Maybe Dalembert is the answer?

[Diesel]

Seeing that we have to spend a great portion of our cap anyway, maybe sending a max deal to Dalembert is the way to go. The reason is because he matches what we are trying to do. He's athletic, he's defensive, he's young, he has experience with our coaching staff.

If we decided to persue him, I wouldn't be mad because our coaches already know a lot about him.

The other thing is because of his youth and his potential.. He would probably hold most of his value very well.

But given the choice of a max deal to Allen, Z, Tyson, or Dally... I choose Dally.

The backup plan is:

Kwame - 5 yr 44 million & Gadzuric 5 yr 33 million. Both with team options in the 3rd year.

[Yeti]

I think that is WAY too much money for any of them. Based on performance Kwame should expect a pay cut. Giving him a long term, high price, contract would kill us - like Henderson did. And if he isn't motivated, I'd expect no improvement either. Offer 8-10 for 2 years with a team option and a lot of incentives. If he has confidence in himself, he'll take it and work to improve his reputation.

[KB21]

Exactly!

I like Dalembert, but you don't pay a guy a max contract when, at best, he's a 12 ppg/9 rpg/2 bpg player. You could get Stromile Swift for half that, and Stro would put up 15 ppg/7 rpg/3 bpg.

Mishandling free agency now will cost us later. IMO, it's more important for us to have the money to resign Josh Childress, Josh Smith, and Marvin Williams down the road than it is to overpay a player just to get them to come here.

We are much better off being frugal in free agency and building through the draft.

[Diesel]

Washington gave him that qualifying offer so any team that takes him will have to put up more than 7 million. This keeps pesky NY from offering him a MLE deal. Washington was very shrewd. I also expect that a cheap deal Washington will match so that they could trade him by midseason.

I would take my chance with a 5 yr 44 million dollar deal. That might be a deal that Washington knows many teams won't trade for.

[Diesel]

With the first selection of the 2006 draft, the Hawks select:

Rudy Gay.

That's your dream huh??

[mrhonline]

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Washington gave him that qualifying offer so any team that takes him will have to put up more than 7 million. This keeps pesky NY from offering him a MLE deal. Washington was very shrewd. I also expect that a cheap deal Washington will match so that they could trade him by midseason.

I would take my chance with a 5 yr 44 million dollar deal. That might be a deal that Washington knows many teams won't trade for.

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You're assuming that Washington will match any offer under $7M. I'm not sure that's the case.

I would bet they would prefer a S&T.

Diaw -for- Kwame.

[Diesel]

Yeah.. I think they probably would go for a SNT with us. If we can get them to SNT Kwame for Diaw with Kwame getting maybe 5 yr 33 million, that would be great for us.

I would have to think that NY would try a SNT too. Maybe they are willing to give up one of their players, but with Washington wanting to resign Hughes, I think they would try not to take back a lot of salary!

[Admin]

and thats about 40 lbs. All things being equal I take Daly over him every day of the week. I dont want a 225 lb center. Hell he isnt even nearly as big as Amare and the Suns have learned that you cant win a championship with someone his size starting at center.

We all know that Daly isnt worth the max. However, I would give him a pretty damn spectacular offer that is frontloaded big time to get him here, although it wouldnt be a max offer. I might offer him 20 million the first year and then severely decrease it after that because I dont think Philly would be willing to pony up that kinda cash this year.

You might think that Daly can only give you 12/9/2, but I would say 15/12/2-3 is much more realistic when you consider the numbers he has put up being a distant afterthought on the Sixers. He fits our team almost perfectly as well, with his only drawback being that he isnt a top notch shooter from 12' out.

[Guest Walter]

Philly, especially with the new Michael Finley rule allowing teams to dump any player if they are about to pay the luxury? G'bye Jamal Mashburn and they aren't paying the luxury. Just wondering what you think it will take to keep Philly from matching. Marc Jackson would be their new starting center BTW.

W

[mrhonline]

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Yeah.. I think they probably would go for a SNT with us. If we can get them to SNT Kwame for Diaw with Kwame getting maybe 5 yr 33 million, that would be great for us.

I would have to think that NY would try a SNT too. Maybe they are willing to give up one of their players, but with Washington wanting to resign Hughes, I think they would try not to take back a lot of salary!

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I agree that NY is the main competition for Kwame.

But if you're Kwame, wouldn't you rather come home, esp. since Atlanta can offer the same $?

And what does NY have to offer in a S&T? Would Washington want Jerome Williams + Mike Sweetney?

If NY trade Sweetney to get Kwame, that's just another nail in Isaiah's coffin.

[KB21]

That deal is a cap busting deal if Kwame continues to be the Kwame he has been. You simply don't give a guy who has averaged around 7 ppg and 4 rpg for his career a 5 year, $44 million contract, no matter how much potential he has.

[KB21]

The media thinks New York can make a deal, but no one is going to take on the bad contracts they have.

