Tim- So you're saying Francis was exposed, but Charlotte still may not take him? Did anyone else catch the braincramp here- Apparently, 2 really does equal 1! If we leave Griffin and Pike unprotected as Feigen suppositions, we can protect two out of Cato/Taylor/Spoon to go along with Yao/SF/Cat/JJ/Nachbar/Wilks. That list is interesting, as it appears to me not be simple rehash. I've seen Ely of the Clippers, and Daniels of the Mavericks as some seemingly odd expansion candidates but they're not on this list. The Utah names actually surprised me-Pavlovic was that gunner that lit us up (though looking at his numbers, he didn't seem to do it to anyone else), but he was a top 20 pick just last year. Borchardt is a big man with injury troubles, but he was a top 20 pick just 2 years ago. Memphis sure had to expose a lot of talent- 4 first round picks under the age of 25. We only have 2 former first rounders under the age of 25 on our roster! PS- GATER- the RFA thing becomes of interest for guys like Fizer, Tsakalidis, and Dooling. Charlotte would make some team happy by drafting them; then, any team in the league could negotiate with them like UFAs, and not have to overpay in order to get the original team not to match.
Besides the fact that you can only take 1 player from each team and you may want some other player from team X, is there any reason not to draft all available RFAs? Do RFAs have a cap-hold on the Bobcats like they would with any other team that held their rights? If not, I'd take all the RFAs for potential S&Ts. And, if you can't work out a S&T you like and you can't sign him to a worthwhile contract, you just let the guy walk. That seems like a very valuable asset.
Wow, Charlotte is going to struggle to win 15 games. Those theoretical teams look pretty awful even factoring in a #4 pick. I wouldn't even consider them a deep team. Just crappy deep. Looks like we'll have the new Clippers to play against for 2 wins a year. If Portland leaves open Qyntel Woods, they'll take him. Dude at least has upside.
i think we must go after lorenzen wright with our TE via the cats. check his stats...he would be a gret fit at PF. and he has a solid J out to 18ft.
Over Dickau? Even after owner Johnson has repeatedly said he didn't want trouble, like Q's weed problems?
That's why I see the Rockets needing to protect Wilks if they want him on the roster next year, even as a 3rd string PG. They have to use 14 picks, and they certainly don't want to pick up a bunch of expensive vets; by choosing RFAs, they use those picks without actually having to spend any money if they let the players walk. If there were 14 RFAs out there, they could pick them all up, renounce them all, and basically have a 100% clean cap. Charlotte has said they don't really want to take over priced vets, so IMO, teams like Miami who put up overpriced vets and an RFA are very much at risk of losing that RFA- not that losing Loren Woods is the end of the world. If Charlotte picks a restricted free agent, he would count against the cap just like an unrenounced unrestricted free agent until renounced or signed. Here's the flaw in your thinking, though- what RFA that's going to be left exposed would yield anything in a S/T? The best of the list seems to be Fizer and Dooling- teams would just use a part of the MLE for those types. Plus, a sign and trade would more than likely require Charlotte to take back (unwanted?) salary. xiki- They can always sign and trade their own free agents. They usually won't have full bird rights on these restricted free agents, but they'll likely be under the cap so that it wouldn't matter. There are a number of backup PG options on this list, like Dickau, Atkins, Ollie, Bell, Strickland, and Delk. The trade exception presents an interesting opportunity for Charlotte to essentially draft one of these guys for Houston, without paying the guy a dime. Would you trade a future 2nd rounder for any of those guys?
Not if I have to pay their contracts. I like Atkins, Ollie, and even Delk -- but not for much dinero. Dickau? I really haven't seen him on an NBA court.
Question about the TE and Expansion draft. If pike gets picked in the expansion draft, he most likely will, then we would get a trade exception of his value. Could that be combined with our already existing TE in one trade?
With all this talk about what is allowed and not allowed in this expansion draft, I was wondering about this: I saw that Derek Fisher showed up on Chad Ford's estimated Exp Draft List. If Charlotte selected him, could we then work a trade with Charlotte for him? If we still have Steve, then Fisher wouldn't make a whole lot of sense other than for a backup PG, but if we landed TMac, then Fisher could start for us and be a solid contributor. Even if Charlotte didn't select him, we could still sign him to an offer sheet and hope that LA wouldn't match. He is just a RFA, right? Fisher seems like a JVG type player, especially his great skills on D.
Fisher being there surprised me, frankly. I always had understood him to be tight with Shaq. Sure we could get him. But is he worth the coin? Same article referenced Wiz and Stack and the #5. If TMac were out of consideration, would Stack and the #5 (and Laettner) be worth the TE and Spoon. Gives lots of relief to Wiz, helps our cap after next season, gets a young guy to develop + Stack can still ball in the right system.
NIKE - I could find no website giving the Rox a team option on Wilks for 2004-05 so they must be planning to invoke/use a NQVFA status for Wilks. As I see it, Wilks doesn't qualify for Bird or Early Bird but after being in the league 2 years and 1 with HOU, Wilks does qualify for the Non-Bird Exception (Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agent or NQVFA). Apparently, the Rockets think Wilks is worth and can be had for a contract slightly exceeding $676k (120% of previous contract). Best case for all concerned is a 1 year deal and then Wilks will have E-Bird next summer while the Rox have another season to evaluate him. In retrospect, I can easily see CHA taking him and the logic behind the Rox keeping him. Van Gundy takes a lot of heat for bringing in ex-Knicks but IMHO keeping Wilks is an example of wanting to keep someone (inexpensive) who knows your system. And that's a factor with all of the ex-Knicks.
