[Ruff Draft]

It's a little expensive for a guard on the way down, but he is the kind of guy that you don't want to low-ball.

[Diable]

Milicic now unrestricted free agent after Magic withdraws offer
Now, any team in the league can sign Milicic without fear of the Magic matching an offer. Only three teams, the Bobcats, Grizzlies and Bucks, have the cap room available to offer more than the mid-level exception. A fourth team, the Chicago Bulls, might be able to clear enough room if they were to renounce their rights to free agent Andreas Nocioni.
If neither Charlotte or Memphis are interested, Milicic will likely have to sign a one- or two-year deal for the mid-level exception and re-enter the free-agent market next summer to look for a bigger deal.
Milicic was looking for a long-term deal averaging between $9 and $10 million a year, according to league sources.

[Diable]

Slew of Spurs related news from mysantonio.com.The Spurs appear to be content to stand pat and bring the same team back,minus Melvin Ely.They have re-signed Oberto,Jacques Vaughan and Matt Bonner.Also PJ Carlessimo is leaving to coach the Supersonics.Guy deserves another chance.It's amazing how Spreewell chokes him and it destroyed his career as a head coach.

I would have loved it if we could have gotten Oberto for 10.5 million over three years.I guess you get a discount when you give guys the oppurtunity to win it all.I think he'd have been worth a good deal more if he'd really wanted it.The guy did a lot of good stuff for the Spurs.Of course without Timmy he might be guarded a little more tightly.

[Diable]

http://www.denverpost.com/ci_6300564?source=rss
Hard to see how we can expect to get a quality backup point if a guy like Blake is looking for 6 million a year.Milwaukee is only offering Mo Williams 8 million so it's hard for me to see how Blake is worth six...Excluding the fact that he and BK are the only quality point guards available.I certainly don't blame him for asking.How many times in his life is a guy like Blake going to get the oppurtunity to shake down an NBA team for 30 million dollars.

Source: Blake seeks $6 million
By Chris Dempsey
Denver Post Staff Writer
Steve Blake's availability to the Nuggets next season hinges on a number of factors, and he could return if all things fall into place.

According to a league source, Blake, who is reportedly seeking a full mid-level exception - expected to be $6 million - is not out of the Nuggets' reach.
The salary cap and the luxury threshold have not yet been set for the 2007-08 season. The Nuggets' current payroll is about $80 million. The 2006-07 salary cap was about $53 million, and the luxury threshold was almost $65.5 million. Blake, who started at point guard for the Nuggets last season after being acquired in a trade with Milwaukee, is being courted by several teams. The Miami Herald reported Wednesday the Heat and Blake are discussing money, while the Los Angeles Lakers have reportedly cooled on Blake because of his price tag

.

[dnbman]

I understand the fear, but consider this:

Before these guys started getting MLE money, there were a ton of pgs that displayed a wide variety of skills and were cheap. Considering how many teams have 2 o.k. pgs and the amount of young pgs coming into the league next year, I think we'll be able to get a serviceable backup.

[Diable]

League has set the cap at 55.6 million.The bobcats currently have 35.27 million in contracts before you include Matt Carroll's deal(which can't be finalized until tomorrow July 11th).That means we should have around 16 million in capspace prior to anything that's done with Gerald.

Quote:

The salary cap for the 2007-08 NBA season will be set at $55,630,000, ESPN.com has learned.

The number was reached after an audit of league finances and was set late Tuesday night by the players association and the league office. It will be the number teams use beginning Wednesday when a 10-day moratorium on free agent signing ends.

The mid-level exception for over-the-cap teams is $5,356,000, and the luxury tax threshold will be $67,865,000.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=2932279

In other news Mo Williams and the Heat are talking.I don't see Williams going to Miami unless he's willing to settle for about 3 million less than he'd get from Milwaukee,but we don't want him to even think about it.Milwaukee has no point guards on their roster,so they have to address that no matter what and anyone who wants to arrange a sign and trade would most likely need to send back a point guard.Hard for me to see Milwaukee wanting to help out Miami.

[nutmeged3]

The Magic will finalize a contract with Lewis, the most coveted small forward on the free-agent market, today. A news conference will be held this afternoon where the Magic will announce that Lewis has signed a six-year sign-and-trade deal worth a staggering $127.2 million. According to a source close to the negotiations who asked to remain anonymous, Orlando will send a second-round pick back to Seattle as compensation in the sign-and-trade deal.

If this is true then the Magic are dumb as hell. If Rashard was able to get this kind of deal with pretty much no one else going after him then I wonder what Gerald's trying to get right now

EDIT: He's actually getting 6/118

[Diable]

As far as I am concerned Gerald is better than Lewis.Lewis is a good scorer,but he is a lousy defender,a poor passer and a mediocre rebounder.He's worth about 12 million a year and I have a difficult time believing anyone will give him 20 million a year.

It's all the more foolish when you're bidding against noone except yourself.There's absolutely no reason to pay Lewis more than you have to and you just don't have to pay him that much.Noone else was going to sign and trade Lewis for that sort of money.

[nutmeged3]

I just don't understand what would make them give him that much money, and on top of that huge contract Seattle got a 16 mil TE out of the S&T.

[Diable]

Memphis has apparently signed Darko to a deal that's been described as more than the MLE.I wonder exactly how much capspace we have left.Really the only guy who we might want to offer a decent contract to is probably Varejao and I don't think he's really worth that much.

[nutmeged3]

"Substantially more then the MLE" we couldn't have even given him that kind of contract without going over the cap could we?

I just have a feeling we aren't going to spend any more money and were going to end up with scrubs at backup PG and PF/C

[Diable]

If we were smart we might be able to find adequate backups at reasonable prices,but we had a really good backup point and apparently there was something terrible about that.Letting BK go really looks silly now that we have enough capspace for his original deal and the options for replacing him are pretty much a recipe for disaster.Finding a couple of big bodies to backup the four/five shouldn't be a problem,but finding someone who can really help us is probably not going to happen.
Looking through this list I only see a couple of guys who fit our needs reasonably well.I guess Charlie Bell would be a pretty serviceable backup point,but he's restricted and Milwaukee would probably match anything that was reasonable.I just don't see a good big.If Voskuhl would come back for not too long and not too much he'd be as good as anything(sad to say,but I don't see anyone much better).I guess Luke Schenscher might be worth a gamble...but we'd need to send him to Sauerbraun's doctor for some juice.Chris Mihm is probably going to get overpaid or I'd consider him even if I got a bad taste in my mouth.Very few other guys that interest me except in the event we got them cheaply.Really Dale Davis might be the best fit,but he's most likely going to sit on a contender's bench.

Really might as well to look for projects,but I'd really love it if we could find someone who could at least body up with NBA centers.

[nutmeged3]

What about bringing Jason Hart back? He wouldn't cost that much and played pretty well for the Clippers last year. As far as I remember he wasn't very good while he played for us but there isn't much else that would be better