Magic after hearing a pitch from the Seattle SuperSonics. Waiting anxiously to see how it would all play out was Darko Milicic, who had not -- repeat, had not -- received a phone call from the Magic (as of 5:30 p.m. ET) on his first day as a restricted free agent. "Is he restricted or unrestricted?" Magic general manager Otis Smith told ESPN.com. "Look, Darko knows that we love him and want him here. What else is there to do?" The situation was fluid, with the Magic having the option to move more than $15 million below the salary cap if they decided to renounce their rights to Milicic by withdrawing their $6.8 million qualifying offer. And although such a move seemed unlikely -- the Magic would lose all rights to the 22-year-old big man -- it was not out of the realm of possibility on a somewhat frantic first day of free agency. There was no immediate word on how the meeting went between Lewis and the Sonics, whose team executives flew to Houston to meet with Lewis and his agent, Tony Dutt. But the very fact that Lewis later boarded a plane to Orlando was a sign that the Sonics had not made the unrestricted free agent an offer he couldn't refuse. "Right now, I think we have the same chance as 13 other teams," Smith said. "But if you have the ability to try to add a player like Rashard Lewis, you do it." Milicic's agent, Marc Cornstein, said he had heard from roughly half the teams in the league since the start of free agency at 12:01 a.m. on Sunday. "What I make of it [the lack of a phone call from Orlando] is nothing other than they're interested in Rashard, which was never a secret," Cornstein said. "But whatever the case, we're going to be talking to them at some point to move forward." Two deals were made quickly Sunday, Jason Kapono agreeing to go from Miami to Toronto for four years and $24 million, and Luke Walton agreeing to stay with the Lakers for $30 million over six years. Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak placed a call to Walton's agent one minute after midnight to express the team's interest in retaining its best unrestricted free agent. "They called at the earliest possible moment, and we worked on it all day," agent Lon Babby said. "They wanted him back, and Luke wanted to be there. We wanted to make every effort to get an agreement before we went out and looked at any other teams." Another of Babby's clients, Grant Hill, had one of his more lucrative options taken away when the Toronto Raptors decided to spend their midlevel exception on Kapono. Babby said Hill's list of possible teams now includes, in no particular order, Detroit, Miami, Phoenix, San Antonio and Orlando. "The financial considerations are fairly low on his list of priorities," Babby said. "He wants the opportunity to play on a championship team, and if he has to make a financial sacrifice, he would do that." I also spoke today with agent Mark Bartelstein, who said the Milwaukee Bucks were among several teams who called during the first three hours of free agency regarding his client, Mo Williams. "There's a whole lot of interest, 12 or 13 teams," Bartelstein said. "Lots of teams are looking for a point guard. People are getting feel for what it will take. The market is a very strange thing, and when the time is right you pull the trigger."
the magic are just waiting i think for another team to make a offer that darko may accept and then decide whether to keep him. for some reason i dont see a lot of teams clamoring over darko anymore. he has played well in orlando, but certainly not well enough for him to warrant being picked over carmello,bosh and wade in that storied 03 draft. the times i have seen darko he doesnt play with the same amount of desire as a dwight howard or even a juwan howard for that matter. i have even seen dwight get on his case for lack of trying. darko's athletic frame and length is a huge assest though. i can seem him being a very productive player if landing in the right spot. the one thing he does do well in his limited minutes is clean up the glass and block shots. i do believe he would fit well in houston alongside yao, but his role would be very limited i am not sure if he would get a lot of scoring opportunities with yao,tracy,mike james,bonzi and battier being there. its really up to darko, i am not sure what sort of player he thinks he should be or can be. he would not be an all-star nor get a chance to put up all-star numbers here in houston, he would get a good chance to win, possibly win big its up to him. as much as i would like it i dont think rashard is coming here and i dont want to lose battier in any sort of large sign and trade for rashard. if the rockets can somehow do a sign and trade for rashard without losing battier (and obviously tmac and yao) i would go for it.
There's always talk about money situations here. Plus, people say that the only way Houston can get Rashard is through a sign and trade - - - that's not true at all. If Houston wants Lewis BADLY then they just sign him. Granted, we'd pay a luxury tax, but would that salary be recoverable? Do you think the Texans would make their money back off Vince Young? Do you think the Astros losta DIME with Clemen's $22 million? Nope - Les is a tightwad, true! But if he wanted Lewis, he could have Lewis! Just a thought!
