JB we can sign for last years 1.8 mil salary (or even .20 raise) as a veteran free agent. It is a one year deal, so it does not effect our cap going into next year, might as well reward the player with 400K, 800K, 1200K over the min (only Les's money in play). Deke is similar except we have his Early Bird Rights (could sign up to a 9 mil per year contract or something, not that we would). I think these contracts have to be 2 year min (unless this changed in the CBA). But 2.5-3 mil per year for what he brings is well worth it. If he will take a 1 year min contract great, but that would be charity our way, and we should be willing to go much higher. Padget I think we also have Early Bird rights. The most any other team would possibly consider for him is a 2 year LLE (about 3.3)--and this is a strech. I'd offer him 2 years at 2.1 mil early in FA--right at the salary of the oldest vets more than any other team could unless they used an exemption or were under the cap, but if he wants more it is a wait and see about alternatives. If we have Swift/JH/Padget(emergency/different look) at the 4 spot, I don't have enough interest in Evans to part with James. If we don't get Swift or the other higher tier 4s, we might have to scramble for Evans. If we are going to raid Seattle, one of their back-up guards from Wilkens or Murrary or Daniels makes more sense. Murrary they probably would not even bother matching an LLE. Wilkens we might have to trade something modest, but I'd really like him. Daniels we would have to give them something too (starting with James or Sura plus a little more), but not his full value because Seattle has to take what they can get before he signs somewhere..
Christe for a one year trial bias would be a good gamble I think.... I guess you have to weigh the bad with the good, and I think the risk is worth the reward.
one good player that would be sweet to get is evans from sac-town. that kid looked real promising. great athlete who can attack the rim and run the break well. he could be had for real cheap too.
on 790, there was an interesting comment made. With signing Swift, coupled with the extention that Yao (most likely) will sign, we will pretty much evaporate the estimated 20 mill dollar cap space we have next summer. Say we can get a guy like Marshall to sign to a one, perhaps two year deal, (however he would pretty much have to get very little or no good offers from other teams for this to happen) he would definately be servicable, and we would be able to make a run for a quality FA next summer. The player that was mentioned on 790 was none other than Ben Wallace. Imagine Big Ben next to Yao; scary.
I was suggesting the Vet Minimum solely due to how it goes against the books. While we'd be paying them their due, it only counts against the books as a 5 (or is it 6) year vet's minimum wage. I'm all for giving those two a "bonus" as they were the difference makers between us making the playoffs & fading in the second half like Orlando did. I'd like a little bit more toughness inside with our "emergency" 4 instead of finesse, hence why I'd like Evans. The move also allows us to have 3 players with experience at the 5, not just the 4. I was thinking about raiding Seattle for their guards, Flip & Daniels in particular, but they're both kinda "short" (listed as 6'3" on nba.com). I feel we have enough short combo guards that we dont need more. A straight swap of AD for James would be good by me, but not signing him outright as a FA. I'd like to do a trade of AD & Evans for James & expiring contracts (to make salaries work).
I've run the scenario multiple times showing why we won't have significant cap space, and don't plan on doing it again, but just to point out the easiest fallacy... If you sign Marshall at the MLE for 2 years, it makes no difference to our cap space next year vs. signing Swift at the MLE for 5 years. Even if you can get Marshall or someone else cheaper, say 3 million (which you won't), that's only going to be a ~2 million dollar difference vs. what we could offer otherwise (which will be MLE, but I digress). Bottom line is, if that 2 million would be the difference, it wouldn't stop you from getting Swift- it'd cause you to trade a guy like Sura with 2 years left for ANY expiring contract (if you can get out of a year of MoT, you can certainly get out of Sura's deal a year early). All of a sudden, you get that 2 million back and then some. Gee, brilliant, why didn't the Rockets think of that? Because they did, and that money doesn't matter.
According to hoopshype, we will have give or take 18-19 million IF the salary cap lands at 50 million like reported, and IF we don't extend Yao and IF we don't add any more future salary between now and then. But extending Yao is a no brainer so that will take up about 11 million of the 20 million chunk. So we would have 7-8 million in cap space. Although that isn't THAT much considering that we would need to renounce all of our FA's to make maybe one decent FA signing. Our depth would be pretty pitiful and would take a couple seasons to replenish. It's better to use some of those expiring contracts to land some big contract talent instead. Last year Baron Davis and Vince Carter was moved. The year before that it was Marbury, Shareef, and Rasheed. If we play our cards right we can either land a caliber of player like that, or at least facilitate a 3 way deal with our expiring contracts and get some players for our efforts.
