If we cannot move up in the Draft, can we still draft all three positions and trade them down the road (before we sign them) so their salaries do not count against the cap. This way we do not have to rush to judgement on what will happen in free agency. I am just thinking if we find out Gasol stays in the draft by the deadline (tomorrow), and new scouting reports show that Steven Hunter and Radmanovic have possible played their way into the top #13, then there will be a lot of talent Deep in this draft. ESPN insider even thinks that Joe Johnson will be available at #13. I know we need the cap room to go after Webber, Marc Jackson, & resign key players etc..... But we have a lot of holes to fill and I do not think Webber is going to make a decision before draft day (like he promised Sac.). ------------------
Yes we can use all 3 picks and just sit with our players till our FA objectives become more clear. That is essentially what we did in that infamous Turkcan summer. When we found out we were going to sign Quitten, we shipped off Mirsad for a future pick and cleared some cap room. ------------------ Check out the Best Source for Draft Info Draftsource.net
That Turkcan fellow sure fooled lots of people-- even Larry Brown! ------------------ "How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak. Because someday you will have been all of these."
Also, bare in mind that drafted players count zero in trade value until under contract, yet they do count towards the cap. So it makes moving them somewhat difficult if your goal is to erase their cap hit. You would likely have to find a team with cap room willing to absorb their salaries in a 3-way or a "future considerations" deal. For instance, the Francis trade produced a big chunk of our trade exception in 1999-00, as well as the Bender/Davis trade created one for Toronto, illustrating that there was cap space used by receiving teams to facilitate those moves. Plus, you may not trade a 1st round pick for a 2nd round pick for the purpose of lowering your cap hit. Houston has been prevented from using this "loop hole" once already. Although, trading 2 1st rounders for a package of a higher 1st and a 2nd probably would be allowed. My guess is that would have to happen before the picks become players caring a cap space hit (which I assume happens the second you use the draft pick on draft day). Not to say you can't later trade these players, but it would have pesky salary matching issues that trading draft picks before draft day does not have. Further, until we get the rookies under contract, we can still renounce them down to zero cap hit. This is what the Bulls did with Travis Knight. To summarize, imo, the likely way for us to lower our cap hit attributed to rookie scale unsigned picks is a trade whereby someone absorbs their cap hit (ala Francis/Bender), we straight out renounce their salary (ala Knight), or we package two 1st rounders for a 1st and 2nd before we use the picks. The only other scenario out there is we draft a player who is either under contract in Europe or signs a contract in Europe, thus removing his rookie scale from our books while we retain his rights. [This message has been edited by heypartner (edited June 20, 2001).]
More than anything else we need interior toughness, defense and rebounding. However we trade or realign our picks, we must shore up this area in order to get to the playoffs.
Geez pahds, where do you learn this stuff/ ------------------ Losers always whine about playing their best, winners go home and **** the prom queen" -Sean Connery, "The Rock"
