Cap room doesn't get you squat !!

I agree. Cap room is a big crapshoot. Witness Orlando and Detroit. Didn't Detroit get Ben Wallace for Grant Hill?

But what's this about big tall players? When we get the #1 pick, we'll draft Jason Williams. Then Cat can move to the 3, and Wink and Jason can thumbwrestle to see who gets to call themselves the PG. Then we bring Moochie off the bench, and voila! The four guard lineup.

All that's left is to put KT at the 5, and we have a lineup with nobody over 6' 7". It don't get any better then that.

 

I wonder if Keon Clark would play for our 5 mil exception

everyone is going to be after him, but how much more than 5 million is he worth?

 

As we sadly found out last year, cap space means $hit. Usually, the reason why you have cap space is because you only have 3-5 guys under contract, and then you have to worry about just fielding 12 guys.

 

If used properly, its very good. Its true that Hill helped out Det and agreed to sign and trade for ben wallace and atkins, but toronto didn't get anything for McGrady. The thing about capspace is if you don't have a lot of contacts or minimum ones and you're star is about to become free, you can sign another star, then sign your own player pretty much like orlando did. In 2003 when duncan is a free agent, the magic will only have hill,mcgrady,and hunter under contract. the only way the magic have to sign and trade for duncan is if duncan want the full max money. If duncan is willing to take 92mil instead of 107mil then orlando could sign him straight up and sa is screwed. Its similar to what Webber went through this yr. We could have offered Webber about 7yrs 90mil, then turnedaround and resigned hakeem for about 5mil per yr, but if he was set on getting the max money, then the 107 mill he signed would have to be done sign and trade. Some players want it all, and some don't. Payton could have went to Miami after they signed zo, but he said whats the difference between 80 and 90mill, its a lot of money and you can't spend it all anyway.

 

Well... Orl would have trouble filling in the other roster spots. Since they will be under the cap, they will not have any exceptions.

We couldn't sign Webber, unless we RENOUNCED Hakeem. Olajuwon still counted against our cap, until we either S&T, renounced, or if he signed as a FA.

We would have taken a big risk if we renounced Mo, Shandon, and Hakeem to go after Webber.

It is hard to fill out a roster after you sign a MAX contract guy.

 

Kidrock- we did renounce Taylor and Anderson

 

You sure?

I will admit that I forgot that the renouncing rules have changed. I was thinking of the old 55 day after the season rule, which meant you couldn't re-sign guys you renounced.

 

Agree 100%! I can't think of any really good teams with cap room. Sign and trade is the most dependable way to get quality FA. You have to exchange quality for quality, and have a stable of talent to make yourself attractive to said FA.

 

Personally, I think an abundance of cap space is overrated. Here is what I see impacting this from a business perspective:

1) When (what summer) does a team attain it's cap room?

2) During the summer when cap space is attained, who are the players with expiring contracts that will be available to you and do you have a need for that players skills?

3) Can you actually sign the players in the FA market?

4) Is your team competitive already or does it have a history of being competitive?

5) Is your group of currently contracted players appealing to the players in the FA market?

6) Does your team have a history of taking care of it's signed (and productive) FA's? For example, the Rockets taking care of Shandon Anderson and giving MoT "strokes" by not persuing Webber. As fans, we may not like the results but I'll bet it speaks volumes to potential FA's.


Having cap space is no instant ticket to the playoffs. Cap room is part of a larger picture which includes drafting for quality (and need), internal player development, and good coaching.

Want a good example? How about the Pistons? They have managed to build a quality team without signing a major FA.

 

Hill did not help out Detroit by doing a sign and trade. Ben Wallace and Chucky Atkins were FA's at the same time and Detroit was going to sign them with the cap room they had from Hill leaving. Hill pushed for the sign and trade so that he could get more money over the course of his deal and Detroit didn't mind doing it because they could get Chucky and Ben for lower starting salaries. I suppose you could say it was mutually beneficial, but Wallace and Atkins would be in Detroit regardless.

If you really want to know how cap room can help you without signing a star player, Detroit is the place to look though. They were able to turn John Wallace and Jud Buechler into Cliff Robinson because they had cap room (two total scrubs out of their rotation for a starter). They were also able to turn Mateen Cleaves (currently Sacramento's 12th man) into Jon Barry and a first rounder because Sacramento wanted to cut some cap.
Detroit won their division in large part because of these two cap moves.

You can use cap space on several smaller upgrades and turn out almost as well as one big one.

 

Now that's that's what I'm talkin' about! Then the coach talks the star player into taking fewer shots and sharing the ball and as a result it's easier to commit to team D.

Cap space may get you players, but by itself it doesn't win you a championship.

 

"...get some BIG, TALL players in here!!!". Amen!

 

i agree.

 

I won't challenge the point about the risk in trying to outright sign free agents.

But what about using cap space to trade for players from teams trying to dump salary? Sure, often this means taking on crappy players. But if you have enough caproom, you can get some value in the deal. Think about all the major trades last year. A good number of them were completely lopsided except for the fact that teams were trying to get cap space.

 

regardless of what cap space gets you, that's not a reason to sign mediocre players like Cato, Moochie and Taylor to fat contracts. If you are Denver, which is as close to a dump for NBA players as it is possible, cap-space will get you crap. Denver will be wise to trade Juwan's contract next year for some (any) players, cause that's the only way they'll get players to play for them (other than the draft). Same for Utah.

On the other hand, Houston always was able to get the FA's that they wanted: Mark Bryant, Scottie Pippen, Marc Jackson. Players love playing in Houston, so if the Rockest had some cap space next year they could have made a run at some of the studs that will be available.

 

Are you sure players didn't like being the beneficiary of playing with Olajuwon? Open shots, no worries on defense.

Anyhow, nowadays, cap room is only good if you have 9 mill+ of it. The MCE is getting to be 5 mill+, so for less than max caliber players, what's the big deal between 5 mill a year on a good team, vs. 6.5 mill on a struggling team? Not much.

There will be very good players signed with that MCE...

 

That's what I want to see!

 

trade juwan for the same reason we got him? lol.