http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/nba/article/0,2777,DRMN_23922_4796130,00.html Nuggets guard Buckner is headed for free agency June 23, 2006 Greg Buckner will be bound for free agency Monday. Steve Kauffman, Buckner's agent, reiterated Thursday that Sunday's deadline will pass without the Nuggets guard picking up his $1.8 million player option for next season. Kauffman said in April that Buckner wouldn't invoke his option. While Kauffman said no action is needed for Buckner to become a free agent, Kauffman plans to write the Nuggets a letter as a courtesy. Buckner can begin negotiations with any team July 1. "He's said before that he'd like to return (to Denver)," Kauffman said. "We'll find out July 1." Buckner, who averaged 6.7 points during his second season with the Nuggets, signed a two-year, $3.47 million deal last off-season. Because Buckner has Early Bird rights, the Nuggets will be able to exceed the salary cap to re-sign him up to about $5 million for next season. Other than Buckner, the Nuggets' unrestricted free agents will be forward Reggie Evans, guard DerMarr Johnson and guard Howard Eisley. Restricted free agents will be forwards Nene and Francisco Elson.
I've been thinking about taking Buckner for the small trade exception (not sure if it would have worked since there's a 200k difference) but as CD said it's really hard to pull something off with a TE. So, I'm actually pretty happy to see him opt out and hit the market. If we don't get Mike James and we decide to split the MLE, I'd love for him to be one of the players we pick up. He's athletic, shoots the 3 well, and is a very good defender at both the SG and PG spots. He would provide some nice depth for cheap.
Buckner would be decent off the bench, good defender, and okay 3 point shooter, good a/t ratio. I'd take him for the smaller $1.6 TE, but why would Denver do this?
He's passing on his player option and entering free agency. We would have to pick him up with part of the MLE. In my opinion, this would only be if Mike James (or another full-MLE type guy) weren't attainable. If that's the case, I'd probably split it up between two of the three out of Bucker, Rasual Butler, and Jay Williams. I have no idea what the market is for Rasual or Jayson, but maaaaaybe we could swing all 3. Buckner obviously wants more than 1.8, unless he's doing this solely to change scenery. The MLE is supposedly going to be like 5.5, right? So maybe 2.0 for Buckner, 2.0 for Butler, and 1.5 for Williams? That'd be pretty sweet.
No reason to split MLE while we have our $4.2M TE available for S&T. And instead of Rasual Butler, I'd go for Jumaine Jones.
I'm going off what CD said a couple of days ago about TE's being a lot more useful at the trading deadline. He sounded as if using them in the offseason would be a longshot.
Hmm... interesting. You'd figure team(s) would rather end up with TE rather than seeing their player(s) leave for nothing. But I agree with what you said, that we should split our MLE only if James proved to be unattainable.
I've had the same thought. For a second just pretend we had a trade exception that was whatever Buckner wants (let's say 2.5 mil). What do the Nuggets get if they let him walk? Nothing, except they open up a roster spot. Now, what do they get if they sign him and then trade him to us for our TE? Well, they get a 2.5 TE and clear that same roster spot. Maybe there's a reason and we're just not seeing it, but again, I don't understand the thinking either.
I bet williams could be had for the minimum. He's probably looking for a guaranteed contract over anything else. I mean it's not as if he's that much in demand. He had a couple of workouts a few weeks ago, but I haven't heard anything since. Depending on need, if we miss out on James, but still need a PG to round out our rotation, I'd go for Speedy Claxton next. Otherwise if we don't draft a SG, then a dual Buckner/Rasual Butler signing wouldn't be a bad combo. They'd be an offense/defense pairing that could give us some good flexibility.
Agreed on Claxton. As far as Williams goes, I know it's not much of a sign, but it seems that a lot of other NBA fans would really like to see them on their own team after seeing that he was coming back and not looking too bad in doing it. If that means GM's are interested, who knows. I would expect there's competition for him at the minimum though, so I don't see him getting signed for that. What is the minimum these days anyway? 700k or so? By the way, do you have any idea as to why a team like Denver wouldn't want a TE for Buckner in a S&T? Seems like they should want to do it, no? (btw, I'm not talking about us getting him...he'll ask too much for our 1.6 and too little for our 4.2).
i think it's a sure thing that MJ wants to come back here for the MLE, and JVG says he would be ok with having MJ back, so i'm bettign that happens until i hear otherwise.
