A year after losing Al Horford in free agency, the Hawks risk Paul Millsap declining his player option and following the same path. When Horford left last summer, Atlanta went on a bit of a spending spree, signing Dwight Howard, Kent Bazemore, and Dennis Schroder to lucrative long-term deals. Those three veterans are now the highest-paid players on the Hawks’ books, and it will be interesting to see if the club adds another player or two to that group if Millsap departs.
Here’s where things currently stand for the Hawks financially, as we continue our Offseason Salary Cap Digest series for 2017:
Guaranteed Salary
- Dwight Howard ($23,500,000)
- Kent Bazemore ($16,910,113)
- Dennis Schroder ($15,500,000)
- Malcolm Delaney ($2,500,000)
- Taurean Prince ($2,422,560)
- Mike Dunleavy Jr. ($1,662,500) — Partial guarantee. Non-guaranteed portion noted below.1
- DeAndre’ Bembry ($1,567,200)
- Total: $64,062,373
Player Options
- Paul Millsap ($21,472,407)
- Total: $21,472,407
Team Options
- None
Non-Guaranteed Salary
- Mike Dunleavy Jr. ($3,512,500) — Partial guarantee. Guaranteed portion noted above.1
- Ryan Kelly ($1,577,230)2
- Total: $5,089,730
Restricted Free Agents
- Tim Hardaway Jr. ($4,588,840 qualifying offer / $5,704,013 cap hold)
- Total: $5,704,013
Cap Holds
- Paul Millsap ($30,108,050) — If player option is declined
- Ersan Ilyasova ($12,600,000)
- Thabo Sefolosha ($7,315,000)
- Kris Humphries ($5,200,000)
- No. 19 overall pick ($1,936,920)
- Jose Calderon ($1,471,382)
- Mike Muscala ($1,471,382)
- Total: $60,102,734
Trade Exceptions
- Mike Scott TPE ($3,333,334) — Expires 2/23/18
- Mo Williams TPE ($2,194,500) — Expires 1/18/18
Projected Salary Cap: $101,000,000
Maximum Cap Room: $30,922,632
- By waiving their players without fully guaranteed contracts and renouncing all their exceptions and free agents (including Millsap), the Hawks would be left with six players on guaranteed deals, a cap hold for their first-round pick, and cap charges for empty roster spots totaling $70,077,368. That would give the club nearly $31MM in cap room, but if Atlanta wants to make an effort to re-sign Millsap, that space would go away — Millsap’s cap hold exceeds $30MM on its own.
Footnotes:
- Dunleavy’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 1.
- Kelly’s salary becomes fully guaranteed after July 7.
Salary information from Basketball Insiders and The Vertical was used in the creation of this post.