Atlanta has a terrific trading pawn in Al Harrington right now, but I wouldn't deal Al for Kwame straight up. We are rooking ourselves by doing that. I believe Washington will have to throw in a first round pick to make that deal work.

Banking on Kwame is like playing with fire at this point. It could burn you. I trust that Billy Knight isn't going to give him a ridiculous contract offer like the one Diesel mentions. As I have said before, the only contract I would give Kwame is a 2-3 year deal worth $8-12 million with and option. By giving him that deal, we wouldn't saddle ourselves with a bad contract. We will retain the ability to go over the cap to keep Josh Smith, Josh Childress, and Marvin Williams down the road. We give Kwame a chance to prove himself in his home state.

[MoonKnight]

Any team that pays him 5 yr 44 million dollar deal is making a very bad choice. Kwame QUIT on his team while in the playoffs by faking an injury (he was then taken off the roster). He did this in a contract year! He has serious character and maturity issues yet some here would reward him with a fat contract. Kwame and Curry are the two FA 5 spot types I would stay away from except as a last resort. Even then, they would get nothing from me other than a low contract offer. Let NY and their goldenboy GM make their usual bone headed moves.

[Admin]

Lets say we offer him 20 million this year, that combined with Webbers 20 million and AIs 16 million puts them at 56 million for 3 players. Then you still have Mac n cheese at 6 mil, McKie at 6 mil, Jackson at 4.5 mil, etc. If they match us and even cut Mash, that still puts them at 82 million this year. I just cant see them doing that.

[mrhonline]

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Lets say we offer him 20 million this year, that combined with Webbers 20 million and AIs 16 million puts them at 56 million for 3 players. Then you still have Mac n cheese at 6 mil, McKie at 6 mil, Jackson at 4.5 mil, etc. If they match us and even cut Mash, that still puts them at 82 million this year. I just cant see them doing that.

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Something to take into consideration with Philly's salary situation:

Mashburn and TMac's contracts are like Terrell Brandon's a few years ago. They come off the books sometime in the middle of the year and they don't count vs. the luxury tax.

Also, Greg Buckner opted out.

So, if you add up the contracts that Philly has that will count vs. the luxury tax, they currently have ~$53M in salaries. (That doesn't include money they would have to give to Korver, Green, or Dalembert, but it also doesn't take into consideration that they might use the Allan Houston rule on Aaron McKie).

They have the money to max out Daly, it's just a matter of whether they want to or not.

[TROUBLEMAN69]

Quote:

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and thats about 40 lbs. All things being equal I take Daly over him every day of the week. I dont want a 225 lb center. Hell he isnt even nearly as big as Amare and the Suns have learned that you cant win a championship with someone his size starting at center.

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I disagree with that statement. Amare averaged 29 pts and 10 boards during the playoffs. He averaged 37 and 9 against the Spurs in the Western Conference Finals. The Suns lost, because guys like Marion and QRich were shutdown, which had nothing to do with the size of Amare. They also lost because they had Marion playing the 4, which is where the biggest mismatches occurred. The Pistons have won a championship with Ben Wallace playing center, and he is about Amare's size. The difference is they had Rasheed next to Ben.

[mrhonline]

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As I have said before, the only contract I would give Kwame is a 2-3 year deal worth $8-12 million with and option. By giving him that deal, we wouldn't saddle ourselves with a bad contract.

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Any contract to Kwame will have to be more than the MLE or he'll go to the New York.

I would do the following:

Year 1: $6.00M

Year 2: $6.51M

Year 3: $7.02M

Year 4: $7.53M (team option)

Year 5: $8.04M (player option)

That way, Kwame is only guaranteed 3 years, $20M or so. However, there's a good chance that Washington would match that offer.

If they don't want to keep Kwame after the playoff disaster, then they could S&T him to Atlanta for Boris Diaw, who they could use.

[Admin]

Why was the first thing Phoenix said about their offseason being moving Amare and Shawn back to their natural positions and getting a more traditional (at least size wise) center? Because they know that they cant win with a PF playing C. Not unless you have a 7' PF like Rasheed playing beside you.

Anyways, you missed the point. The point was that no team, not even Phoenix, would try and trot out a 225 lb UNDERSIZED PF as their starting C and expect to win any games. I mean seriously, the guy is 225 lbs. That is freaking tiny. I dont care how tall he is when he isnt even as big as our rookie SF.

[KB21]

Wait. When did Kurt Thomas at 6'9" become your more traditional sized center?

[mrhonline]

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Anyways, you missed the point. The point was that no team, not even Phoenix, would try and trot out a 225 lb UNDERSIZED PF as their starting C

and expect to win any games

. I mean seriously, the guy is 225 lbs. That is freaking tiny. I dont care how tall he is when he isnt even as big as our rookie SF.

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I don't mean to butt in, but I think that if the Hawks signed Swift, he would play C for one year until the Hawks could get someone else.

Next year, he would take Al Harrington's place at PF.

I'm not sure that's a good idea, but I'm pretty certain the Hawks don't plan on signing Swift to play center long-term.