I checked the roster and we have 15 players. Vassilis Spanoulis is not signed yet and Padgett and MJack are FA's. By my count that is 12 guaranteed contracts. If we cut any of those players we still have to pay them and they are still Cap money, right? Minimum, we need a b/u C and preferably a PG. Don't we have to trade some of our signed players for those two positions? We can't just go out and sign more FA's, can we? And, these numbers do not include Malick Badiane. Please help clear this up for me.
<i> Mark Jackson '04 Scott Padgett '04 Mike Wilks '04 Adrian Griffin '05 Tyronn Lue '05 Tracy McGrady '05 Jim Jackson '06 Bostjan Nachbar '06 Eric Piatkowski '06 Clarence Weatherspoon '06 Yao Ming '06 Reece Gaines '07 Maurice Taylor '07 Juwan Howard '08 </i> You counted both Wilks and Spanoulis? Spanoulis will likely be overseas the upcoming season and seriously vie for a roster spot Fall 2005 after Lue is off of the books. If Les wants to carry extra payroll, they could sign somebody without cutting a player. Malick 's situation depends on what happens on the trade front and how much he shows the staff in the next few months. More likely to be overseas than on the roster in 2004 - 2005.
Wilks is also a FA. So that is 11 guaranteed contracts. And we can place up to 3 guys on the "Injured Reserve". So we have essentially 15 roster spots that we can fill. Not all teams will use up the maximum 15 spots(the Clippers come to mind), but the space is there if we want to use it. If it went above that number, then we would have to cut somebody to make room. Most likely Griffin would be the first to go since he's only on the minimum and he hasn't contributed much since he's been here.
Thank you very much. I missed Wilks. You are right about the 'IR' portion of the bench. I knew someone would answer.
