Posted by orangeblobman:
I don't know, exactly, what the deal is. But it might have something to do with those 'phantom players'. If you can't fill your roster out, you're required to add phantom players which count in towards the cap. So these guys, Crawford and Hunter, may or may not be real human beings.
Yeah but it looks like we have a commitment to these two specifically. And $736,000 is more than the minimum isn't it?
Well regardless, this is how I might look to piece together the roster for this year:
These are the guaranteed contracts and taken roster spots (some immovable, at least for the time being):
Hughes
Curry
Harrington
Mobley
Darko
Jeffries
Duhon
Gallo
Hill
Chandler
Douglas
Crawford
Hunter
----------------------
That's 13 spots not counting Lee & Nate. First I might pass on Nate altogether, esp. if I can't get him w/o his QO protection. Either I retain him with the idea of trading him with a Curry or Jeffries or I might just let him go.
The more I think about it, I might make that trade with Portland for Outlaw & Blake if nothing better presents itself. That's 1 for 2, so now we're at 14.
I'm still on the fence with adding Ramon Sessions. If we go get him, it'll have to be for a portion of the MLE where I have enough left over to add a few extra players to round out the roster for more than minimum wage. Or I might just pass on Sessions altogether and stay the course with Duhon, Blake and Douglas this season at the point and see what next season brings. If we don't add Sessions that's more money we'll have available to keep Outlaw -- if we can't get LeBron, I'd wanna hang on to Outlaw if I could.
I get it back down to either 12 (minus Sessions) or 13 (with Sessions) by buying out Crawford & Chris Hunter at a nominal cost, unless I can pawn either or both off on Portland in the Lee deal. With the last 2 spots, I'm offering contracts to one of these 3 shooting guard prospects (in order): Wesley Matthews (big, solid athlete, great slasher - gets to the line a ton & makes his FTs, budding perimeter threat), AD Vassallo (smooth, heady player, very good outside stroke, very similar in style to H2O), KC Rivers (doesn't get to the line much but he has good size, a nice lefty stroke from deep & he plays good defense).
Then with either 1 or 2 spots left over, I offer contracts to either Brandon Costner (6'9" 230 lb. lefty big that can play the 3/4, stroke it from deep, post up, run the floor, handle the ball & rebound. Very versatile package, looks to have a pretty high skill level. Picture a slightly less athletic Thaddeus Young) and/or Ben McCauley (6'9"-6'10", 240 lb. post player with good moves with his back to the basket & good footwork, a surprisingly decent mid-range touch and a very good nose for the ball/very good rebounding potential. Picture a poor man's Kevin Love).
The depth chart would then look like this (without Sessions):
1 - Duhon/Douglas/Blake
2 - Chandler/Matthews, Vassallo or Rivers/Hughes
3 - Harrington/Outlaw/Jeffries
4 - Hill/Gallinari/Costner/McCauley (or you could start Harrington here and start Outlaw or Gallinari at the 3)
5 - Darko/Curry
That's far from terrible. I could get into that team. I might then utilize the D-League for guys like the 2-guard prospect (Matthews, etc.), Costner and McCauley, maybe even Toney Douglas if MDA preferred to go with more of a Duhon/Blake veteran tandem at the point for the time being, though I would like to see Douglas get at least a little time at the NBA level this season. I don't particularly care for the NBDL, to me I'm not sure how much coaching and teaching is really going on, but I guess it would at least insure regular playing time for these guys and I guess with regular PT comes at least some development. Once the dust settles the following year when we actually clear some roster room, these young guys will then become part of the regular rotation. I might decide to worry about the PG situation next year - maybe we could snag a nice talent late in the draft or maybe we choose to bring back Duhon for another year or two, a guy who's already fimilar with MDA & his system.
It's a little unconventional & outside the box but I think it's wise for us to start thinking a few steps ahead. And you can never go wrong with stockpiling young talent. This could be a nice opportunity to find and develop the next John Starks and Anthony Mason here...
[Edited by - finestrg on 08-31-2009 4:02 PM]
