[Shreveport Times]Swift ready to hitmarket

Yaowaming · Jul 1, 2005

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050701/SPORTS/507010344/1001/SPORTS

Swift ready to hitmarket
Ex-Fair Park,LSU star becomesNBA free agent today.
July 1, 2005
By Scott Ferrell

sferrell@gannett.com

Stromile Swift knows the recruiting game. He played it when he came out of Fair Park High School in 1998 before signing a scholarship with LSU.

He'll play it again beginning today as the NBA's free agency period begins.

Teams can open negotiations with players today, but cannot sign players until July 22 because of the time needed to put the league's new collective bargaining agreement into writing.

Swift is an unrestricted free agent and considered to be one of the top free agent forwards on the market. USA Today ranked Swift among the top 15 available free agents.

Just where Swift will land is anyone's guess.

However, the chance of Swift returning to the Memphis Grizzlies is not good.That much was evident when the Grizzlies used their first-round pick on Syracuse forward Hakim Warrick.

Swift is a 6-foot-9 forward. Warrick is a 6-9 forward.

Grizzlies President Jerry West told Memphis reporters it was no coincidence the team took Warrick. After all, Swift is an unrestricted free agent.

So if not Memphis, then where for Swift?

He has long been rumored to be headed to his home state to play for the Hornets in New Orleans. He gave a reporter a half grin last spring when asked about signing with the Hornets as a free agent.

The Hornets certainly should have money to be players in the free-agent market.

They have an estimated $11 million in cap space. The team will also have an additional $5 million to spend on free agents for midlevel exceptions.

Thus, the Hornets should have money to make a run at Swift.

"I'll give it a lot of thought, look at everything that's out there and whatever works best for me, that's the decision I'll make,'' Swift said.

The Hornets aren't the only team expected to show interest in Swift.

The New Jersey Nets are also in the market for a power forward and could target Swift along with Shareef Abdur-Rahim and Donyell Marshall as possible free-agent signees.

"We certainly need another big player,'' Nets President Rod Thorn said. "We're still a small team right now.''

Swift averaged 10.1 points and 4.6 rebounds per game last season with the Grizzlies. Abdur-Rahim averaged 16.8 points and 7.3 rebounds with the Portland Trail Blazers and Marshall averaged 11.5 points and 6.6 rebounds with the Toronto Raptors.

Swift and Marshall could also be targeted by the Houston Rockets, who are in the market for a power forward.

Two teams with plenty of salary cap room could also show interest in Swift. The Seattle SuperSonics have a reported $21 million in salary cap space while the second-year Charlotte Bobcats have $20 million in cap space.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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固he Shreveport Times
July 1, 2005

LongTimeFan · Jul 1, 2005

Yaowaming said:

They have an estimated $11 million in cap space. The team will also have an additional $5 million to spend on free agents for midlevel exceptions.
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I was under the impression that if you're under the cap, you don't get the MLE. Can anyone enlighten on this?

JayZ750 · Jul 1, 2005

LongTimeFan said:

I was under the impression that if you're under the cap, you don't get the MLE. Can anyone enlighten on this?
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I think you're right, but I don't know what the rule is if you go over the cap by signing a player that offseason. It may be that they sign Swift with all their FA money (ridiculous, but for example sake), then the get the exceptions to use at that point...i have no idea though.

JuanValdez · Jul 1, 2005

LongTimeFan said:

I was under the impression that if you're under the cap, you don't get the MLE. Can anyone enlighten on this?
Click to expand...

I thought so too, so I looked it up. The answer is mixed. Essentially, you add all the team's exceptions to their salaries. If they are still under the cap, they lose their exceptions; if they are over the cap with exceptions added in, then they keep the exceptions. So, teams that are $20 million under don't have an MLE. But, then the guys who are $20 million under are only hypothetically under because they still hold slots for their own FAs. So, Cleveland might have an MLE right now because Ilgauskas has such a large cap-hold (I'm not sure). If all their FAs signed elsewhere or were renounced, they'd lose the MLE (and the million dollar exception and their trade exceptions too).

18. How do exceptions count against the cap? Does being under the cap always mean that a team has room to sign free agents? Do teams ever lose their exceptions?
If a team has Disabled Player, $1 Million, Mid-Level and/or Traded Player Exceptions, and they are below the cap, then these exceptions are added to the team's team salary, and the league treats the team as though they are over the cap. This is to prevent a loophole. The concept is the same as the one behind free agent amounts (see question numbers 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ). The idea is that the order in which exceptions are used should not matter. Free agent amounts keep teams from taking advantage of temporarily being under the cap by signing other teams' free agents using their cap room, and then re-signing their own free agents using a Bird exception. Because of free agent amounts, there's no difference between signing their free agents first and other teams' free agents second, or the other way around, signing other teams' free agents first and their own free agents second. Similarly, a team can't act like they're under the cap and sign free agents using cap room, and then use their Disabled Player, $1 Million, Mid-Level and/or Traded Player exceptions. Consequently, the exceptions are added to the team salary (putting the team over the cap) if the team is under the cap and adding the exceptions puts them over the cap. If a team is already over the cap, then the exceptions are not added to their team salary. There would be no point in doing this, since there is no cap room for signing free agents.

So it is not true that being under the cap necessarily means a team has room to sign free agents. For example, assume the cap is $42.5 million, and a team has $36 million committed to salaries. They also have a mid-level exception for $4.5 million and a traded player exception for $5 million. Even though their salaries put them $6.5 million under the cap, their exceptions are added to their salaries, putting them at $45.5 million, or $3 million over the cap. So they actually have no cap room to sign free agents, and must instead use an exception.

Teams have the option of renouncing their exceptions in order to claim the cap room. So in the example above, if the team renounced their traded player and mid-level exceptions, then the $9.5 million is taken off their team salary, which then totals $36 million, leaving them with $6.5 million of cap room which can then be used to sign free agent(s).

A team may lose their exceptions (Disabled Player, $1 Million, Mid-Level and/or Traded Player), or never receive them to begin with. This happens when their team salary is so low that when the exceptions are added to the team salary, the sum is still below the salary cap. If the team salary is below this level when the exception arises, then teams don't get the exception. If the team salary ever drops below this level during the year, then any exceptions they still have are lost.

For example, with a $42.5 million salary cap, assume it's the offseason, and a team has $34 million committed to salaries, along with a mid-level exception for $4.5 million, a traded player exception for $3 million, and an unrenounced free agent whose free agent amount is $2 million. Their salaries and exceptions total $43.5 million, or $1 million over the cap. What if their free agent signs with another team? Their salaries drop to $34 million, so their salaries and exceptions now total $41.5 million. This total is below the cap so the team loses their mid-level and traded player exceptions.

There is logic behind this. The whole idea behind an "exception" is that it is an exception to the rule which says a team has to be below the salary cap. In other words, an exception is a mechanism which allows a team to function above the cap. However, if a team salary is ever so low that they're not going to be over the cap even if they use all their exceptions, then the concept of an exception which allows them to function above the cap is moot. Therefore, if a team's team salary ever drops this far, its exceptions go away.
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http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#18

Aruba77 · Jul 1, 2005

We are not getting Swift (he's getting paid), and from the sound of the Anderson article, we probably won't get him either. That leaves Marshell, Haslim, SAR as the most likely free agent pf targets. We should also consider the likelyhood of a trade for a non-free agent 4. I think we should sign the best free agent we can to the MLE, even if he's a 1, or a 2/3. We still have a chance to trade for a 4.

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[Shreveport Times]Swift ready to hitmarket

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