Many of you may have known this, but I didn't: if Calderon is waived before Sept. 1, they get to amortize his 2 years of remaining cap hit over 5 years. This saves them $4.4 million in 2015-16 and $4.7 million in 2016/17, while costing them about $3.0 million/year in each of the succeeding 3 years, a year after the cap jumps. Given his age and how disappointing he has been, that seems like a no brainer, even more so if their #1 pick is Russell or Mudiay. If so, he's doomed.
Even if they get Towns or Okafor, it still almost certainly makes sense. I can't imagine that they can't get a younger pg with speed, defensive skills and health--none of which Calderon has-- for the amount of the cap savings, or even less with some extra to spend elsewhere. Then they go with Galloway as the second or third pg, and pick up another backup, either young or experienced. Yeah, Galloway has slowed down recently. He has no one to open lanes for him, and most likely hit a bit of a rookie wall like any other rookie with a less-traveled season. He still isn't much worse than Calderon, if at all, with a partially guaranteed salary next year of a whopping $845K.
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