hcsilla

Fantastic analysis.Very,very good post NCBullsFan.
It's no wonder that you are a professor. Can I ask how old are you? I'm just curious.

I remember (do you?) that we had a small debate last summer on realgm.com about Donyell Marshall's future in UTA.
You said that UTA will excersize their team option on his contract and will let him to go if Marshall won't take a significant pay-cut.
I have disagree.

You were not only right but also UTA made the right decision.
They got Harpring who is younger and was at least as productive as Marshall was and they saved at least 5 mil. this year.
I always thought that luxury tax (and it's "consequences") is a very important factor in GM's decisions (it's not a big discovery) but I underestimated its importance.

For example weren't also YOU a bit surprised when ORL "dumped" Don Reid's 1mil./1year contract and they gave a future 1st rounder (Ok, they got a 2nd rounder as well, big deal)for it which can turn out to a high lottery pick?

Or the newest example MIL traded Sam Cassell for 4 mil. immediate cap relief. I seriously think that the cap relief was MIL's main goal in that trade and I don't really buy Ernie Grunfeld's comments like "Joe Smith is a great addition, he is very talented" etc. Come on, we are talking about Joe Smith.....

Finally a question:

I'm a Suns fan and it was a pleasant surprise that Suns made a profit about 20 mil.
How is that possible that small markets with high team pay-roll and with 1st round-exit (as UTA and PHO) make a nice profit while SA which is a bigger market (at least I think it is) and won a ring makes 20 mil. less profit?