The only realistic way Lewis is coming here is if he has his heart on going to Houston and tries to force\pressure on the sonics to work out a sign and trade or else he would threaten to sign with a team. This would mean that the sonics would either have to work something out with Houston or lewis leaves without the sonics receiving any compensation. The only problem with this scenario is the lack of teams with cap space, as far as I know, only Orlando and Charlotte and maybe Milwaukee(only if they renounce their free agents) can offer Lewis the money he is looking for. Thus Lewis has less teams to leverage against the sonics.
It's highly improbable that Rashard will sign only for the MLE IMO. If he does do that, I would say keep him and then look for a sign and trade to get a PF. His asking price seems to be too much and isn't worth paying for.
Great observations!!! I agree with you but in the rockets case the Power Forward would have limited Roles, a) Block Shots, b) get all the misssed shots and put them back into the basket before the other team get a rebound, c) play defence on the opposite side to Yao Ming,d) On offence, occasionally draw the opposing Power Forward away fron the Paint by making the occasional outside shot!! Darko would be just great in this position, and he could grow with the team for many years! Coach 'A' is the sort of coach who would make all the effort to improve Darkos Game. I would have no problem in including Battier in the right trade!
Hey Doc Rocket, It's the rules. If there were no rules. Cuban would have every allstar in the league on the Mavs. Rockets over the cap, it has MLE to use. THAT'S THE RULES. Of of the people on the BBS, I thought you would know this little fact. Boy that was a big one you stepped into. But hey, wouldn't that be nice if we have the Yankees of the NBA and just sign every good player available. Someone keeps mentioning that Clemens guy. What does he do again? Pitch for a winning team, NOT!
I think he meant they could just offer Rashard's camp $15M straight off the bat and work out the S&T details later. For e.g Battier+Sura+Snyder=c.$12M which is within the 125% range, ie tradeable for a $15M in return. If Seattle won't match that price they'd be forced to go through with the S&T just to get something back.
I didn't really mean sign him for $20 million and call it a day. Everyone's over the cap every year anyway - Les likes collusion...err...does NOT like contributing to a league wide luxury tax. Anyway, it's not hard to get Rashard if they want him...IF - - they want him, they have 3 options IMHO: 1 - MLE with a backloaded 'deal' 2 - S&T probably easiest. 3 - And NO, I'm no capologist. But from what I hear, they can drop their MLE if they can get to 7+ under the cap for him and that SHOULD do it for year 1. Lewis gets the 7+ backloaded to 2010 in a 4 year deal that opts out into an 'extension' with BIG money in 2010-11 - Done!' The first year is the cap year. In 2010, Yao's the only one left along with Shane. (I don't think anyone really believes Shane is going to play out his 7+ a year, do they?) Along the way, you drop Sura and Rafer and you're fine. Unless the Steve Francis nuts come back and start screaming for the dribble, dribble, dribble... Anyway, I know I use the cap terminology in the wrong context but if the Rockets WANT Rashard - they WILL be able to GET Rashard. That's all I'm sayin'... ...pretty much.
I'm not quite following but in a backloaded deal over 4 years he'll be getting around $27.5M over that period. He turned down a $25M two year extension. As for the opting out in 4yrs part, his agents would have to be crazy to let that one pass. He's 28 and negotiating what will probably be his last chance of a huge contract. In your reasoning you're hoping he gives up the security of guaranteed contract (what is he asking 80-90M?) for one that might come along later if he stays healthy or doesn't suddenly get old.
