So we have the potential to do that. We also have the potential to sign some free agents. On top of that, with Nic being a restricted free agent this summer if we tender him his qualifying offer by June 30, we have the right to match him on any offer that comes in from another team. And how that will work is July 1 is the start of free agency moratorium where you can go out and talk to free agents, you can recruit them, bring them into your market, do whatever you want to do to try and recruit them to come to your team. You can talk contracts with the agents, you can talk years. You can come to an oral agreement, you can't come to a final agreement until July 11.
But starting on July 11, a restricted free agent can, like Nicolas, if he gets an offer from another team, can bring that offer to you. Then we have three days to make a decision on whether to match that offer or not.
Now in the meantime, during that three-day window, we can go spend all of our cap room.
BARRETT: Three days is shorter than it used to be. That could be a factor.
BUCHANAN: It does because, hopefully during that July 1 to July 10 period you can get a firm grasp on where you're going with your free agent group. Who's agreed to come? You're down to maybe two teams or where you're at from that regard.
RICE: So you're looking to close a free agent deal before matching an offer for Nicolas?
BUCHANAN:
Exactly, because you can spend all, let's say we have $15 million in cap room, you can spend all of that cap room, then go over the cap, not into the tax but over the cap, to re-sign Nicolas because you have Bird rights on Nicolas, so you can go over the cap to re-sign Nicolas.
Let's say we were to extend Nicolas early, back in January. Whatever we would have signed him at would have eaten up into our cap room. Let's say, hypothetically, you have $15 million in room, say you sing him for $10 million. So you have $5 million in cap room this summer to spend. Because we didn't get a deal done with him, he has what is called a cap hold, which is $5.4 million in room that is getting eat up on your books. So now you have this amount of room to spend on free agents and you can go over, on top of that, and re-sign Nic because you have his Bird rights.
BARRETT: The team has said they're going to match any offer for Nic. Nic has said he expects the team to match. Does that keep other teams from making offers because they don't want to have their free-agent money tied up?
BUCHANAN: It is a risk. On our end, we went through that with Paul Millsap a couple of years ago where your money, there's only so many free agents out there and you whittle down to the ones that you really want and target. If you're going to commit to a guy who's a restricted guy, you're tying up your money, like you said, it used to be seven, now it's three days. In that three-day window other guys may be coming off the block and now you're left, after the third day, if the team does match, now you're like, now let's go back, who's still in the pool? Now that guy is picked off that maybe you liked. it's a risk on their end. It was a risk on our end to kind of let him go to restricted, but we felt like the opportunity to add free agent or free agents on top of keeping Nic.
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