Cap Notes: Lakers, Zubac, Crabbe, Lin, Nets

In the past, NBA teams have often kept free agents’ rights on their books long after those players have retired — teams that never went below the cap had no reason to renounce those players, since their cap holds often helped teams avoid losing trade exceptions and full mid-level exceptions. However, with the salary cap jumping to $94MM+ this season, only a few teams have avoided going below the cap, which means more and more of those free agents who have retired or been out of the NBA for multiple seasons are being renounced.

As Eric Pincus of Basketball Insiders notes (via Twitter), the Nets did just that this week with players – or former players – like Jerry Stackhouse, Jason Collins, and Andray Blatche, renouncing those cap holds to help clear cap room.

Here are a few more cap-related notes and updates from around the NBA:

• The Lakers renounced a notable free agent of their own, officially removing Kobe Bryant from their books, per RealGM.com. Bryant had a maximum-salary cap hold following his final NBA season, so Los Angeles had little choice but to renounce it if the team wanted to make use of its cap room.
• Lakers second-round pick Ivica Zubac got two guaranteed seasons on his three-year deal, per Pincus, who tweets that Zubac will earn salaries worth $1.03MM, $1.08MM, and $1.13MM, respectively.
• Allen Crabbe‘s offer sheet with the Nets is worth $18.5MM in its first, second, and fourth years, with a third-year salary of $19.3MM, according to Pincus (Twitter links). The deal, which the Trail Blazers could match, also has a fourth-year player option, a 15% trade kicker, and “significant payment advances.”
• Pincus also provides the details on Jeremy Lin‘s new contract with the Nets, tweeting that it features a third-year player option, a 10% trade kicker, and $2.3MM in unlikely bonuses on top of the $36MM base value.
• We’ll be updating our full list of traded player exceptions soon, once all of the recently-reported trades become official, but we can expect many of the TPEs on that list to disappear. As Bobby Marks of The Vertical tweets, the Cavaliers, Thunder, and Clippers may end up being the only teams with trade exceptions when the dust settles.