With the Eric Bledsoe trade to the Milwaukee Bucks it’s nearly time to see how serious the new billionaire owners are about spending their own money.
Acquiring Bledsoe will likely push the Bucks into the *luxury tax next season, when (if) they re-sign Jabari Parker, barring any other salary dumps.
Some teams will go to great lengths not to get into the luxury tax, but since Milwaukee’s owners are being given $250 million in public funding to build their stadium, there should be no talk about luxury tax concerns — especially as that stadium is set to open next season.
If re-signing Parker means sacrificing draft picks or assets because the owners don’t want to pay a luxury tax, Bucks fans should do what all fans do best: be outraged and scream how those owners should be ashamed of themselves.
This doesn’t mean the Bucks can’t make smart decisions. When the new owners took over and had cap space, however, they were throwing money around, like a kid that just got a new toy. Those signings have turned out to be some horrible decisions — John Henson, Matthew Dellavedova, Mirza Teletovic were signed totaling $117.9 million of wasted cap space. Milwaukee also signed Miles Plumlee for $50 million but somehow got the Charlotte Hornets to take that in trade. Apparently the #OwnTheFuture mantra ended at the beginning of last season.
Milwaukee couldn’t dump any of those salaries on Phoenix but it also didn’t have to sacrifice Malcolm Brogdon, Parker or anyone else of value in the process. Greg Monroe wasn’t getting re-signed next year anyway, and acquiring Bledsoe could send Milwaukee’s first-round pick to the middle or back half of next year’s draft.
In terms of the Bucks’ future, Bledsoe will turn 28 in one month (and two days). He makes $15 million next season — the final year of his contract.
So, this is essentially the Bucks team for at least the next two seasons barring some other giant trade. Milwaukee is over the salary cap, so there won’t be much ability anymore to sign free agents, except their own. They did get around a $4 million trade exception in this trade, but I’m not getting into that.
The luxury-tax line, which tries to curtail teams from spending over the cap, is projected to be around $122 million next season. The Bucks are about $16 million under that as they looks to re-sign Parker, who was demanding max money despite his injuries.
And, if Bledsoe isn’t a disaster — like Parker, he has a bad injury history — this should be the Bucks makeup for the foreseeable future, if the owners aren’t afraid to get into the tax.
Ideally, Milwaukee would re-sign Parker this offseason, then Bledsoe the next season, and beyond that, who knows what the team might look like, but that’s when Khris Middleton would be up.
The public is on the hook for $250 million for the new Bucks stadium, through state income tax, a ticket surcharge at the new arena, $4 million annually in Milwaukee County funding, $47 million from the city of Milwaukee and $203 million-plus in new bonding from the Wisconsin Center District, according to Bizjournals.
*LUXURY TAX
There are tiers to the tax (chart below) but, essentially, a team is charged a certain amount for however much it is over the luxury tax. If a team is $3 million over, it’s charged a $3.5 million, for example.
If the Bucks signed Parker for $28 million next season, they would theoretically be $12 million into the luxury tax (being $16 million under cap now), therefore charged a tax of $21.25 million (the incremental maximum of $7.5 million for $0 to $4,999,999, plus the incremental maximum of $8.75 million for $5 million to $9,999,999, plus $2 million times the incremental rate of $2.50 for $10 million to $14,999,999).
