Quick cap rundown for next summer.
Bullets Wizards were previously ready to make some moves, but Otto, Beal, Wall and Mahinmi take up 87% of the cap by themselves. Raptors had the ability to make big moves, but they are at the cap with just Ibaka, Lowry, DeRosen and Valanciaus. Portland is in terrible, terrible shape. Lillard, Crabbe, McCollum, Turner, Harkless and Leonard has them 10% over the cap. No one other than Dame and maybe McCollum are difference makers.
Phoenix is in good shape, despite some poor contracts. Tyson and Dudley are their worst contracts and both expire in 2019. Knight, Bledsoe, Booker and Josh Jackson only cost them about 40mm combined.
Philly needs to show some promise this year and they are the team to worry about. Embiid is the only core player coming off his rookie contract (cap hold of just 18mm) and everyone else is on rookie deals except Bayless. Reddick and Amir are both 1y deals.
Orlando has almost 70mm/year tied up in Byimbo, Fortiner, Vucevic, Ross and Augustin.
OKC either has no cap space, or all the cap space in the world. Russ, Paul George and Kanter can all walk next summer. If they walk, even with cap space, who cares? No one is signing in OKC to play with Roberson and Adams.
Don't know what is happening with Melo this year, but the Knicks have 55mm locked up in Noah, Hardaway, Courtney Lee and Lance Thomas. Ouch.
NOLA has 50mm tied into Brow+Jrue with Cousins a FA. Gonna have no cap room unless DeMarcus Boogies.
Minnesota won't have cap space next year. Their core 5 are ~75mm + Wiggins has to be resigned.
Milwaukee will only have the MLE.
Miami = Tyler Johnson+Whiteside+Goran+James Johnson+Waiters+KellyO = 100% of the cap.
Memphis. I think they start slow and blow it up. Great job dropping 100mm on Chandler Parsons' glass knees. Conley+Gasol+Parsons=80mm. I think Gasol gets moved. Gasol for LMA? Unite the Gasols and have the Torres Gemelos? Sign me up.
Lakers have Julius Randle and Brook Lopez as FAs and have Deng's bad contract. Other than that, most deals they have are reasonable.
Clippers won't have max room even after DeAndre Jordan opts out to sign with the Spurs. They could move things along for both teams by trading DJ for LMA.
Pacers can have max room. Come play with Dipo, Sabonis and Lance Stephenson!
Rockets have used about 80% of the cap before they resign Chris Paul, Trevor Ariza and Clint Capela.
Golden State is way over the luxury tax and will have 5-6 FAs.
Detroit is at 100% of the cap before trying to resign Avery Bradley. Lot of money for a 40 win team in a historically weak conference
Denver could be a player. Wilson Chandler and Darrel Arthur can opt out of their contracts and the only non-rookie contracts they will have are Millsap and Faried. Gary Harris and Will Barton will need to be resigned, though.
Dallas can have max room. Wes Matthews can opt out and they will only have Harrison Barnes (24m) and Dwight Powell (9m) on contracts over 5m. They will be a player next summer. But I think Harrison Barnes, Smith and a 95 year old Dirk isn't quite as exciting to play with as 2018 MVP Kawhi Leonard.
Cleveland is interesting. If Bron stays, they obviously don't have any room. But Bron could walk so he could play with Kawhi and DeAndre and Cleveland still doesn't have much room due to Love/Kyrie/Tristan/JR Smith/Korver's contracts.
Chicago will have lots of space. Robin Lopez is the only player making more than 8mm at 14mm. DWade and Zach Levine will be FAs.
Charlotte has 62mm tied up in Batum, Dwightmare, and Marvin Williams. They have another 46mm in Kemba/Zeller/Lamb/MKG.
Brooklyn can have lots of cap space, despite 31mm tied into Mozgov and DeMarre.
Boston's summer was this year. Next year have to resign Smart/Thomas and they are over the cap even with their small cap holds.
Finally, ATL can have cap space. But the pitch to play with Schroeder, Bazemore and Plumlee will be tough.
So teams with easy cap space:
Spurs (assuming opt outs by Green/LMA/Gay)
Bulls
Dallas
Brooklyn
Going to be a buyer's market for the Spurs who will have the best star by far.
