yeah, I understand the vet minimum rules
I'm looking at the Blazer page on Spotrac:
https://www.spotrac.com/nba/portland-trail-blazers/cap/
if the total cap they list includes Snell (which may or may not be the case) Portland is 2.2M below the tax line counting 12 players, but not Brown. Adding the 900K for Brown, would put the Blazers 1.3M below the line. Since the cap charge for a minimum is $1,669,17, getting to 14 players by signing another vet minimum player would put them over the tax line. But being 200-300K over the line would leave them lots of options to get under the line by the trade deadline
on the other hand, if they signed an undrafted player with no NBA experience they could sign him for 900K and stay out of the tax
but obviously, this would do the opposite of convincing Dame to stop thinking about being traded
there's also the reports that the Blazers offered the TPMLE to Oubre (can't believe Olshey would be dumb enough to offer the minimum), so, while I think the Blazers will try and keep the tax low, I do not believe they are determined to stay out of the tax