New Places, New Faces: Clippers Sign Joe Ingles
Aug 18, 2014; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers (left) and owner Steve Ballmer at press conference at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
The Player: Joe Ingles
The Team: Los Angeles Clippers
The Contract: 1 year (guaranteed), $503,777
How does it affect the cap situation?
The Clippers were already significantly over the $63.065 million cap for the 2014-2015 season, so this signing obviously pushes them even further over.
Sham Sports currently has the Clipper sitting at $79,679,772 in salaries, but this doesn’t include the re-signing of Hedo Turkoglu or the signing of Ingles, along with free agent acquisitions Epke Udoh and Chris Douglas-Roberts. Additionally, Sham has not updated for Jared Dudley, who was traded to the Milwaukee Bucks this offseason.
The Clippers did acquire Carlos Delfino and Miroslav Raduljica from the Bucks, but both players were immediately waived.
You can see the math below, but with these changes included, LAC has $79,337,108 in salaries sitting on their books for next season.
How does it affect the luxury tax?
It brings the Clippers even further into the tax; as a reminder, they were one of the teams to pay the tax last year as well. They have not become hard capped yet; they sit about $2.5 over the luxury tax threshold, so they have another $1.5 million until they reach the “apron”, which is $4 million over the tax.
Moving Dudley was significant; he was largely unproductive for the Clippers last season, and his $4.25 million salary would have been a real killer.
What’s next?
Likely nothing. Free agency is just about over, and their roster is full.
With the wing signings of CDR and Ingles, we can likely put the rumblings of Ray Allen joining the Clippers to bed.
We’ll get to see Steve Ballmer’s ownership strategy right away; does he try to shed useful wing players like Jamal Crawford and Matt Barnes to duck a luxury tax bill, or does he bite the bullet knowing that he has a contender? Clippers fans are undeniably happy to have anyone other than Donald Sterling as their owner, but I’m sure they won’t be pleased if Ballmer starts pinching relative pennies.
