via Yahoo Sports twitter: Antonio Daniels and future 2nd round pick to minnesota for Darius Songalia and Bobby Brown whats with all the PGs in minnesota??? Hornets save 1.3 million in the deal according to Y! Sports
Songaila had another year to go on his contract. Daniels is expiring. Atkins's contract is only guaranteed for $760k. He's likely to be waived.
Good deal for Minesota Too hot to handle Too cold to hold! Spoiler <object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/5Vt0PMzGh0M&hl=en&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/5Vt0PMzGh0M&hl=en&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
Bobby Brown is a PG, so Minnesota is not actually increasing the number of PGs on their roster. Good move by Minnesota. They get a veteran to mentor some of the young guards, plus they open up about $4.5M more in cap room for 2010. David Kahn is actually doing a somewhat decent job overall (the Rubio Situation notwithstanding). There are now NO PLAYERS under contract for 2010-11 who are not in the Wolves' long-range plans.
Far too much credit is given to GM's for simply cutting salary. Free agency is overrated. I'm much more impressed with solid talent-based transactions (for the present or future) and good drafting.
free agency MIGHT be overrated - but not nearly as much as the draft is! Having cap space provides flexibility not only to sign players, but also to make the coveted trade! Creating cap room is essential to try and rebuild - and generally creating cap room gives the option of creating a somewhat competitive team!
exclamation points? Are you upset or excited about this topic? I don't understand how the draft could be overrated - at all. You MUST draft well to be anything in this league. The consistently good teams build through the draft and trades. Even if you don't like the player you drafted they at least have some value as low contract players with potential (obviously, talking about 1st rounders). Most of the really good players stay with their own team in free agency unless someone else overpays them. Basically what you get in free agency is overpaid borderline all stars and MLE contracts that everyone regrets. I'm very happy that Morey hasn't thrown away talent just for cap space and has shown some restraint in free agency. Creating cap room is absolutely NOT essential to try and rebuild. You can definitely rebuild without doing that. The last two NBA champions are great examples - they revamped their rosters mostly via trades and the draft. Nothing helps to make the coveted trade more than having valuable player assets. I completely understand what clearing cap space is about and it can be helpful when payroll is out of hand but it isn't really that hard to do. If your team isn't that good you just take back less talent in trades for lesser players on shorter contracts. I'm just not going to complement Kahn on his garage sale when Kupchak, Ainge, and Buford are busy bartering ipod's for 50" HDTV's.
