Updated Likely Unprotected List For Bobcats

[George O'Brien]

In another thread I argued that White is likely to be taken because he is likely to be one of the less expensive options the Bobcats will face. Here are my revised projections on who will be made availabe.

Atlanta Only 6 under contract
Alan Henderson $8.20 Final year

Boston 11 under contract Includes Mihm an RFA
Michael Stewart $4.80 Final year
Raef LaFrentz $8.20 Six more years
Ricky Davis $5.40 Four more years


Chicago 9 under contract Includes RFA's Fizer and Crawford
Antonio Davis $12.00 Two more years
Eddie Robinson $6.80 Two more years

Cleveland 9 under contract
Ira Newble or Kevin Olie $2.70 Five more years

Dallas 11 under contract Includes Nash with a player option
Tony Delk $3.10 Two more years
Danny Fortson $5.90 Three more years
Tariq Abdul-Wahad $6.70 not currently playing
Antoine Walker $14.60 One year

Denver 6 under contract
Nikoloz Tskitishvili $2.90 Assuming they have given up on him

Detroit 8 under contract
Eldon Campbell $4.40 Likely they would like to unload him

Golden State 9 under contract Includes Dampier and Van Exel player options
Nick Van Exel $11.80 Final year

Houston 10 under contract Maurice Taylor at $8.4 million has a long contract
Maurice Taylor $8.40 Three more years
Kevin Cato $7.99 Two more years

Indiana 12 under contract
Austin Croshere $8.30 Three more years
Scot Pollard $5.80 Two more years
Jonathan Bender $6.40 Three more years
Primoz Brezec $1.50 One year until becomes RFA

Clippers 11 under contract Dooling and Richardson are RFA
Predrag Drobnjak $2.80 Three more years
Wang Zhazhi $2.30 Waived
Melvin Ely $1.70 One year prior to team option
Eddie House $0.83 Final year

Lakers 10 under contract Kobe, Payton, Fisher, and Malone are player option
Rick Fox $4.90

Memphis 14 under contract Tsakalidis & Swift are RFA
Jake Tsakalidis $2.30 RFA
Michael Dickerson $6.90 Four more years
Bo Outlaw $5.40 Final year
Ryan Humphries $1.20 One year until team option
Theron Smith $0.62 Final year
Jason Williams $6.80 Four more years

Miami 5 under contract
Eddie Jones $13.40 Three more years

Milwaukee 8 active under contract Joel Przybilla is an RFA
Keith Van Horn $14.50 Two years


Minnestoa 9 under contract Sprewell and Hudson are player option
Michael Olowokandi $5.40 Two more years
Wally Szcerbick $9.00 At least five more years

New Jersey 11 under contract Martin is RFA
Mourning $5.40 Three more years
Rodney Rogers $3.30 Final year
Brian Scalabrine $0.89 Final year

New Orleans 8 under contract Alexander is an RFA
Jamal Mashburn $9.30 Three more years

New York 14 under contract Hardaway and Thomas are player option
Allan Houston $17.50 Three more years
Anfernee Hardaway $14.60 Two more years
Shandon Anderson $7.30 Three more years
Dikembe Mutombo $4.50 One more year
Cezary Trybanski $1.70 One more year
John Amaechi $2.80 No longer playing

Orlando 9 under contract Pachulia player option
Grant Hill $14.50 three more years

Philadelphia 10 under contract
Todd McCulloch $5.90 No longer playing
Derick Coleman $4.50 Two years
Eric Snow $4.90 Five more years

Portland 7 under contract Miles is RFA
Damon Stoudamire $15.80 Final year
Shareef Abdur-Rahim $14.60 Final year

Sacramento 7 under contract
Chris Weber $17.50 Four more years

San Antonio 8 under contract Turkoglu is RFA, Horry is team option

Seattle 9 under contract
Vitaly Potapenko $6.10 Final year
Calvin Booth $5.90 Three more years

Toronto 8 under contract Peterson is RFA
Jalen Rose $14.40 Three more years
Alvin Williams $5.80 Four more years

Utah 5 under contract Stevenson is RFA
Curtis Borchardt $1.30 One year prior to team option year.

Washington 12 under contract Thomas is RFA
Christian Laettner $6.10 Final year
Larry Huges $5.50 Final year
Jerry Stackhouse $7.00 Three more years
Juan Dixon $1.10 Final year

 

[elindholm]

I think I read somewhere that each team is required to expose at least one player, even if they have eight or fewer under contract.

 

[hcsilla]

I highly doubt that BOS will leave Davis unprotected. Atkins is a much more likely option, IMO.

Nash will probably opt out before the draft so they will not need to protect him, so they can protect Walker and use him as a trade bait.

I do not think that IND puts Bender on the list, they will go with Johnson, IMO.

Dickerson has already retired.
It's unlikely that Williams won't be protected. They will leave unprotected one of the Watson/Bell/Jones trio.

MIN will protect Wally and put Johnson instead of him.

