The Salary Cap Situation
Speaking of the NBA salary cap, we can’t talk about re-signing Wright without taking a look at Phoenix’s cap situation. Heading into next season, the Suns already have $42.3 million on the books (including Danny Granger‘s $2.1 million player option). The NBA’s salary cap for next season is projected to be $67.1 million, leaving Phoenix with approximately $24.8 million to work with.
Re-signing Knight will probably wind up looking something like four years, $60 million ($15 million per season). That signing alone would leave Phoenix with only $9.8 million to round out the roster. If Wright earned $5 million last season, the Suns can’t go much higher than that without fully committing to having basically the same roster heading into 2015-16.
That statement alone might give some of Phoenix’s more impatient fans tremors. The prospect of investing in a core that finished the year on a 1-10 skid isn’t exactly encouraging.
Then again, the more prudent approach has always been patience when it comes to developing a young core. Given the nature of the NBA’s exploding salary cap, a team like Phoenix may have a hard time luring free agents to the Valley of the Sun.
New salary cap projections sent out to NBA teams: 2015-16: 67.1 million, tax 81.6, 2016-17: 89 million, tax 108. 2017-18: 108, 127 tax
— Jonathan Givony (@DraftExpress) April 17, 2015
Perhaps it wouldn’t be the end of the world to lock the team’s core in, sign Wright on for a few extra years as a locker room mentor and bide their time for next summer when free agency will become an all out fracas.
Furthermore, if Wright wants to take a chance on himself, he could always opt for a shorter contract that would allow him to rejoin free agency during one of the next two summers where he could really earn a nice pay day — thereby saving the Suns from committing to him for too long..
That being said, Wright played for three different teams this season and has said many times he’s looking for some long-term security, a city where he and his family can settle down for awhile. The question is how much these two parties see eye-to-eye on contracts to make that place Phoenix.
Next: The Verdict