A lot of ppl stress the need for dumping contracts however that always involves some incentive for the other team (a good player as well) so does anyone belive (as i do) that the rocks are not going to make any drastic trades merley to dump contracts but instead hope Charlotte might grab one of their big guys if they put them up on the block. They wouldnt get anything in return but it would give them some cap relief to go after a free agent. Guess it all depends on the draft strategy by the Bob Cats
With all the talent that is going to be for the taking in the expansion draft, I seriously doubt Charlotte takes anyone as worthless as the players we have. If they take the horrible contracts it will be for players like Eddie Jones or Allan Houston. Players that have real value but are just overpriced.
There is no way the Knicks do not protect their Star PLayer, i assume you are aware that teams are alowed to protect a certain amount of their own players from being drafted so the talent is going to be limited but i think cato and taylor if we choose to leave them open (or moochie for that matter) would recieve some serious consideration from a team starting from scratch who's players are going to be pretty bad.
Most of the star players, even with their fat contracts, will be protected because the teams are afraid of getting nothing in return. Besides, most of them can still contribute significantly. I wouldn't be surprised if we lose MoT to the expansion draft. I'm hoping for Mooch to go too.
Its possible Charlotte might take Cato if he was available, but it would depend on who other teams left available. There is no way that the Bobcats (ugh!) take Moochie and probably not MoT either. I think alot of teams will be looking to dump salaries on Charlotte. Charlotte might be able to field a pretty good team if they don't mind taking a bunch of huge contracts for their first couple years in the league.
Charlotte's salary cap is only 75% of the league's cap for their first couple of seasons. I don't believe they can go over it in the expansion draft. They won't be adding many high salaries. They'll likely look for cheap talent...good young players who haven't had the chance to shine due to better players ahead of them. Good scouting will get them started on the right foot.
I think you'll see more talent then you expect left unprotected. If a team like New York decides they aren't going to get any farther with the nucleus they've got, I wouldn't be surpised at all to see them leave Houston unprotected. It would free up a huge amount of cap space giving them the flexibility to sign anyone off the free agent market they want.
I think that we would protect Cato. Like it or not, Cato is the best backup center in the league and could start for many teams. I would not mind losing MoT or definately Mooch in the expansion draft, but come on who would seriously take Mooch.
I'm almost positive that each team CAN protect 8 players. Also, once the expansion team has selected one player from a given team, no other players from that team may be selected after that. Therefore, there is no way that the Rockets will be able to dump Taylor AND Moochie in the expansion draft. That being said, there really is NO WAY Charlotte takes Mooch. However, I could possibly see them taking Mo. If Eddie has a good year, Mo might not be protected. Taylor could have one of the best low-post games of the players available in that draft (see Taylor's jumphook). That being said, I think the Rockets' 8 protected players will most likely be: 1) Yao Ming 2) Steve Francis 3) Cuttino Mobley 4) Eddie Griffin 5) James Posey (if we re-sign him) 6) Kelvin Cato (unless he regresses) 7) ??? 8) ??? =============== Unprotected: Maurice Taylor - not based on talent, just on the contract Moochie Norris - based on both Bostjan Nachbar - if he doesn't show JVG something this season
Do we have to protect 8? I would like to see them protect just the 6 you mentioned and leave the rest available. That is unless Nachbar show some signs of life.
maybe you're saying something else but losing houston would not allow them to sign anyone they want. it will lower there payroll, not give them capspace. losing houston's contract (from their current payroll) would simply take them from insanely far over the cap to really far over the cap. they would have to lose another chunk just to reach the cap, and then another huge chunk to be FA players and sign anyone they want. i think they've got 80+ million in salaries already and only ward and thomas are off the books after this year as far as i know. so losing houston, thomas, and ward will just take them down to the level of other over the cap teams. and why would we leave nachbar unprotected if we only have 6 guys we really want to protect (i.e. assuming we don't pick up new people)? he doesn't make enough to do that whether we think he's got potential or not. it's not like he's hamstringing us in terms of signing others. take the shot he develops while we're paying him relatively little. and mfclark, any reason on why the bobcats only get 75% of the cap to spend? or why tor/vanc could i think only have the 4th pick at best in their first drafts? why intentionally hurt a team who is already gonna suck? or are they esentially protecting them from themselves by not allowing them to take on too many bad contracts early on?
