LAS VEGAS -- When the Boston Celtics elected to dip below the salary cap last week, it required a bit of bookkeeping that had been largely ignored over the past two decades because, well, there had been no real reason to ever tackle it.
Understanding the NBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement is a headache even for those who are paid to master it. The simple version is this: Each offseason, teams are assigned cap holds -- or placeholder salary -- that accounts for players expected to be re-signed, and teams typically renounce the rights to players who won't return.
Here's the catch: If you're a team like the Celtics that lived above the salary cap for 6,530 consecutive days, there was never a need to remove those holds. They don't count toward your final payroll, only toward the calculations of how much you have available to spend. Being above the cap, the Celtics never had any money to spend beyond that provided by exceptions (i.e., the mid-level, bi-annual, rookie, minimum).
This offseason, the Celtics determined that their best path to building a brighter future was to dip below the cap. To do that, the team had to renounce the rights to the many players who lingered on their books since those players never signed another NBA contract after their time in Boston.
So at some point on the afternoon of July 9, 2015, Boston assistant general manager Mike Zarren sent the league office a simple email (all that procrastination probably paid off, as we assume there was probably a lot more paperwork two decades ago) from Utah renouncing the team's rights to the following players:
Carlos Arroyo
P.J. Brown
Mark Bryant
Michael Finley
Nenad Krstic
Grant Long
Stephon Marbury
Shaquille O'Neal
Michael Olowokandi
Scott Pollard
Chris Wilcox
That email also included Brandon Bass, but he had already signed with the Los Angeles Lakers by the time Zarren pressed the send button. With that email, Boston cleared the necessary room to start processing its offseason additions. The Celtics later formally announced the signing of Amir Johnson and the re-signing of Jonas Jerebko.
The Celtics have more moves to process but are attempting to maximize their remaining available cap room before finalizing deals that will re-sign Jae Crowder and deliver David Lee in a trade from the Golden State Warriors.
Boston has roughly $7 million in cap space to play with (there are moves that could get them as much as $9 million, but not without some headaches). If the Celtics elect to use that space, however, Zarren could have some additional renouncing to do.
You see, three holds remain on the books.
1. Luigi Datome. Boston has a hold for 150 percent of his salary last season, or roughly a total of $2.6 million. By keeping Datome's rights, the Celtics leave open the possibility of re-signing him down the road should they have a need.
2. Roshown McLeod. McLeod, who never actually played for the Celtics but was acquired in a trade with the Philadelphia 76ers on Aug. 3, 2001, remains on Boston's books with a chunky cap hold of $3.8 million. He's a bit of a legend in the Celtics cap-nerd community, and his lore will only grow because he survived the initial Great Renouncement of 2015.
3. Dana Barros. The Celtics had a whole bunch of players who accounted for roughly a $1 million cap hold. Barros, now a community-relations consultant for the team, likely survived the initial trim because the Celtics had room to squeeze one of those contracts in and, well, Barros is the player most attached to the team at the moment.
There are some strategic reasons why the Celtics would maintain these cap holds, but it would seem unlikely they'll come into play. It's more likely that, eventually, McLeod and Barros will join the list of legends renounced. But as we've stressed in this space before, Zarren and Boston's creative front office are always trying to think a couple of moves ahead so that the Celtics maximize every possible move.
