Why would the Spurs renounce Jonathon Simmons (or even rescind his qualifying offer) while still trying to re-sign him, as reported?
Maybe because they’re not actually trying to re-sign him.
Jabari Young of the San Antonio Express-News:
Spoke to Simmons' reps, they are not talking to #Spurs -there is no new deal being discussed. Last call was renouncing his rights. That's it
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) July 13, 2017
This makes more sense.
If they didn’t renounce Simmons, the Spurs could have offered him a starting salary of about $7.9 million. If they didn’t pull his qualifying offer, they also could have matched any offer sheet, which could have included a starting salary up to $8,406,000.
With Simmons renounced, San Antonio can likely offer him just the $3,290,000 bi-annual exception.
The Spurs will likely remain above the cap regardless. So renouncing Simmons and removing mechanisms to re-sign him likely means only one thing: San Antonio is moving on from Simmons.
Plenty of teams could use the athletic wing, but cap space has dried up around the league. He’ll a home, but maybe for not as much money as he could have commanded as an unrestricted free agent earlier in the process.
