what Rondo can do. I honestly think Mayo is my weakest link, which says something for this starting five.

The bench is also solid. Sefolosha is a crack defensive player who can guard twos and threes, and the argument could be made to put him in the starting lineup over Mayo because of that defensive ability. Jeff Green makes for a super-backup for Dirk. Darren Collison should probably be a starting PG in his own right. Brad Miller isn’t the all-star center he once was, but he’s a solid second center.

I am missing a designated three point bomber, but Durant and Dirk can both hit from downtown, so I’m not really worried about it.

I know it would be impossible to actually assemble this team, but it was a fun exercise in seeing what could be possible under the cap. I put this together pretty quickly. I’m sure with a little more thought you could assemble an even better team while still staying under the cap. So if you think you can do better, feel free to put your own team together and post it as a comment.