Orlando Magic Daily Mailbag Volume 9: Find your role

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This one came up as I was updating the Magic’s roster and salaries page.

Yes, Fran Vazquez is still on the Magic’s books. We cannot avoid it.

It has been 10 years since the Magic drafted Vazquez and he never came over (and probably never will), but yes his cap hold for his rookie contract still counts.

What is a cap hold? It is a placeholder on the salary cap to retain Bird Rights and certain exceptions. It is so a team could not have a max-level guy come off their books and just go out and sign a max player while still retaining the right to go over the cap to re-sign their own player (that is what Bird Rights are, FYI).

When a team gets a first round pick, they are allowed a rookie exception to sign their own pick even if it would put them over the cap. In order to do this though the cap rules put a place holder — the cap hold — for each first round pick for their slotted salary.

So why is Fran Vazquez’s cap hold listed at $1,772,100. Well that is because that is what the 11th pick in 2005 would have gotten based on the rookie salary scale. Pretty simple.

The next question you might have is on the off chance the Magic need a 30-year-old backup center from Spain they drafted a decade ago, is that what the Magic would pay?