Why '09 free agency will matter

[Rastapopoulos]

Great article by David Aldridge:

Fewer involved '09 teams=more '09 opportunity. By one team president's math, at least 16 teams already have cleared or will likely have cleared enough cap room by the summer of 2010 to be able to pursue at least one max-level free agent. By contrast, the team president figures, only five teams will be in a similar situation next summer.

He didn't specify, but it's not hard to figure them out: Atlanta, Memphis, Minnesota, Oklahoma City and Portland. Detroit could become a sixth, but only if it renounces its free agent rights to both Iverson and Wallace, which is extremely doubtful. Portland's flexibility may well be compromised if the contract of Darius Miles, waived Tuesday by Memphis, ultimately winds up back on the Blazers' books, costing them $9 million in cap space and near double that in possible luxury tax payments. Atlanta has to decide how much to put into Mike Bibby and Marvin Williams.

The point is, there will be far fewer '09 suitors than '10 teams. And while Bryant is equally not likely to leave L.A. for smaller-revenue teams this summer, those teams are nonetheless in a buyer's market similar to that of Major League Baseball. There will be solid, veteran players available who may well have to settle for cents on the dollar instead of bigger paydays. A wise team will likely get a whole lot more bang for its reduced buck in '09.

Says one extremely high-ranking team executive: "This is going to be a nuclear winter for free agents. I would not want to be one this summer. So, if the point is that this summer will be great because there will be bargains galore, you are on the money."

The bad part is that this means that Darius's fate matters more.

 

[ehizzy3]

uh?

 

[drexlersdad]

yeah i would love to pick up a few savvy backup vets this offseason.

 

[Minstrel]

My top (reasonably attainable) target is Josh Childress.

Kobe Bryant would be great, but I see no way he leaves the Lakers.

 

[Nikolokolus]

My top (reasonably attainable) target is Josh Childress.

Kobe Bryant would be great, but I see no way he leaves the Lakers.

Seconded.

And people I highly urge you to go over and read the piece that Dave of Blazersedge.com penned regarding the D. Miles-caproom situation. I'm not sure where national writers are getting the idea that all of our fortunes rest with Miles being on or off of our cap. We're talking about a difference of 25 million max or 16 million max (depending on Frye, Diogu, Travis and Blake being retained ... hell, even if Trav and Blake are retained we're talking about 8 million in cap room).