re: Stiemsma has been waived, Melvin Ely signed

Mark Deeks, salary cap guru, will have an article up soon abut the deal.

He already wrote one about the Cavs making a similar deal for Scotty Hopson ( LINK.

Key difference though, the Pels were smart about it.

quote:

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The minimum salary contract for a 10-plus-year veteran next season is $1,448,490. Cleveland could have signed a nine-plus-year veteran to a minimum salary contract for the final few days of the season, just as the Knicks did with Gadzuric, and had that same $1.45 million unguaranteed next summer. Had they signed that someone yesterday instead of Hopson, they would have had to pay them only the prorated minimum salary for the remainder of the season instead of the $1.3 million they gave to Hopson.

With 17 days left to go in the 170 regular season, this meant they needed spend only one tenth of the minimum. They have spent $1.3 million in order to have a $1.45 million unguaranteed contract, whereas they could have spent $131,681 to do the same. Or, if they had just waited until the final day of the season, that amount could have been even smaller, a paltry $7,746.

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So Demps gave himself a 1.4M trade chip this summer, but will pay about $40k for it.

Anyone want to email Jimmy Smith?