I concur that the BRI (basketball related income) should not be assumed to increase at the current rate... if you look at the history there were a couple years in the past decade that the BRI actually decreased (reflected in lower soft cap)... Joe made the mistake a couple years ago of believing the projections and got stuck paying the lux tax by being over the threshold by only Darvin Ham's contract.

I think we need to be careful in overcomplicating this thread... the idea is to help achieve a general understanding.

Agreed Merc.

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They are the archetype for dominance. They are the gatekeepers of the conference. They are the Detroit Pistons.

Under option 3 Davison may as well adjust for the decreased ticket sales, lost playoff revenue and lost prime time slots as well. Ben has made a lot of money for this franchise over the years. He was pretty much our only draw and still continues as the main act and Davison has had no problem cashing those checks from #3 jersey sales.

Option 2 seems most realistic but we still have to account for a 4-5mil pay raise for Billups next summer. Another problem is retaining Amir Johnson and/or Maxiel if they show anything.

if we do sign Bonzi Wells with the MLE then I cannot see the sense in keeping Delfino unless he can play some backup point. I would almost be tempted to pass on the MLE guy and go in with Delfino, Johnson, Maxiel and Acker. That is assuming Delk is waived and Hunter retires. But I know that is not going to happen.

Kind of paints somewhat of a I would not say bleak rather restrictive picture. Seems like we are either forced with ridding out an aging core or moving in a different direction. With a team sort of set on not playing young guys it appears almost inevitable that we are moving in the aging direction.

Bright side - At least we do not have a $20 Iverson type salary to carry around.