I don't think that's lost on me, but you're ignoring the cost of replacement players altogether. I can't look at specific examples while I'm at work, but I look at it like the Martinez contract--sure, he makes 4 million, and if you trade him to shave off some salary, that's nice--but what does a 3-4D cost? er, at least 4 million.
My major point is that most of the teams that AREN'T approaching the cap ceiling either aren't competing or are playing with a lot of ELC youth--ELC youth that will be eating big contracts soon that won't be balanced out by the likes of Carter. It feels as if you're operating under a heavy assumption that every other GM is super-competent and restrained with signings and that every RFA/UFA is going to give a hometown discount. There probably won't be many more 10 million dollar contracts, but I'd argue that people aren't going to care about a cap issue, you're still going to see players sign for 7-8 this offseason regardless because the owners/GMs just can't help themselves (i.e. they're not going to 'correct' the market that the Hawks/Kings have broken or whatever one would want to call it). If the cap stagnates, you're looking at at least 2/3 of the league in cap purgatory. That's not a DL mismanagement "oh I paid a good player too much problem," it's a major league-wide problem.
Re: the make a case quote I only meant that I think DL is pushing the limits all he can at this point because he was 'punished' for not doing it before and that there at least a handful of more mismanaged teams that need the bailout more than we would.
