Mehmet Okur -- good player?

He is a good player. Excellent outside shooter who is developing a quality post game. He hits the midrange jumper and uses the glass on his shots well. He will surprise with his quickness and ability to drive with the ball. He's also a very good rebounder. Solid man defender who is not afraid of fouling hard and bodying up.

He sometimes doesn't finish strong enough and he's not a great help defender. He also tends to get stripped on his drives more than is usual.

He's probably going to sign with another team because of how good Rasheed has been for Detroit. Utah and Denver are supposed to be very interested. He will likely get more than the MLE, but if he only gets the MLE Detroit will match.

 

Detroit has continually said they plan on resigning Okur, and have budgeted more than the MLE (which they don't have due to cap underage) to retain him.

 

Er, that's not exactly correct, xiki.

The cap isn't expected to go up now since Stern's announcement that revenue's were down. And Rasheed's played so well that he won't take much of a paycut in his next contract. The plan WAS to keep Memo, but Rasheed kind of altered that. He is now the top priority. Keeping Rasheed will probably keep Detroit above the cap limit.

They could get below the cap by renouncing Sheed, but that doesn't appear likely now.

 

Okur is the player that I have had my eye on for some time now. He is still developing but shows all the attributes that the Rockets need for their POWER Forward. Hope we are trying to get him after the Playoffs.

 

I have DET with 7 contracts totalling $33.5m committed for 2004-05. But until Wallace is re-signed or renounced, their cap is $59+m (Wallace's $17m @ 150%). So if the Pistons handle Okur before dealing with Wallace, they are limited to MLE $ for Okur.

If the Pistons re-sign Wallace for say $8m, then their $33.5m committed becomes $41.5m and their cap space is ~$2m less than the current MLE. IMO, if DET re-signs Wallace to anything resembling his market value they will have no cap space to speak of or they can only offer Okur all or part of their MLE.

The other dilemma facing DET is having to leave at least one (of the seven) unprotected for CHA. And they have no real "bad" contracts. My guess is Elden Campbell - 1 yr @ $4.4m. My understanding is that if CHA takes Elden as one of their 29 allowable but don't sign him to one of their 14 roster spots, he becomes an UFA.

Okur is IMO a larger, less mobile Hedo. He'd be a good pickup assuming Rasheed and Darko are the Pistons future and the Rockets don't have Mo T, Spoon and Padgett on the roster.

 

The Pistons have one big man too many (did I just say that), and if Okur is unrestricted, I think he'll leave.

It's all about the PT.

My guess is that Detroit will try and do a sign and trade.

Raven

 

I don't believe a team can use their MLE for one of THEIR own players. Their strategy will be, I assume, to sign Okur first then 'Bird' 'sheed.

I could see Detroit 'paying' Charlotte 3 mil and a 1st to 'take' Campbell in the expansion draft.

This still leaves Rabaca, not Okur, as the odd man out of Motown.

 

First, Rebraca was traded to ATL in the deal the sent Rasheed to DET.

Secondly, you are incorrect about the MLE. This was how the Rockets could have re-signed Eddie Griffin even after not taking his 4th year rookie contract offer. From the recognized source:

"This exception is also called the "Middle Class Exception." This exception says that a team can offer any player a contract equal to the average NBA salary every year, even if they are over the cap."

"Any player" includes Okur if the Pistons are over the cap. And this is all that the Pistons have until Wallace is renounced or re-signed.

Third, the expansion draft preceeds player signings. As mentioned, the Pistons currently have seven 2004-05 contracts totalling $33.5m. About $10m below the current cap. If CHA values Campbell and a mid 20's pick, that figure would become $14.4m. But DET is still over the cap until Wallace is renounced or re-signed.

Wallace's contract is then subracted from the $14.4m cap space. If the Pistons re-sign Wallace to an $8m contract, they then have $6.4m for the remaining 5 roster spots. They will have no MLE because they went under the cap.

 

Otherwise I had a good post?

I forgot Rebraca went to Atlanta, so apologies.

I did qualify my MLE comment. When did those rules change? (I do believe, there I go again, it used to be as I said).

Finally, why wouldn't Detroit go over the cap to sign them both? It is not a luxury cap issue.

 

xiki -
I only started learning the current CBA. Perhaps MLE to your expired contracts was prohitied in the prior CBA.

You are correct...it is not a LTax issue. But you did make me go back and take another look. In addition to the MLE and cap space, the Pistons can use Early Bird Rights to re-sign Okur.

However, the EBR's are only equal to the MLE and they must be for two seasons minimum. If Okur really wanted to be a Piston, he'd be better off with the MLE for one year and get Full Bird Rights and a big raise after next season. (He could also get EBR's on a 1 year contract from cap $).

Bottomline IMO - the Pistons are going to have a tough time offering Okur more than MLE $ and they are going to have to be really convincing that they have plans for him given the Wallace's and Darko and possibly Campbell are all vying for playing time.

 

Should be Full Bird Rights after a 1 year re-signing with cap space $...sorry.