At first blush, last month's deal between the Spurs and Rockets looked like a windfall for Houston and a head-scratcher for the defending champs. The Spurs got PG Vassilis Spanoulis, who is likely heading back to Greece after a miserable rookie year, and gave up young F/C Jackie Butler and coveted Argentine PF Luis Scola. Not seeing any benefit for the Spurs here? Patience. San Antonio was not certain Scola would ever play for them, because as long as PF Tim Duncan is in town, Scola's floor time would be limited. Butler, too, was unlikely to play much. The Spurs were able to lop off Butler's $2 million from their payroll, further setting the team up for next summer, when it can extend Duncan's contract and possibly have enough left over to make an eight-figure offer to the likes of PF Elton Brand, SG Rip Hamilton, PG Jason Kidd, PF Jermaine O'Neal, PF Shawn Marion or G Gilbert Arenas.


SportingNews.com - NBA - Restricted free agency is a no man's land (http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=253897)

This would also be a reference for the teams with so-called "salary cap issues" that I call mismanagement.

Out of all the names mentioned there I could see Arenas jumping to the Spurs before you could say egocentric!!!!!!!

Why would they list 3 other marquee PFs right after saying that Duncan would be extended? And if they do this, why not list these guys as FCs?

I think the NBA should apply the KISS principle to the salary cap so morons like me can understand it. Why all of this mid level exception, bird rules crap, etc? Who cares? I guess the lawyers involved do. There are so many lawyers that if they were placed from head to toe along the equator, that would be a good thing.:gun1: A few months ago, there was a settlement for some victims of a priest/sex thing for about 240 million dollars. The lawyers walked away with about 80 of it. Can you imagine explaining to someone where you got all your money from? Same dealio with this guy who is trying to make money off of his daughters murder with the OJ book. Unbelievable. If someone killed my daughter, the last thing I would want is money. It would be by the grace of God that I didn't snuff out the killlers life.

I think the NBA should apply the KISS principle to the salary cap so morons like me can understand it.
Take solace in the fact that morons like me understand it. :)

Interesting about the Spurs. I don't see Rip finishing his career here, but I could be wrong. The good thing is that GMs generally are getting smarter about the cap and tax threshold. A pure SG (which Rip is) has a lot of cheaper competition on the open market.

What is up with this article? Only Brand, Marion, and Arenas will be free agents next summer, if they opt out of their final years.

According to Hoopshype:

Elton Brand signed through 2007/08 with player option for 2008/09
Rip Hamilton through 2009/10
Jason Kidd through 2008/09
Jermaine O'Neal through 2009/10
Shawn Marion through 2007/08 with player option for 2008/09
Gilbert Arenas through 2007/08 with player option for 2008/09

HoopsHype - NBA Salaries (http://hoopshype.com/salaries.htm)

2 things:

Where does it say the Spurs will have a lot of money in the article? I don't see that statement.

Secondly they won't have a lot of money. Here is what someone posted on http://www.spurstalk.com


with just duncan, parker, and manu that puts the spurs at ~42 mil. add in ~3 mil for bonner, ~3.5 mil with oberto, and ~1 mil for vaughn, that puts the spurs at just a shade under 50 mil, with at least 7 roster spots to fill. the cap figure this year is 55.6 mil, and if it goes up ~3 mil, we are looking at a 2008 cap of somewhere around 58 mil. and that doesnt even factor in the minimum cap holds for those 7 open roster spots. this also doesnt include any future signings (udoka or mahinmi?) or splitter. so a much more realistic number would probably be between 5-6 mil, which is more or less what the MLE is worth anyway.

so unless guys like brand are willing to take a massive pay cut (more than 50%), and the spurs are willing to fill out the rest of the roster with vet mins and rookie contracts, its never going to happen. i just pray we can put together a quality roster; heres to hoping finely and/or bowen re-up on the cheap.

Where does it say the Spurs will have a lot of money in the article? I don't see that statement.
I believe the assumption is that Tiny Tim will rengotiate the last two years of his existing deal into a long term extension that will see him end his career in SA. And that assumption is probably based upon Duncan taking less than the $20 and $22 million he is owed during those two years to create some cap space.

Why would they list 3 other marquee PFs right after saying that Duncan would be extended? And if they do this, why not list these guys as FCs?
Excellent point.