Well like my post above states, I think they would try getting out of a bad contract (Derek Anderson) or getting rid of someone who is not wanted (Miles or maybe even Damon S.) Plus if they are still in a bad salary cap position in summer of '06 then the only way for them to improve their team is through the draft or through sign and trades. So getting an additional draft pick and losing a bad contract could be very enticing for them.
As I said before, the Blazers have ~$52m committed for 06-07. Subtracting Anderson leaves them $42.5 and you have to add back this years 1st round pick plus whatever they sign to fill out their roster. I don't know any other way to say it. The Blazers have have big $ tied up in 3 players. Ratliff, Randolph & Patterson (2006-07 POpt) account for $30m in 06-07. Then there is Telfair, Pryz, Khryapa & this years 1st rounder and whomever else they need to fill out a roster next season. It doesn't matter how much of their scraps we take, they have more committted $ than they can get out of to be FA players.
S&Ting a player for expiring contracts literally makes no sense. If you want the flexibility, you just let the player walk. Expiring contracts are attractive to over the cap teams that want to unload bad contracts. Period. 1. Start by looking at the top 5 payrolls in the league. New York, Dallas, Portland, Philly, and Minn. 2. Focus first on teams outside your conference, and then outside your division. Dallas is an unlikely partner for multiple reasons, the biggest being an unwillingness to help a division rival. 3. Find the good player, fitting a team need (in our case, defensive bigs), being overpaid for the next few years. Kurt Thomas, Jerome Williams, Theo Ratliff, Ruben Patterson, and Marc Jackson. Wally Z is the closest match on the Wolves, but a volume shooter, even a sharp shooter, may not be a positive addition. 4. Try and see if the combination of our expiring contracts, picks, and movable players will fit the needs of the other team. CD has done an outstanding job this past year in the moves he's made. Getting McGrady, dropping Mo T, getting Barry for Lue, Wesley for JJ & Boki, James for Gaines, and Mutombo for Pike have all been 4 star trades for us. That's one heck of a year for a GM. Evan
Thanks for the TE breakdown. Actually we have more of the TE left than I really though. 3.5 isnt too bad. But when does it Expire? Probably June 30th so the chances of us using that are slim.
GATER, motivation for the Blazers to make a move might be not so much for them to be FA players, but to just get rid of their malcontent players. They are just dying up there. Just a dark cloud on that team. They might just want to start fresh. I could see them doing S&T with Stoudamire, NVE, SAR and then try to peddle off guys like Miles, Patterson and Anderson. NIKE, I like the idea of adding Marshall and Peterson, but I would certainly hate to take on one of the Raptors albatross contracts to do it. Alston looks like a chemistry killer and Williams is just dead weight. Eric Williams would be easy to take on however. In "theory" I could see us doing a deal with Memphis. Memphis is looking to cut payroll and they have a lot of quality players. But the problem is I dont see Memphis HELPING us since they are in our division so that kinda kills any deals we could have with them. West isnt going to make any really bad moves or get snookered in any deals. If West leaves the Grizz and leaves all that talent on the roster I bet the next GM gets taken for a ride by other league GMs.
If they pull off anything, it would be along the lines of the Kenyon Martin S&T last year. If you attempt to couple a S&T with a bad contract, you're asking a team to take back a large amount of money (SAR S&T plus DA would likely be no less than $15 mill). When you do that the chances of making it work plummet. It's how Toronto shot itself in the foot; Rose plus Carter was unacceptable to the entire league, and they were forced to make a desparate bad deal at the deadline. Another thing to ask yourself: What normally happens in this situation? What has NBA History taught me? Is there one single example I can point to? Evan
Yes. I've pointed to a Portland sign and trade as a deal similar to the Bulls-Knicks trade last year. The Bulls traded Jamal Crawford in a sign and trade for nothing but expiring contracts (Mutombo, Trybanski, Harrington, and Williams) by forcing Jerome Williams' bad contract on the Knicks. You saw The Bucks traded KVH's bad contract with one year left after this year basically for Calvin Booth's deal with 2 years left at lower values. Even if it doesn't provide immediate relief, offering significant relief for years into the future is attractive.
