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CLEVELAND – Kendrick Perkins, who was signed on the last day of the regular season but did not play a single minute in 2018, will have his contract option for 2018-19 picked up by the Cavaliers, several league sources said. told ESPN.
Although the Cavs appreciate Perkins as a presence in the locker room, the decision is simply a wage capping ploy to try to aggregate the $ 2.5 million salary of the 33-year-old center with a contract existing to pursue a trade around the League.
Team sources told ESPN that the Cavs "continue to explore all the options to improve" LeBron James' decision on his future with the franchise.
In recovering the option, the Perkins contract is not guaranteed at the moment. The Cavs should guarantee the contract in order to include it in a potential trade. The move is apparent in the way the Cleveland front office invoked the so-called "Brendan Haywood Rule" in the new collective agreement; The Cavs added the tall, aging man of the summer of 2014 to an agreement that included $ 10.5 million in unsecured salary for his second season, so that they could use it as a chip commercial pursuit of larger fish on the market.
The league has since felt that only the guaranteed portion of the contracts signed under the new collective agreement will count when it is included in the transactions in order to meet the pay equity requirements to make the contract clear. fair deal.
Perkins 'move indicates the Cavs' willingness to add an extra salary to their list when they are already set to be a luxury tax payer for next season, regardless of whether James remains or disappears. Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has paid about $ 130 million in luxury tax payments over the last three seasons, which is almost equal to the total tax payments paid by the other 29 NBA owners. during this period.
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