With the salary cap figures for next season having been reported on, there’s an instant move for the Milwaukee Bucks to make to gain more breathing room going into a pivotal offseason.
While the offseason has yet to kick off in its traditional fashion, the Milwaukee Bucks are expected to be in the thick of the action.
In light of their truncated playoff run that stemmed from their Eastern Conference Semifinals defeat by the Miami Heat, there is no shortage of urgency with which the Bucks have to operate with to contend for next year’s NBA title. Of course, that quest is marked with plenty of difficulties and it comes with a lack of flexibility to pursue major moves to get them over the hump.
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We’ve already gone over the reported salary cap projections first relayed by The Athletic’s Shams Charania ($$) will affect the Bucks going into such a critical offseason. However, there is an avenue to have some cap relief, especially as they near on the $132.6 million luxury tax threshold as is for next season.
The Bucks have been no strangers to having dead money on their books as a result of stretching contracts for a variety of reasons. The names of Larry Sanders, Spencer Hawes, Mirza Teletovic and Jon Leuer quickly come to mind.
In fact, both Leuer and Sanders’ dead money remain on the Bucks’ books, with both expiring after the 2021-22 season. But in the case of Leuer and his $3.1 million, there’s one way for the Bucks to be able to free up his stretched salary off of the books as soon as this offseason.
Having acquired him from the Detroit Pistons in a draft night trade in exchange for Tony Snell and the 30th overall pick, Leuer was subsequently waived by the Bucks before executing their key free agency priorities. That essentially served as the cap to Leuer’s NBA career as he announced his retirement earlier this year, citing his declining physical health and durability.
With that gives the Bucks the out to apply for salary cap relief through the league if they ask for a career-ending injury exemption.
Remember a couple of weeks back when Charania reported the Lakers had applied career-injury ending application to the league as a way to get Luol Deng’s stretched $5 million salary off their books? The Bucks can essentially do that with Leuer, just as salary cap guru Eric Pincus has expected they will do sometime in the near future, if they haven’t done so already.
Note: I expect the Milwaukee Bucks to apply for relief for Jon Leuer's salary (haven't learned if they've already applied or not). They were eligible to do so on 4/22/20
— Eric Pincus (@EricPincus) October 20, 2020
The Bucks successfully used the same mechanism in regards to Teletovic’s career-ending injury a couple of years ago that freed up the $10.5 million that remained on their books after they had to stretch his salary upon his release near the end of the 2017-18 season.
Of course, erasing Leuer’s stretched $3.1 million salary doesn’t do much in the way of creating cap room by any means for the Bucks going into the offseason by going from $129 million to $126 million under this scenario.
However, the breathing room generated by applying for such an exemption could be key in decreasing any coming tax bill that the Bucks are set to have going into next season. That is, if the Bucks’ ownership lives up to their promises made to superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo.
It’s also important to note that just applying for such an exemption doesn’t automatically grant the Bucks salary cap relief depending on the league’s review of the case. The Lakers might learn that the hard way, given that Deng continued on playing last season with the Minnesota Timberwolves after leaving Los Angeles.
Still, with the Bucks in need of finding any flexibility that they need ahead of making significant roster upgrades this offseason, applying for a career-ending injury exemption with Leuer’s money is an easy avenue to do so. Whether they will follow through with such a plan remains to be seen.