Atlanta enters the Mike James sweepstakes (UPDATE: Hawks sign Claxton)

What do you think trade exceptions are for?

Worst case give them Bowen and buy him out for them

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2508532

Speedy just agreed to Atlanta.

Looks like the race is down to Dallas and Houston.

I think we wont hear anything until the Rudy-Battier trade is announced on July 12th.

 

With Tha ATL out of it we are nearly a lock to get mj!

 

Hopefully.

 

I just hope he decides soon. That way we can either have some clarity to the roster for next year or move quickly to our next target before they sign elsewhere.

 

I think the Rockets are trying to get him via SNT and hopefully as a third party in the Gay-Battier deal so we dont have to spend our MLE or trade away more pieces.

That said, I dont think he will declare with the Rockets, rather back with the Raptors for a SNT and that wont happen until at least July 12th.

 

mj said money is gonna be the factor.....as long as we dont screw it up i think he will sign with us

 

The rockets will be one of the last teams again to try and sign their free agent target. I don't have a good feeling about signing James. Bottom line is if I were in his shoes and already had a ring, I would go after the money. This will be his last big contract. The agent for Mike James was probably jumping up and down with total joy after hearing about Speedy Claxton committing to Atlanta. Let's see how long Mike James's agent drags his feet on this one.

 

hypothetically, how much does toronto have to take back for a s&t? if they wanted to could they take back a couple of 2nd round picks in exchange for mike james?

 

Just FYI, Speedy Claxton and Mike James share the same agent, Bill Duffy, who is also agent for Steve Nash. Mark Cuban and Duffy do not like each other very well from Steve Nash's signing with Suns a few years back. And Bill Duffy's biggest name client in NBA? None other than YAO MING!

 

Thank you. That's info I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. I wouldn't have thought about the politics involved here.

 

No one is offering Mj big money! The Hornets Hawks Bulls and Bobcats now none of them need a pg and they are the only teams that have money more than the roxs! At this point it looks pretty good!

 

With ATL out of the game, it is much simpler. If we can work out a trade to use the TE to get James, it is best. Since the TE is lower the MLE, we may have to do one of the two things to get James approve the deal: 1) make it a 4 or 5 year contract or 2) get a trade partner under the cap who can offer James slightly more than our TE.

If such a deal can not be reached and we have to use the MLE on James (I am afraid it is turns out this way), then stop fooling around and offer him a 4 year contract with team option on the last year.

 

Dallas has resigned Terry. I don't know if this will have any effect on how badly they pursue James but I would think that with Terry signed James becomes a much less necessary assest for Dallas.

 

Yes wonderfull news! Hawks take Claxton which means more likley than not Rox will take James!

 

I will be absolutely sick to my stomach if James signs with the Mavericks.......

 

Well, Im figuring they would have to take on Stromile Swift (given that Swift wont throw a Memphis-type fit: its possible since he will again be playing behind a young PF coming into his own). I dont know what more we can give them besides offering to take on a contract of theirs. Maybe we can take on the rest of their obligation for Alonzo Mourning in exchange for our TE. We can try and take Morris Peterson but I dont think Colangelo is trying to get rid of him.

Toronto In: Stromile Swift, TE
Toronto Out: Mike James, Alonzo's contract

 

its going to be interesting if we get to sign james or not, I think after all he's said about wanting to come home to houston and play for the rockets, you'd think we are the favourites, but anything could happen.

what i want to happen is and many of you others want the same thing, is try and trade for james with the TE, I think its imperative we still have the MLE to sign other players to help with our depth, as we need depth in a bad way

 

is it allowed to trade contracts of players who are not with the team anymore ??? because we still have the charlie ward contract to trade if we can ... it's only 1.5M$ but it's in its last year

 

To clear up the confusion:

1. James can ONLY be signed and traded by Toronto (you can't sign and trade someone else's free agents)
2. Another team offering James more than our TE doesn't do us any good, because we'd still have to somehow get him on our team. Minus the TE, we would need to dump player salaries on another team, and I don't see a whole lot on our roster that other people would want.