PistonFAN81

I read this article from pistonassembley.com I though that it was kinda scary...

Who Has A Shot At Memo?

By yugsterus
Date: 4/7/2004 12:03:08 AM



What Teams Realistically Have A Shot At Mehmet Okur?
by yugsterus - PistonsTalk.com senior member

I've gone through all the teams and their cap situations to see how things are going to shake up in the Mehmet Okur bidding this coming offseason.

The fact is only one team is going to make a bid for him: Utah. (Restricted FA's can only sign one offer sheet anyway, and Utah will make the biggest offer)

San Antonio is a scare, but their team is not much of a different situation for Memo than in Detroit. He's still behind Duncan and he's got Nesterovic to battle for PT. Plus San Antonio is going to resign Ginobili to a nice sized deal. They could only offer Memo about 7 million after retaining Manu, and we'd surely match. Most likely they'll use the rest of their money to keep Turkaglu and round out the rest of their roster.

Other teams with money include:

Clippers (Kaman, E. Brand) No real point for Clipps to offer big money when their bigs are set. They want Kaman as future Center, not Memo.

Denver - Nene and Camby are there. We're better. They also still believe in Skita, so they'll be hesitant to drop big money on a similar player should Skita develop.

Phoenix - Like Denver, they have developing bigs. Stoudemire, Lampe, Carbakapa. Phoenix needs a guard or shot blocker and wouldn't offer big money to Memo.

This leaves two teams: Atlanta and Utah

Both will think about offering big money. Atlanta's franchise is in shambles with new ownership. Memo would be hesitant to sign there. Furthermore, I don't think Memo is 1st on their list.

On the other hand, Utah is perfect. Utah will offer Memo BIG money. They have 30 some million in cap room, they have a problem attracting black athletes, and they need a big man bad. They'll go after Memo hard as their first option. There is no doubt about it. They'll offer him a ton of money and a ton of Playing Time. I seriously think Memo will end up on Utah unless Joe pulls off something truely special. I don't think any other team will even matter in the Memo sweepstakes. Its going to be Detroit vs. Utah for Memo's services, and Utah has a bigger role to offer> It's going to be a dog fight.

If you were Memo and Utah could offer you more money, a ton of PT and a good shot to still be on a competative team with a good coach, would you go? In Detroit he's facing an uncertain future with Sheed, Ben, and Darko coming up the ladder. A starting role down the road is no sure thing. If I were him, I might leave.

(Keep in mind, I'm assuming we'll try to resign Rasheed. If we don't sign Rasheed we can keep memo easy, matching any offer. But as soon as we sign Sheed Utah is going to see what we have left in cap, and they will deliberately offer more. We could wait to sign Sheed until after we match Utahs offer, but then we could very easily lose Sheed. We wouldn't have a lot left. This is kind of a slap at Sheed to give him Memo's leftovers and hangin him out to dry. BTW, it'll be tight even if Elden Campbell is drafted by the Bobcats. With Campbell gone we have 15 million in cap. Split 50/50, thats 7.5 million base salary available for both Sheed and Memo, which could increment yearly. Thats a great contract for Memo, problem is, why wouldn't Utah offer 8 million base salary? Point is, they would.)

what do you guys think?

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