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Question-Luxury Tax-Abe "Scrooge" Pollin?

Prada, I remember you mentioning a few weeks ago about writing a long post about Abe Pollin.

Did I miss it?

The fact that we only have 9 players in uniform again for a NBA game is ridiculous.
I know Abe is responsible for putting up his own money (HUGE tax break too by the way) for the Verizon center and revitalizing Chinatown.

His vision was remarkable and he is truly one of the most prominent contributors to the DC community.

However, fans and the City just gave Abe 50 million to upgrade the arena but now in the same year he will not add a few temporary or permanent players because of the luxury tax.

I love the new scoreboard and I am OK with more fees to pay for it but only if he actually puts more money into the team.

I am not an expert of the luxury tax or what the Wizards would be penalized by going over it.

The Wiz desperately need some more warm bodies (a true POINT GUARD!) while their key players return to health.

It is frustrating as a paying customer and a DC resident to see the owner willing to take our tax money but not returning the favor by being too cheap to help the product compete at maximum capacity.

And by maximum capacity, I mean suiting up 12 players like other NBA teams.

Prada or Jake, do you have any thoughts on this? Any other BF homeys?

I think it is time to really dissect Pollin's frugal behavior.

Here are a few posts that I found critical towards the 50 million dollar subsidy to Pollin.

http://dcsportsblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/dc-council-votes-50-mil-for-phone-booth.html

http://endthecolawars.blogspot.com/2007/04/id-rather-spend-it-at-potbelly.html

This represents the view of the user who wrote the FanPost, and not the entire Bullets Forever community. We're a place of many opinions, not just one.

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Here's the situation as far as I understand it
(You didn't miss the post about Abe, there's a long story behind why it hasn't happened, just trust me here.  Also, for some reason I used a lot of parenthesis in explaining this, so if your anti-parenthesis, I apologize in advance.)

With the Mike Wilks signing, the Wizards are ever so close to the edge, per the Daily Dime:

The Wizards have signed Mike Wilks as their emergency replacement for the injured Gilbert Arenas and Antonio Daniels, but they can only keep Wilks for 23 days without going over the luxury-tax line.

Washington was $107,249 under the luxury-tax line when it inked Wilks and 23 days of his services will cost them $104,257. But that could give Daniels enough time to make it back from a sprained knee.

Now, if Daniels doesn't get healthy by then and the Wizards have to sign him for the rest of the year, then they would go over the cap.  Thankfully, it looks like AD could be back as soon as Saturday so it probably won't come to that.  But why won't Abe go over the tax for a better solution?  Well, it might surprise you to know that Abe has never told Ernie that he can't over the tax.  From Wizards Insider:

Grunfeld's consistent position on the tax issue is that while he would prefer to not go over, he does not have a hard and fast mandate to stay under.

So why won't Ernie go over?  It's a complicated, but rational reason.  Let's start by addressing what would happen if they went over.  I'll let Ivan Carter describe how it works (this was written before Daniels' injury and the subsequent signing of Mike Wilks so the numbers are slightly off, but you get the general idea):

One issue, as has been laid out here before, is the luxury tax threshold ($67.86 million) The Wizards are right up against it (I believe the Wiz number is around $67.75 million right now) and adding a player could put them over. Teams that go over would pay a dollar-for-dollar tax. Also, teams that stay under get to divvy up the money from the teams that went over the following the season.

Now knowing that, let's say that Ernie wanted to sign a more permanent solution like Earl Boykins and they agreed to a one year, #2 million deal (which would be a huge bargain considering he's looking for $5-6 million a year after opting out of a contract where he was making $3 million a year, but this is hypothetical after all).  In signing Earl, the Wizards pay the $2 million for his salary, plus about another $2 million for the dollar to dollar tax.  On top of that, the Wizards lose out on about $2-3 million because they wouldn't get the payout that the teams that stay under the cap receive.  So in effect, it would cost the Wizards $6-7 million for someone who wouldn't have much of an impact while he's starting (because he's not familiar with the the team) and after a week or two he'd end up backing up Antonio Daniles (who only makes $5.8 million a year) before becoming a third stringer (fingers crossed) by February.  

Bottomline: The way that the salary cap is structured, it makes a whole lot more sense to go over the cap for a key player (like Arenas and Jamison, who are both free agents this year) then it does for a bench player.  It makes it tough for the next week or two, but in the long-term it makes a whole lot more sense, both in a strict financial sense and in not overpaying so-so players sense, to stay under right now.  Besides, the Wizards still have a higher payroll than 15 other teams, so it's not like Abe Pollin is the worst penny-pincher in the league, he'd just rather not spend money foolishly (like the Knicks).

Bullets Forever: Your place for the very latest in Wizards news and PhD-level analysis.

by Jake Whitacre on Dec 23, 2007 3:19 AM EST reply actions  

Wow
That was waaaaaaaaaay longer than I thought it would be.
Bullets Forever: Your place for the very latest in Wizards news and PhD-level analysis.

by Jake Whitacre on Dec 23, 2007 3:19 AM EST up reply actions  

Makes Sense
If you are going to go over cap, might as well go big over cap.
What? They don't have TV in the D-League? Don't watch me, watch TV.

by Mac G on Dec 27, 2007 4:05 PM EST reply actions  

Not when
Every additional dollar cost double.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.

by Mike Prada on Dec 27, 2007 4:08 PM EST up reply actions  

Just as a clarification
What I meant to say is that it makes more sense to go over the cap for a big player.  It makes a whole lot more sense to go over the cap for a star player than a 12th man who barely gets off the bench.  Would you rather pay an extra $3 million (just throwing a number out there) for Gilbert Arenas or Earl Boykins?

Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure that Abe won't be overpaying Michael Jordan anytime soon.

Bullets Forever: Your place for the very latest in Wizards news and PhD-level analysis.

by Jake Whitacre on Dec 27, 2007 5:17 PM EST up reply actions  

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