It is because of that risk that NBA teams are not willing to overpay him this coming offseason. Based on what teams must pay their replacement-level players which is pegged at $1.3 million per player, the amount a team spends above and beyond those minimum contracts for a 12-man roster is around $76.7 million.
So depending on the final salary cap of a team, a replacement player can be worth $3.1 million to $3.8 million per year. Thus, it would put the value of Jeremy Lin between $4.2 million to $5.1 million during the just concluded NBA season, which is more than double of what he got last year from the Hornets, notes The Washington Post.
So the offer made by Charlotte Hornets seems already commensurate with his value as a player. Chicago Bulls seems to have the most room in its salary cap space to make him an offer better than $5.6 million.
But Jeremy Lin may even agree to a lower offer on the condition that he will be the starting point guard for the team. It could be a risk for the Bulls but they are willing to take it since they don’t have an ideal player to man the point for them and feed Jimmy Butler. It could be what Jeremy Lin is looking for in the free agency and the Bulls are seemingly interested in his plan too.