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PistonFAN81 · 04-20-2004, 10:47 AM

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?

**DetBNyce** · 04-20-2004, 11:08 AM

I read this article a while ago and all I can say is Dumars won't sign Memo if the money he is being offered by another team is outrageuos. I would hate to lose him and I think it would be a big blow, even though on most nights he only plays about 15 minutes. But, Dumars seems to have a plan and his plan includes not overpaying for a player's services. That includes Memo. I remember a couple of recent quotes of him saying he wants to stay and he doesn't care about money, hopefully he's telling the truth. You really don't know how someone might react to a big contract until that contract is throw in his face. We could potentially lose Campbell and Okur this off-season and maybe even Sheed.

This off-season will be as important as any off-season for the past couple of years. We'll find out what direction we're headed in for sure this off-season.

fear the fro · 04-20-2004, 01:15 PM

I don't understand the point of paying a guy $8 million a year to sit on the bench for 35 minutes. Memo can be great when he gets to play, but that hasn't been the case lately. I'd really like to see him stay, but the way Larry Brown has treated him this year I wouldn't blame him for going to a situation where he would have a lot more PT and more money as well. Also, I don't think that article is right about Phoenix. Caparkaba cannot go out and play center every night, especially for a team that faces Shaq and Yao each 4 times a year. Lampe is the second youngest player in the league and had one good game this season. Neither one of those guys is really a center and I would not be surprised at all to see them make a run at Memo, depending on who they get in the draft.

Mark Stein was also saying on ESPN.com yesterday that it looks like Memo may not be back judging from how much PT he has been getting.

**HKF** · 04-20-2004, 01:24 PM

If Dumars is afraid to overpay players why did he sign Elden Campbell. Campbell is a slouch. No offense to Detroit fans, but this guy has been a slouch his entire career.

fear the fro · 04-20-2004, 01:37 PM

No argument from me. Signing Elden was a mistake. Not a huge mistake, but still a mistake.

**DetBNyce** · 04-20-2004, 01:44 PM

He may have overpayed for Campbell, but it isn't that bad... It wouldn't be as bad as giving 8 million or even more to your 3rd big man, who is not even playing 20 minutes a game. It's very possible that Campbell can be taken in this year's expansion draft, nullifying the "mistake". The mistake Dumars made may have been giving him a 2 yr deal instead of one, but the mistake wasn't in the signing. The other possible guys included Juwan Howard, Moiso, and Derrick Coleman, I'd rather have Campbell than all of those guys. That's a 180 from what I was saying this past off-season.

rainman · 04-20-2004, 03:04 PM

i think okur is so far down the food chain that he wont be back. he'll get a good offer from someone else and the brass will say they didnt want to disrupt the pay structure. bottom line is they arent that crazy about him in detroit. if they were to lose rasheed they may reconsider but i dont see that happening.

**DetBNyce** · 04-20-2004, 04:56 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by rainman!
i think okur is so far down the food chain that he wont be back. he'll get a good offer from someone else and the brass will say they didnt want to disrupt the pay structure. bottom line is they arent that crazy about him in detroit. if they were to lose rasheed they may reconsider but i dont see that happening.

They're not crazy about him in Detroit... you're not serious are you? Did we not pick him in the second round of the draft, when noone barely knew who he was. Joe D.'s focus has been known to be on clearing cap room during the year somehow so he could sign Memo Okur. If they weren't crazy about him, he would've been gone at the deadline. They could've gotten something in return for him if their intentins were to just let him walk. We want Memo back, but at the same time Sheed has proven to be more valuable to this team and we won't overpay for him.

rainman · 04-20-2004, 07:02 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DetBNyce!

They're not crazy about him in Detroit... you're not serious are you? Did we not pick him in the second round of the draft, when noone barely knew who he was. Joe D.'s focus has been known to be on clearing cap room during the year somehow so he could sign Memo Okur. If they weren't crazy about him, he would've been gone at the deadline. They could've gotten something in return for him if their intentins were to just let him walk. We want Memo back, but at the same time Sheed has proven to be more valuable to this team and we won't overpay for him.

come on det, it doesnt matter what you and i think of him or the 22,000 fans that pay to go to games, the only one that matters is larry brown and his actions speak louder than words. dumars will go along with the coach. if rasheed resigns it will be hard to keep okur there.

PistonFAN81 · 04-21-2004, 05:59 AM

I think that he will stay and the reason being that he will and can perform in the playoffs, and I think that with how deep our team is, he will be used in the playoffs a lil more, and he knows that here is one of his chances to be on a winning team that can contend for the title

**Brian** · 04-21-2004, 08:46 AM

Sign and trade him for a future lottery pick.

MLKG · 04-21-2004, 10:00 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Joe Dumars!
I think people have seen over the last two years why I was excited about this kid. He’s a big-time talent for us.

All we can do is sell him on the fact that he’s playing on a great team with a chance to win. We can compensate him quite handsomely.

Those are the things I’ll be able to offer. If it’s something beyond that, it’ll have to be a decision he’ll have to make. But we want him really badly. We’d love to have him play here.

froggyvk · 04-21-2004, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Brian!
Sign and trade him for a future lottery pick.

That would have to be to a team under the cap. Why wouldn't they just sign him?

fear the fro · 04-21-2004, 01:32 PM

Yeah, sign and trade can't work if you don't have a player's Bird Rights, and if we had Memo's Bird Rights we wouldn't be in this situation at all. Of course, there is a chance that if he is going to be playing 9 minutes a game he wouldn't resign no matter how much we pay him.

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