i didn't follow the NBA this past year as much as i usually do just because i really haven't had much free time. who is amir johnson? i figured he was just some scrub but everyone keeps raving about him....
He was drafted late, late second round out of high school .... so he was completely under the radar. He reportedly grew an inch or two since being drafted and is 6-11 or close. He also dominated the D-league. Just 20 years old, so there's potential there. I would definitely love to have him -- but a contract at 3 or 3.5 million would be matched by Detroit, no doubt. They could trade him easily at that salary.
They would match that. But I think the key is where they are at the LT level before matching. If they have to match that and it puts the team over the LT line then it is double from their perspective. They have to resign Billups to some serious coin. And they would like to use their MLE to get a shooter like Mo Pete or maybe Grant Hill. Those moves pretty much puts them at the LT line. And they already have Wallace, McDyess, Maxiell and Mohammed at the 4/5 spots. So the theory is Johnson might get squeezed if some team puts the pressure on. I think it's funny that on Sunday I ask Feigen in his Rashard Lewis blog about Amir and then the very next day he writes a blog about him. LOL!
Just my opinion but if the Rockets can somehow secure Johnson, you can say goodbye to Chuck Hayes. IMHO, they won't carry Hayes, Landry and Amir all on the roster especially when Adelman likes 3-4's and Novak and Reed have contracts and fit that mold. Not to mention the Rockets' may have LTax concerns of their own. The numbers FWIW.... DET has $50.85 committed for 2007-08. Assume that Billups gets $12m. They have less than $3m to the LTax if it remains at the current level. And I haven't included the #15 pick. Here's where the plot thickens because they now have 11 players under contract. And of those 11, 4 are PF's...Rasheed, McDyess, Maxiell and Amir Johnson. An oft overlooked fact...you only pay the LTx on players on your roster on the last day of the regular season. Sura waived ought to really interest the Pistons. The Pistons have EBR's but don't lose sight of the fact that Johnon becomes BYC with too big of a raise (SnT).
I think it's funny his original blog the other day about Rashard being the target. A month ago, Feigen kind of laughed at those who talked about that "rumor". Now he had to clear his throat a little to report it. We all know it's unlikely, but it's true -- it IS who the Rockets want, and they DO want to do it via sign-and-trade. Tacoma Trib's Frank Hughes didn't say anything differently. BTW, how smart does Hughes' column back then, that started the Rashard Lewis rumor, look? Said Howard for James and Rockets want Rashard in a sign-and-trade involving Battier. If the Rockets add a 13th point guard in Jasikevicius we should just crown Hughes the king of Rocket info. Now compare that to John P. Lopez' wonderdud of Head-Cook, V-Span-2nd rounder and JLIII-James Singleton.
GATER, you also didn't include their wanting to obtain someone with MLE money (Mo Pete, Grant Hill etc). So then you are talking about 50M+12M which gets you to 62M. Then you add in the #15 pick. And then you are right up on the LT line without signing Amir Johnson OR using MLE money on a player. This is why the Pistons unloaded Carlos Delfino on the Raptors. They probably are scrambling now to unload Flip Murray on someone to dump even more money. Frank Hughes is saying that the Sonics are asking the Pistons about Hamilton. Interesting.
Deuce - Deliberately light on the info as I'm on break at work. But yes, the Pistons are right there at the LTAX door. And the 11 I mentioned does not include re-signing Webber. Trading Hamilton to the Sonics doesn't save that much $ this season. They'd have to take back $7.3m minimum and that only clears $2.4 from the LTax threshhold. I guess the other way for DET to approach that is swap for Wally Z who ends in 2 season (compared to Rip's 3). Wally and Rasheed would both come off the books in 2009. Regardless, the Pistons have some serious roster considerations and for the Rockets to ignore them...offers to their FA's, direct trade or as a 3rd team in a trade...would not be wise IMO.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn't going over the LTax have implications beyond the dollar for dollar tax? It was my understanding that teams that pay the luxury tax also lose out on disbursements of league wide LTax earnings. So, if you take the amount all teams paid in LTax and divided it by the number of teams that stayed below it, wouldn't any team going over also forfeit receiving that amount in addition to having to pay dollar for dollar on the overage.