I think the Blazers has bunch expiring contract this and next season, I think they will have plenty cap spaces: Portland Trailblazers Date # of total Player signed years salary misc FA Shareef Abdur-Rahim ... 8/6/96,1/27/99 3+6 $6,284,500+$70.8 mill '05 Richie Frahm .......... 7/14/04 1 minimum '05 Ha Seung-Jin .......... 12/27/04 1 minimum '05 Damon Stoudamire ...... 1/21/99 7 $81 million '05 Ruben Patterson ....... 7/30/01 6 $34,035,000 p-opt '06 Joel Przybilla ........ 8/25/04 2 $3 million '06 Nick Van Exel ......... 8/3/99 7 $77 million '06 http://www.dfw.net/~patricia/contracts
Not with Zach, Ratliff, Anderson, Miles and Patterson's contracts through 07 or longer. Also, I think they will want to keep Stoudamire. Portland would not trade expiring contracts for cap space. But they are in rebuilding mode, so yes I would think a mid 20s pick and the NY 2nd is well worth 1 year at 6 mil rental of Spoon (e.g., to facilliate S&T for SAR). Take on 6 mil 1 year for two middle draft picks seems better than losing SAR for nothing. Also, even though they are rich, if they can get out of long term big contracts (DA, Ratliff, RP, maybe Miles) even they might find that appealing even if cap space is not the issue (lux tax is). Portland Trailblazers Date # of total Player signed years salary misc FA Shareef Abdur-Rahim ... 8/6/96,1/27/99 3+6 $6,284,500+$70.8 mill '05 Richie Frahm .......... 7/14/04 1 minimum '05 Ha Seung-Jin .......... 12/27/04 1 minimum '05 Damon Stoudamire ...... 1/21/99 7 $81 million '05 Ruben Patterson ....... 7/30/01 6 $34,035,000 p-opt '06 Joel Przybilla ........ 8/25/04 2 $3 million '06 Nick Van Exel ......... 8/3/99 7 $77 million '06 Derek Anderson ........ 7/25/01 6 $48,712,500 '07 Travis Outlaw ......... 7/15/03 4 $4,871,226 rc t-opt '07 Viktor Khryapa ........ 7/16/04 4 $5,216,358 rc t-opt '08 Theo Ratliff .......... 1/21/99,9/28/04 7+3 $57 mill + $36 mill '08 Sebastian Telfair ..... 7/12/04 4 $7,591,146 rc t-opt '08 Darius Miles .......... 8/31/04 6 $48 million '10 Zach Randolph ......... 8/21/01,11/1/04 4+6 $5,092,286 + $84mill '11
Detroit is kind of in the same situation the Suns are in. Once they reup Prince and Wallace, their starting 5 is going to take up all of their cap space. Which means they probably can't afford the luxury of paying Mcdyess 6 mil a year to come off the bench or 4 mil a year to Arroyo, who is looking more and more like a bust. So I could definitely see them trying unload salary.
I could see Memphis needing some expiring contracts. They have quite a big payroll right now and don't have a clear superstar. I don't think they plan on resigning Stro but if they did, they would definitely have to drop some players like JWill, Posey, Gasol, Miller, or some else w/ a sizable contract. David Wesley + 2 2nd round picks for James Posey
I'm waiting for the Clippers put Elton Brand on sale. you never know, Donald Sterling might be regreting for the $$$ he threw on Brand. he might want trade Brand for expiring contracts + a bunch of draft picks and tell himself that Wilcox is good enough to sell tickets.
Well, people have attacked the S&T ideas, but noone has shot down the Lakers deal. I also like the Kurt Thomas suggestion. 1. Kurt would be a great F/C - he could backup Yao (when we lose Mutum) and could share time at PF with Juwan. His contract matches up with Spoon (or a combo of others) - but, the players we have to offer came from NY, so I think we would have to add a 3rd team to make a deal work. NY also has 2 huge expiring contracts in TThomas(13) and Penny(15) 2. Lakers: Grant they would love to lose but he is around but his contract epires anway. Butler is cheap, so not available for what we have to offer. Odom probably could be had also because he has a long large contract. Mihm might be traded also. A three way deal could be worked out: Penny to us, Grant to NY, Spoon/Vin/Mooch to LA.: Hou and LA gives NY a 2nd rd pick. The deal gives us another experienced scoring option off the bench, LA gets smaller easier to move contracts and more pieces while losing the worst player in the deal, and NY gets a couple of picks for a player they won't use anyway. OR This deal could be spiced up - KThomas and JWilliams to Hou, Spoon/Vin/Mooch (and #1 picks from Hou and NY) to LA, Odom (and probably Mihm) to NY : this gives LA mucho salcap room and picks, Houston and NY get players that should work in their respective systems and conferences. Odom would prosper in NY (Mihm would be solid there also). Kurt and JWilliams would work well in Hou and seem like "Gundy" guys. LA gets a lot of chips (draft picks and expiring contracts) to help speed the rebuild.
Kurt T himself has 4 years left at 30 mil and 32 years of age--he will be getting 8-9 mil a year around 35 years of age. He is a solid player to consider for many of the reasons discussed, but his value is not that great considering production, contract cost, and age. I would not offer more than 1 expiring contract (Spoon works for salary reasons) and 1 pick (return NY's 2nd or own future 1st) for him given his contract. To take his (marginlly bad) contract and another very bad contract (JW) I'd want NY's #1 unless they also take a bad contract (MN+CW).
