[Denver Post] Rockets Still interested in Wells...

f*ckin priceless, he can also bring the ball down the court himself, guard the other team's best player, have to create for everyone on the team, have to set up Yao, and score 30 himself. damn that sounds familiar. oh yeah, that's what he had to do against dallas in the playoffs.

those of you against adding bonzi crack me up. our team desperately needs another competent basketball player that can do something outside of hitting an open jumpshot. oh wait, we have few guys that have proved they can even do that consistently.

 

Bonzi had better wake up and catch the Rocket here. We're set for liftoff.

1. Who is going to stop Yao this year?

2. Who is going to stop Tracy this year?

 

What really happens is that in individual player trades, teams have the choice of acquiring up to 125 percent plus $100,000 right away (a simultaneous trade), or 100 percent plus $100,000 any time in the next year (a non-simultaneous trade). A trade exception is simply the amount they have available to complete a previous, non-simultaneous trade

 

in simple terms, if you trade two players for one player and you didn't take on as much salary as the other team, then you have what's called a trade exception that must be used within a year to trade for someone else or lose it. In our case we would have traded someone to another team and got back 4.1 million less in salary or got another teams trade exception, in which case we have a 4.1 million trade exception to use to trade for someone else. If we used it on Bonzi and gave it to Sacramento, they would have one year to use that exception to trade for someone or lose it. Also, the trade exception doesn't have to be used all at once, you could trade for a 2 million salary at one point and then a 2.1 salary later on.

 

http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_4377869

Wells still shopping

Sacramento Kings free-agent swingman Bonzi Wells could make a decision by early next week about where he will play this season.

Wells met with Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien this month. Houston, Charlotte and Miami also are interested.

 

Oh boy... So much for 48 hours...

 

i think ron artest has something to do with this time extension. guess he needs more time to "kill him" and for a decision on him to stay in sac.


i was really looking forward to some good news too.

 

Yeah, this is getting excrutiating, looks like the only team he hasn't physically met with are the Heat. Something tells me he might be taking a flight down to South Beach from Charlotte this weekend...

 

Wells may not have visited Miami but his new agent made that his first call. It seems they are out to get Miami's full MLE but it also seems Miami would only be willing to give a part of it. They are supposedly having discussions which I think are going something like this.

Bonzi's Agent: Come on man give him the full MLE you know his worth more than that so you'll get a bargain.

Riley: Sorry man we can't afford to go over the Ltax so the best we can start him off with is 3 mil.

Bonzi's Agent: You got to be kidding my client is a superstar... he could make more in Bologna Italy

Riley: Yeah but he won't win an NBA championship in Bologna. Look we definitely want Bonzi. We love Bonzi. He can help us repeat and next year he'll be able to cash in on that success. So he takes a little less for 1 year but next year he hits the jackpot. What do you say come on Bonzi you know noone will love you like Miami. Can we take you for a walk on the beach?

Bonzi's Agent: We'll get back to you.

So unless Riley and company have a change of heart about exceeting the luxtax limit or Bonzi decides a ring is more important than money (highly doubtful) Miami is on the backburner and Charlotte is in command.

Of course one has to ask himself, If the cats really wanted Bonzi surely they would have gone after him long before now. Personally I think the only reason they have interest is because they think he is selling at well below market value and everyone likes a bargain. But if they find out he wants MLE money or more I think they will drop too.

Which means we may still be in the race.

 

Three major problems with your logic. The Rockets were not pushing the LTax. The Kings are. Secondly, Lastly, Kurt

 

miami seems to be a good place for him but would he able to handle coming off the bench? wade and walker are pretty much set at the 2-3 spots with posey backing the 3. how much PT would he get behind wade? riley has shown that he prefers to have wade play more 2 guard than at the point. honestly I dont see bonzi getting more than 15-20 mins a game at miami. Has bonzi ever played point? The only position is really he can fill is the 2/3 spots and miami has a solid 3 rotation and their 2 guard plays like 35+ mins a game. if he signs a one year deal miami in terms of playing time is not a good place for him IMO.

if winning is important to him then i feel houston is the best spot for him to try to get a ring and be a valuable member of the squad.
if its money its certainly charlotte.

 

We can trade Mutombo, Luther Head and Bowen for a resigned Bonzi at a 4 or 5 year deal starting at $5.625 million. This works because we are sending out $4.25 million in salaries, plus the 25% rule allows us to take back Bonzi at a starting salary of 25% more of what we send out. Then in a separate, simultaneous transaction, we take Potapenko back and his $3.67 million salary in exchange for most of our $4.2 million trade exception. As such, Sacramento takes back only $580,000 in net salaries, which should not put them over the luxury tax threshold. Plus, they get a $3.67 TE they can use next summer if they like. Plus, we can throw in a draft pick, if that is what is needed to get the deal done.

The trade exception gives us the leverage to do a sign and trade deal that Miami does not have, if the Kings do not want to go over the luxury tax threshold.

 

Two major problems with your logic.

The Rockets at the time of Mike James were not pushing the LTax. The Kings are right at the threshhold. .

Secondly, (quoting Coon on the LTax) "If a team completes a mid-season trade, then the entire season salaries of any players they acquire are included in their team salary, and the entire season salaries of any players they trade away are removed from their books."