Fixed the quote for you. Here's the three options available as you state it; 1. MLE with a backloaded deal: The maximum the Rockets could offer, regardless of backloading or frontloading with the MLE is exactly the same as every other team in the league; roughly 5 years at a starting salary of anywhere from 5.4-6 million depending on how crazy owners get this summer in handing out the big bucks. To put that in perspective, it's almost identical to what Shane Battier is getting. This isn't the NFL or MLB, where the jumps in salary can be pretty much whatever you want it to be, and signing bonuses can be deferred until later in the contract. If Rashard wants to sign for the midlevel, the most he can get is Shane Battier money. 2. Sign and Trade: Not only the easiest, undoubtedly the only way the Rockets can possibly get Rashard Lewis. The absolute maximum Rashard can get as a 9-year veteran is 30% of the salary cap. If the cap stays exactly as it was this year, roughly $53 million, the maximum starting salary, which I'm sure he'll push for, is about $15MM, which most of the papers are reporting. Now, the real trick is that if Rashard becomes a BYC player if his starting salary goes above $12MM or so, meaning if Houston wants to offer the most money along with a good fit, they'll need to get a third team involved, and likely compensate them for their troubles hansomely. Sign and trading for Rashard could easily cost Shane, Bob Sura, Kirk Snyder and perhaps 2008 and 2010 first rounders; that could be quite expensive. The main problem I have is that there is very little leverage for the Rockets to get involved in a S&T; Seattle already has a younger Shane in Jeff Green, and would rather see Lewis go to the East in Orlando; so they have very little motivation to help the Rockets here. 3. I'm not 100% sure what you're saying, but I think it's sign Rashard to a below market deal, with a "handshake" deal to give him big money later. First of all, it's basically impossible for the Rockets to get under the cap this year. Since this post is already running long, I'm just going to leave it at that. Therefore, the $7 million won't be available. Again, even if hypothetically the $7MM magically appeared, an extension cannot exceed 10.5% of the final year of the contract, and can't be negotiated before the 3rd year. If you mean an opt out, whereby he signs a maximum deal with the same team, like Vince Carter just did, that would require a tremendous amount of trust in the organization, as well as a tremendous amount of confidence in his own body. Rashard is coming off a major in-season injury, is a pretty frail guy, might have to play inside and get beat up by power-forwards in Houston, and at the time of an opt out, will be 33 and starting his 13th NBA season. There's a damn good chance he won't be a max-level player anymore. On the other hand, you've got the Houston Rockets franchise, who didn't pay Dream when he got broken down, traded away Cuttino Mobley when he took a pay-cut to stay in Houston, traded away Stromile Swift when he took a pay-cut to come to Houston, benched and traded away Derek Anderson when he took a pay-cut to come to Houston, and benched and nearly cut Bonzi Wells when he took a pay-cut to come to Houston. Plus, they already broke a promise to Lewis on draft day. Is this the franchise you want to determine your grandchildren's and great-grandchildren's future? I have no problem with posters criticizing the team based on ideological beliefs, on drafting prowess, or perceived frugality, but to criticize the financial side of the team without actually knowing anything about it is like criticizing team chemistry by looking at the box scores. Posters shouldn't need to know or be expected to know the CBA, but at the same time, should leave it out of their arguments.
how many of us would give up that kind of money to just play in their hometown...not many of us..especailly when he lives here anyways in the offseson for 6 months...so its hard for a player to give tthat up...especailly when the rockets screwed him over the first time...I really want him but you can't blame him if he doesnt come here...
It's ok...I was just taking a shot at Les over the amount he paid me...and we'll just leave it at that. CBA - I'm no expert. The way the money works from within the organization itself... ...let's say...uh....I'm an expert! Again, it was just a personal dig at Leslie! Everything about Rashard is all speculation - but if they want him, they can get him. That's all there is to it. The CBA...and the media workings...they work under their own 'mafia' and do not adhere to public perception or RealGM. With all that said - I'm not actually sure if he'd be a great fit here, expecially in ratio to money made. However, I did think Francis would in 1999 - oops! I really believe Novak is going to be the one to flourish in this system. If he doesn't. I'll have Clutch erase this post and simply deny it.
Seattle knows we only have the mle. so any hardball by Shard into making the sonics except our trash is'nt gonna work. it's not like shard could say houston could sign me outright because they got a bucket load of cash. the sonics will just say to him fine. walk. we dont want rafer or sura's expirer. the rockets can only offer you the MLE without our cooperation.thats why our sign and trade offer has to be pretty darn good for the sonics to bite. something like, rafer, head and battier. to me thats a bit too much to giveup for lewis. i say let him goto orlando and save our chips like battier for artest who is the better allround player.
I uh...hmm...I don't know really. Wow - I never really thought about it, maybe never really thinking he'd come here. I guess, yeah, I'd 'like' to have him but I have no passion for him. What about you, Deck - do you think he'd fit in here? Do you want him? I like Battier, really. In an offense like Adelman's, I think Battier would be wonderful because decisions are made on the fly, the offense is read and react, run, maybe not, post up, shoot quick, slow down, etc... In JVG's offense, they looked to run - sure - but they never DID. Battier was great w/ JVG because he's a really good defense and effort player. In this new system, I think his mind would be a truly great benefit...especially if Francis comes back! If Lewis is a Rocket, Shane's not here. If Lewis isn't Shane may still be here. I'd rather keep Battier and find some other parts, shooters than tie up that money in Lewis. But 22 & 7 is nice! So, my answer is kinda yes and kinda no.
between battier/sura/luther/vspan/snyder and even picks (albeit later round) the sonics could keep their costs down per player (which seems to be what they are doing to be more attractive to relocate) and still have some good nba talent, or at least nba potential. it would be nice to hear some real deals that get denied, just as a barameter for what they expect or are looking for in return for rashard
