Do the Washington Wizards have cap space to sign a bought out player?

While the trade deadline is behind us, the March 1 deadline to sign a bought out player still looms. Here’s the state of the Washington Wizards cap space.

The Washington Wizards did pretty well at the trade deadline, snagging a couple young guards in exchange for Jordan McRae and Isaiah Thomas. It’s a sign of the continuing trend of Tommy Sheppard going for young, athletic players that haven’t panned out with their teams quite yet.

However, the two moves did absolutely nothing to free up cap space as the players exchanged earn roughly the same amount. While the Washington Wizards are projected to have roughly $15.1 million in free agency this upcoming season, they don’t have a lot of wiggle room right now.

But teams are famous for making moves when it seems they can’t, with a bunch of exceptions and rules regarding the cap that may be tough to understand. So do the Washington Wizards have any kind of hidden space here?

Can’t you just like… sign guys with mid-level exceptions?

Well, the short answer is yes, but ONLY if you are below the tax apron (not into the luxury tax). In addition to that rule, the mid-level exception (MLE) can be used only once a year.

Your Washington Wizards have already used it (and pretty well):

Ish Smith occupies this year’s MLE, so that won’t be available again until next year. The Wiz were able to snag the veteran point guard for two years at $12 million total.

But the disabled player exception!

I was really excited though when I re-found this:

That’s right, perhaps you had forgotten, but the Washington Wizards were just the second team in the NBA to receive a disabled player exception (DPE) for C.J. Miles. That means they have roughly $4.4 million to use, and they have to use it by the end of the season or it expires.

The disabled player exception is meant as cap relief for a team who is rostering a player that can’t play that season or the next, and it’s rarely granted but the Washington Wizards got lucky in this case when Miles went down with ligament damage in his wrist.

The assumption was that they would use the disabled player exception in a trade, and that’s kind of what happened. With the trade for Shabazz Napier, the young point guard was slotted into that DPE and a trade exception was created for Jordan McRae.

Alas, it looks like that DPE has already been exhausted in the trades we made on February 6th. It created a trade exception that will extend into next year, which is always nice and we can discuss in greater detail when the time comes, but it doesn’t help us sign anyone right now.

You can actually see how everyone in the NBA has used their mid-level exception, for funsies, in the Slam article linked in this sentence.

A shining beacon of hope: The bi-annual exception

Previously referred to as the “$1 million exception,” the bi-annual exception (BAE, these acronyms are super creative right?) allows teams to sign a player or multiple players even if they are over the cap, just like the mid-level exception.

Turns out the Washington Wizards have NOT used this and it’s still available!

However, we need to slow up a bit here because even though the Washington Wizards could technically use the BAE to sign a free agent, doing so would take that option away next season when we are presumably going to be more competitive. It is called “bi-annual” for a reason, ya know?

Using it now really doesn’t make any sense, so it’s probably best to hold off until next season.

The coup de grâce: The minimum salary exception

Here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for: The minimum salary exception (somehow NOT referred to as the MSE…)!!!

With the minimum salary exception, a team can sign any player at a minimum salary any time. The only kicker is that a team CAN NOT exceed 17 players on their roster.

Here’s a helpful breakdown of how much the minimum salary exception (do I really have to write that out every time?) is worth for each player. It’s dependent on their years of experience in the league, so it’s different for everybody.

Years in league          Salary

0             $838,464 1 $1,349,383 2 $1,512,601 3 $1,567,007 4 $1,621,415 5 $1,757,429 6 $1,893,447 7 $2,029,463 8 $2,165,481 9 $2,176,260 10+ $2,393,887

The Wizards have 15 players under contract and may move to convert Garrison Matthews from a Two-Way to a full contract. If they do, don’t be surprised if that’s all they do.

However, if they want to go after someone on the buyout market, the Washington Wizards would be looking at guys up at the top of that graph, presumably, as Tommy Sheppard continues to amass young talent around the returning John Wall and peak Bradley Beal.

Be sure to check back later today to see which buyout targets should be on the Washington Wizards’ radar!!