When Damon Stoudamire formally signs with San Antonio on Saturday, he will secure a salary of $538,054 for the final 75 days of the regular season, pro-rated from the NBA veteran minimum of $1.2 million.
Stoudamire's salary-cap figure will actually be a mere $339,975 -- because the league pays a portion of the salary on veterans with at least three seasons of service time who sign at the minimum rate -- but that small amount is still enough to potentially cost San Antonio some $2 million at season's end.
The Spurs, at present, are about $275,000 under the luxury-tax line. They need Stoudamire even more now than when they started pursuing him with Parker out indefinitely thanks to a heel injury, but bringing him in will prevent the Spurs from collecting the estimated rebate in the $2 million range afforded to all teams at season's end that stayed under the tax line ... unless San Antonio makes a trade between now and the Feb. 21 trading deadline that takes its payroll back below the line.
I think the Spurs will look for a trade to reduce the cap....