ephus:
Teams have to carry at least 13 players, but the Knicks also have to carry Balkman’s salary.So there are two extra vet minimum cap holds that can be eliminated.You are still at $71.4 MM, so you could not use the full MLE.

True, but Balkman isn’t on the roster, just the payroll, so there is one empty roster spot. Jeffries would also get the vet’s minimum (1.2m) or maybe a 20% raise on that — $1.44m.

ephus:
It depends upon how much the Knicks have to spend on Novak and Smith and how much they choose to spend on Fields.If the Knicks get Novak for $3 MM (same as the mini-MLE) and give Smith the maximum 20% raise (which is different from his opting in)and allow Fields to sign elsewhere, here are the numbers.

Stat: $19.9 MM
‘Melo: $19.4 MM
Chandler: $13.6 MM
Smith: $2.8 MM
Lin: $5.0 MM
Novak: $3.0MM
Shumpert: $1.7 MM
Douglas (ouch):$2.1 MM
Balkman (double ouch): $1.7 MM
Harrelson: $762 K
Jordan: $762 K
Jeffries: $762 K
3 Vet minimum cap holds @ $762 K

That gets you to $72.8 MM, or just below the apron of $74 MM.So,the Knicks would only have the mini-MLE available to them.

If the Knicks can find someone to take Douglas off of their hands and do not resign Fields (or resign him for the qualifying offer) then they would have the BAE or about $3.5 MM of the MLE.

I am not sure this is correct NBA teams don’t have to carry fifteen players and some don’t. There are ‘t cap holds for roster spots you don’t have to fill. I think the minimum roster is twelve, and then your last three cap holds wouldn’t apply to the Knicks in this case.

jon abbey: plus he singlehandedly destroyed the CBA before that.

http://www.hoopsvibe.com/features/articles/168248-how-isaiah-thomas-killed-the-cba

didn’t he run a popcorn company into the ground too?

JK47:
The Spurs are a really tough matchup for the Heat. The Spurs are the #1 three-point shooting team in the league while the Heat rank 26th in 3P% allowed. The Heat thrive on turnovers but the Spurs rank #3 in the league in offensive TOV%. The Spurs are not a great defensive team but they do rank #1 in the NBA in defensive rebounding, so the Heat won’t get lots of second chance buckets. The Spurs are also #2 in defensive FT/FGA, so don’t expect the Heat to have a wide FT disparity in their favor.

Plus the Spurs would have home court advantage. San Antonio looks like a nightmare matchup for the Heat.

All true but SA primarily runs a pnr based offense and Miami is capable of defending the pnr better than anybody. Also, SA really struggles to defend the ball-handler in the high pnr (per Prutti today in Grantland) and that’s Miami’s only real weapon in the half-court. Shading bigs into the paint may have deterred Chris Paul but no one on SA’s back line is going keep Wade or LBJ from attacking the rim. As I said- SA hits it’s threes and they win but if they don’t they could be in trouble.

The Honorable Cock Jowles:
also, re: Isiah trying to get back into high-level ball:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/7972930/isiah-thomas-hoping-return-college-nba

“Thomas also realized people were going to continue to knock him for his failures.

“When you have had a lot of success, when you do have a failure, people like to point that one failure a lot,” Thomas said. “That just comes with the territory. It’s no different than being one of the top programs. It’s no different than at a Notre Dame, a Michigan, an Indiana.”

UNREAL. Dude got hit with a $11.5M sexual harassment lawsuit, earned a six-figure fine for his organization for pre-draft workouts that could have crippled their competitive ability through draft sanctions, gave Jerome James a $30M contract for having one big playoff series, all in the process of running a marquee professional sports franchise into the ground, and then utterly failed at the college game. One failure.

plus he singlehandedly destroyed the CBA before that.

http://www.hoopsvibe.com/features/articles/168248-how-isaiah-thomas-killed-the-cba

Plus the Spurs would have home court advantage. San Antonio looks like a nightmare matchup for the Heat.

The Honorable Cock Jowles: If you had to deal with a mob of professional critics who will analyze you and your body of work ex post facto, and who won’t lose their job no matter how often and to what degree they are wrong, wouldn’t you be curt and dismissive too?

No doubt, but now that the theatrical sighs and eye-rolling are leavened with a genuine sense of humor (which he probably always had but was more reluctant to show), Pop’s become much easier for me to root for.