In your well thought out but unlikley James Jones scenario, he costs them more than his $2.7M 06-07 salary because they are at $62.6M. Additionally, SAC would cut into their future flexibility since they already have $54M committed for 07-08 and Jones would bump that to $57M. And a full MLE then takes them to $62M. This would be even more of an impact for any player making more than $2.7M and extending beyond 06.

Maybe I'm being a hard-head, but from a SAC perspective it's about picks and cash. The transferred TE is very minor to them.

 

I'm not against getting bonzi...he'd be great for the exception, but have you forgotten all the gaurds we aquired? This organization if trying to add as many as possible and hoping a couple will work out. Im not saying I agree with this take, but we are definitely taking this route.

As for Tracy, all i meant was he is able of play the 2 gaurd and is definitely starting calibur. If none of the gaurds produce enough to be in the starting line-up, it is not like we do not have anyone who can fill that position.

Also for those of you who are worried about him gaurding two, that what Battier is for. For the quick twos luther can...we seem to forget he was the main defensive option at Illonios. Also McGrady does not have to bring the ball up himself and set up for Yao at all, although he might at times. I think some guy name Rafer is filling that role.

*Also Snyder will penitrate, head will penitrate, and KillBill will definitely penitrate. I don't see that as a problem.

 

JBC - The Kings want to send us Potapenko (expiring next summer) for...

Mutombo - who may not want to go and may retire leaving them with nothing to backup Brad Miller
Head - who will get zip playing time behind the superior Kevin Martin and Francisco Garcia
Bowen - a IL roster spot behind Artest and John Salmons

Unless it's plenty of cash and an unprotected first, I don't see why they'd be interested in even talking about it much less jump on it. It's a steal for the Rockets.

 

come on bonzi! make your decision already. you said 48 hours

 

what's wrong with having a lot of talent/deep bench.. look at dallas..

let them compete.. let the best player come out..

rox rather get bonzi if they're not going to anything else with the TE.. is there any moves to get an front court player?

 

"let the best player come out.."

I fully agree with this statement. Its just that if he costs us a pick it might come back to bite us in the ass at the end. thats why i said "Im not against getting bonzi...he'd be great for the exeption" Remember it'll be more difficult for us to trade with the Kings since we in the same conference. I personally think that it would take more for them to accept our proposition. Im just afraid we get owned again...

 

A late 1st round pick is peanuts, particularly for a player of Bonzi's caliber. Most late 1st rounders never contribute much in the NBA.

This was not really our route or plan this offseason. Our plan was to land Mike James with the full MLE and stoy away VSpan for another year or two. But we have been scrambling ever since the James thing fell through and at that point decided the best option given the remaining free agents was to fill the roster with as many flyers as possible and hope a couple turn out.

I don't think we ever dreamed Bonzi could have been in the picture with full MLE money, let alone less than a full MLE.

The most important part of Wells is his offense (though his extra rebounding is nice too). He would easily be our 3rd best offensive player. He create's individual match-up problems for other teams that players outside of Yao and Tmac on our roster can't. Battier is a good player, maybe overall better than Wells, but he isn't the match-up problem Wells is. Wells as the 2 guard kills opponents ability to play a small backcourt (forget seeing Terry or Harris guard him), heck even SA couldn't handle him.

Head for Hart would give them a better player (with an even greater potential discrpency) at a cheaper price. VSpan for Hart would be another option, VS has a lot more potential.

I agree completely. But if you are Sac, might as well take a future 1st and cash. I might even rather have Wells go to Houston than Denver, thinking Wells helps Denver even more and they are more likely to compete directly with Sac for playoff jockying.

I think this is correct. In some ways Denver and the Rockets have an advantage. Denver can only offer about 3 mil. Houston only a little over 4 with a TE if Sac cooperates and a little over 2 if Sac doesn't. So basically Houston and Denver can honsetly say they are doing everything they can in good faith with these caps.

But if Mia won't offer the full MLE for Bonzi, which the MLE itself is kind of low based on Bonzi's individual production in the league, Bonzi might well get offended. Basically it is a situation where Mia could be seen as exploiting the situation. The fact Bonzi's role with Mia would be unclear (they already have the best 2 guard in the league in Wade, and an excellent role playing 6th man swingman in Posey) and it gets muddier. In short I wouldn't expect Bonzi to settle for anythign less than 1 year full MLE, or even perhaps 2 year full MLE with a player option. If I am Mia I might do this, but there are financial drawbacks and Bonzi would add another ego to a team full of egos that nonetheless showed great chemistry.

Charlotte is somewhat paralell to Mia too. They could pay Bonzi his market. They could pay him 7 or 8 million. But if they are not willing to Bonzi could also feel they are exploiting him.

What I am getting at it is the perception a team is doing all they can to value a player (pay what they can) is just as big a factor as the actual salary. If we work out a deal for him for 4.3 mil via the TE I don't think he will go to Charlotte for 4.5 mil. And if Denver offers 3.1 mil and a starting role and is made to feel really valued but Mia says we will pay you 3.3 to come of the bench in some role we just have't figured out yet--I suspect he goes to Denver.

In sum, that is why it is impossible to know where Bonzi will go. We don't know what Mia is thinking, nor Charlotte, nor us, nor Sac, nor Bonzi. The best offer I feel confident of at this point is Denver's of around 3 mil. Everything else is contigent on too many factors that we have zero insight on.

 

If we had not signed V-span, we would have our full MLE right? Does that mean that we probably could have given all of that to Bonzi and he would've been here already?