Trade & FA 2024-25:

[SkenfromLMF]

Player Salary Notes
1 Doncic 43,031,940
2 Irving 41,000,000 ULTBE $1,000,000
3 Klay Thompson 21,473,989 18,400,000
4 PJ Washington 15,500,000 ULTBE $500,000
5 Gafford 13,394,160
6 Grimes 4,296,682
7 Vet min guy 2,093,637
8 Lively 5,014,560
9 Kleber 11,000,000
10 Exum 3,150,000 Team Option 6/28
11 Omax 2,870,400
12 Advija 1,165,001 (conservative est)
13 Hardy 2,019,699 NG
14 Morris 2,093,637
15 DJJ 12,859,000 9,756,098

Dead 2,208,856 McGee

Total Salary 178,600,197

Space Under/(Over)
First Apron 178,655,000 54,803
Second Apron 189,486,000 10,885,803

Klay at that 21 mil number allows us to retain DJJ at the full MLE, just barely. Perhaps there is a scenario where DJJ actually signs for 10mil instead of 12.8, which gives us even more cushion before the 1st apron. Lineup is:

Luka/Exum/vet min guy?
Kyrie/Grimes/Hardy
Klay/DJJ/vet min guy?
PJ/Omax/Morris
Lively/Gafford/Powell
Block Sr. (@517to214)

Playing with the numbers:

Can we get DJJ to sign for 2 years and 20 million? That gets him a starting salary of $9.756098 million
Then can we get Klay to go for 4/79.12 with a starting salary of 18.4 million
Between those 2 moves you save 6 million off of the totals SH proposed.
Bite the bullet and give Advija the 14th roster slot at the rookie minimum which saves roughly 933k.

Those 3 moves would save roughly $7.106891 off the proposed totals. Why that number?
That is a number allows the trade to acquire Klay to be Green and Powell (not Kleber), which would conceivably make the deal easier on GSW (or even the Clipps) to work into their own hard cap situations.

My numbers with a 14 man roster consisting of Morris and one additional vet minimum player:
Total Salary: 176,994,669
1st Apron Space: 1,660,331

You could create a bit more space if we found another rookie minimum to sign instead of a veteran minimum, for the 13/14 slots. The second of which would be vital to be non-guaranteed so that a (veteran) player could be signed in season without losing more dead money space.