NYK already waived Amaechi. It doesn't make any sense to leave Penny, Houston or Anderson unprotected since there is no way that the Bobcats will pick one of them. They will replace one of them with Harrington.

Snow is still very important for PHI. They will put Buckner or Jackson instead of him.

Reportedly POR will leave Davis and Dickau unprotected.

I wouldn't be surprised if WAS would replace Hughes with Jeffries or Baxter.

 

[F-Dog]

Check out the list of RFAs here:

Link

I'm pretty sure that the Bobcats can select the rights to any of the RFAs left unprotected, then terminate those rights by refusing to offer a contract--meaning that they won't have to take any players at all in the expansion draft, or one or two at most.

Even if they have to keep the RFAs they draft, they shouldn't have any problem filling out their team with Richie Frahm, Ronald Dupree, Lonny Baxter, etc. They're not going to be forced to pick up an overpriced contract if they don't want to.

 

[George O'Brien]

Check out the list of RFAs here:

Link

I'm pretty sure that the Bobcats can select the rights to any of the RFAs left unprotected, then terminate those rights by refusing to offer a contract--meaning that they won't have to take any players at all in the expansion draft, or one or two at most.

Even if they have to keep the RFAs they draft, they shouldn't have any problem filling out their team with Richie Frahm, Ronald Dupree, Lonny Baxter, etc. They're not going to be forced to pick up an overpriced contract if they don't want to.

You are right about the RFA's. I've generally assumed the RFA's will be protected. Since drafting them turns them into pure free agents, teams only do that if they have no interest at all in keeping the player.

I have assumed that teams will do everything they can to avoid putting the Richie Frahn's of the world on the list. The Bobcats will jump on them first and their team gets minimal cap relief.

The idea of putting Atkins versus Davis is an interesting one. Davis has a longer a longer contract but has more market value (maybe). It really does depend on how closely the Bobcats stick to their "cheaper is better" model.

One issue that has never been resolved to my satisfaction is what the cap implications are of taking a player and then trading him. I would assume that taking a max player would require matching salaries on the trade, so trading one for two or three players might be set up. If so, can they cut the guys they receive in exchange?

For example, let's imagine a case where Elton Brand was made available. Could the Suns trade White and Eisley and $15 million for Brand, with the Bobcats cutting one or both guys? (I'm not seriously proposing this, its just that the numbers work out). If the Bobcats can, they they would go after the marketable expensive guys. If they can't cut these guys without cap hit, then being able to trade players doesn't help them.

 

[elindholm]

One issue that has never been resolved to my satisfaction is what the cap implications are of taking a player and then trading him.... Could the Suns trade White and Eisley and $15 million for Brand, with the Bobcats cutting one or both guys?

I'm not sure I can think of a player where this would make any sense. Basically we're looking for a large-contract player who (a) isn't valuable to his own team, (b) wouldn't be valuable to the Bobcats, but (c) would be valuable to some third team. Unless the third team is a money-unconscious talent-hoarder like Dallas, it's very hard to come up with any possibilities.

 

[hcsilla]

For example, let's imagine a case where Elton Brand was made available. Could the Suns trade White and Eisley and $15 million for Brand, with the Bobcats cutting one or both guys?

No, they could not. This "pick and after cut them without counting against your cap" rule applies just for players taken at the expansion draft.

BTW, what is that 15 million?

 

[George O'Brien]

No, they could not. This "pick and after cut them without counting against your cap" rule applies just for players taken at the expansion draft.

BTW, what is that 15 million?

That's been my assumption. If it is the case, then teams are safe putting even great players on the list because the Bobcats have only $30 million in cap space. Antoine Jamison says he would like to go to the Bobcats, but there is no way they afford him.

 

[hcsilla]

That's been my assumption. If it is the case, then teams are safe putting even great players on the list because the Bobcats have only $30 million in cap space.

No, the Bobcats can take as much salaries on the expansion draft as they wish, or they can go over the cap.

After 1st July their cap is 2/3 of the cap and their team pay-roll may be much higher.

 

[elindholm]

In other words, their cap number is irrelevant unless they draft a slew of players that keeps them under it. Then they could add additional FA talent up to the magic number. If they go over it in the draft, their cap "limit" is just as meaningless as it is for most teams in the league -- aside from hampering their trade flexibility, that is.

 

[hcsilla]

Yes.

 

[George O'Brien]

Bickerstaff has said repeatedly that he want's to avoid committing to big, long term contracts. The Charlotte paper has said that means they will try to keep their contracts cheap and short to give them maximum flexibility. Perhaps they will change their strategy once they see who is available.

The other issue is whether teams will deliberately leave a low priced guy (under $3 million) available just to be sure they can some cap relief. If everybody who is available has terrible contracts, then perhaps they will get no cap relief at all.

It is my understanding that teams will be limited about signing their own guys who were cut by the Bobcats. I'm not sure how that impacts RFA's but I'm guessing the Bobcats will jump on RFA's like a cat on raw meat. These guys become immeditate unrestricted free agents and the Bobcats would owe these guys nothing.