Raptors: Two Terrifying Situations

[Arsenalist]

That's not exactly right. you lose the MLE if you are below the cap by more than the MLE. If you are only a few mil below you still get the MLE.

Correct. You can use the MLE while being under the cap as long as the signing takes you over the cap.

[Dave]

It's cap flexibility rather than direct cap space ... that the Raptors would gain by letting Bosh leave.

In order to get cap space next offseason the Raptors would have to make other moves to dump salary (some combination of Jack, Bargnani, Jose, Hedo) or else they could wait until 2011 when Evans/Banks/Belinelli come off the cap.

And if the Raptors took back contracts they'd then have around $40-50 million (roughly $40 mil in starting pay levels with all increasing per annum) tied up in Hedo, new $10+mil man, Bargnani, and Calderon and possibly for the next 4-5 seasons which wouldn't allow the Raptors any flexibility with their cap.