Understanding the Bulls’ Summer Salary Cap Situation

By Robert Stein | May 14, 2016

Mar 11, 2016; Chicago, IL, USA; Chicago Bulls center Joakim Noah (13) on the bench during the first half against the Miami Heat at the United Center. Mandatory Credit: Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports /

The Bulls have a tricky summer ahead of them in terms of personnel movement. Here’s an explanation at what the Bulls could be looking at in terms of money to spend this summer.

Understanding the NBA salary cap and the most recent collective bargaining agreement (CBA) can be a bit confusing, although Larry Coon does an incredible job of making the information easily digestible in his summary of the CBA. In case you don’t have the time or the desire to sift through his information and apply it to the Chicago Bulls, here are some things to know when thinking about the Bulls’ upcoming off-season moves.

First and foremost, how the Bulls choose to handle Joakim Noah will drastically dictate the amount of spending money the team has to work with this summer. There are many that believe that the 31-year-old big man is well past his prime and no longer has a place in Chicago and Fred Hoiberg’s offense. On the flip side, there are people like myself who believe he can bounce back from his shoulder injury and still give the Bulls valuable minutes and intangible leadership.

Continuing in the hopes that the Bulls decide to re-sign Noah to a short-term contract, it’s important to understand how Noah’s “Bird Rights” affect the team’s salary cap.

Having Bird Rights means that players can be re-signed by their current team even if the team is over the salary cap. Based on the most recent reports that Pau Gasol will not accept his player option with the team, the Bulls will have about $66 million in guaranteed contracts and thanks to the new boost in the salary cap to an expected $92 million, the Bulls will be able to sign a max contract player with the leftover $26 million and then use Noah’s rights to sign him as well, right?

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Not quite.

This isn’t the case for a few reasons.

First, when a player has Bird Rights, there is a salary cap hold that is held against their current team’s salary cap.

(This amount is based on the player’s contract and a percentage outlined in the CBA. Cap holds were created so that teams do not sign free agents up to the team salary cap max and then use players’ rights to exceed the cap max, however it can still happen.)

Based on Noah’s current contract, his salary cap hold percentage is 150 percent, which multiplied by his current $13.4 million contract, equals a $20.1 million salary cap hold. That’s awfully steep for a center who at times struggles to make easy shots in the paint.

If Noah holds up $20 million of cap space, that would leave the Bulls with only $6 million to pursue a free agent, which most likely will not be enough to sign anyone that can make a significant difference next year.

$92M – ($66M + $20M) = $6M

(Salary Cap) (Guaranteed Contracts + Noah Cap Hold) = Left Over Cap Room

So, what can the Bulls do?

For starters, the organization will need to renounce Noah’s rights as soon as possible to remove its cap hold of $20 million. Once Noah’s rights are renounced, the $20.1 million cap hold will disappear and the Bulls can instead use some of their $26 million cap space to sign Noah to a more realistic contract and then use the remaining cap space to make an offer to a pretty good quality free agent.

But, even if the Bulls sign Noah right away to a lesser contract, before they could use their remaining money to attract free agents, they would first need to officially cut ties with Pau Gasol.

Most assume Gasol is leaving, but until he either signs with a new team or is renounced, he creates another salary hold issue for the Bulls. Similar to the Bird Rights’ salary hold as a player with a player option, Gasol requires a salary cap hold. In Gasol’s case, the percentage is 120%, which brings his hold on the Bulls cap space to about $9 million.

So, if the Bulls sign Noah for roughly $8 million and Gasol is taking up $9 million of cap space, that leaves the Bulls roughly $9 million in cap space to make an off-season acquisition.

Assuming both the Bulls and Gasol are ready to separate, the Bulls would be best served to “relinquish the right of first refusal” and essentially let Gasol become a free agent as soon as possible.

According to the CBA, “until a team’s veteran free agent re-signs with his team, signs with another NBA team, or is renounced, he will be included in his prior team’s team salary…”

Therefore, the sooner the Bulls and Gasol split, the better.

If all of that happens, now the Bulls are in business!

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With Gasol gone and Noah signed for $8 million, the team would have roughly $18 million left in cap room. Now subtract another $1.75 million as a cap hold for having a first-round lottery player and the Bulls are looking at a grand total of about $16.25 million to work with this summer.

$92M – ($66M + $8M +$1.75M) = $16.25M

Salary Cap – (Guaranteed Contracts + Noah’s Contract + Rookie Contract) = Cap Space Remaining

That $16 million should be good enough to attract a suite of second-tier players such as Marvin Williams, Al Jefferson and possibly even Luol Deng as well as sign a role player for a small contract.

It’s unfortunate that Noah’s rights didn’t work in the Bulls favor the way that they did last year when the team used Jimmy Butler’s to sign him to a major contract. Fortunately, the Bulls could use another player’s Bird Rights to benefit them this summer.

E’Twaun Moore’s early Bird Rights (which is a lesser version of full rights) would allow for the Bulls to go over the salary cap and still sign Moore to a deal worth up to either 175% of his salary in the previous season or 104.5% of the average NBA salary in the previous season, whichever is greater. In the best case scenario for Moore, he would be signed to a two-year contract worth roughly $5 million per and the Bulls would be able to go over the soft salary cap of $92 million.

There is a lot still up in the air for the Bulls management to decide on, but hopefully this helped shed some light into the world of the Bulls offseason.

Next: Finding a way to stagger the Bulls' guard rotation for next season

Up next, the Bulls are hoping that Butler can bring them good luck as he represents the team in this year’s NBA Draft Lottery.

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