Detroit has the edge for Rasheed
http://www.detnews.com/2004/pistons/0406/24/g01-193807.htm

By Chris McCosky / The Detroit News

AUBURN HILLS — With the NBA draft and free-agent season looming, Joe Dumars wanted to get away — even if for just a day, last weekend, in New York, with his family.

He wouldn’t be so lucky.

“So I’m walking down the street with my son Jordan, taking him to the NBA Store (on 5th Avenue),” Dumars said. “There are eight million people in New York City and I walk right into Isiah Thomas.”

Dumars laughed at the improbability. The two went inside the store and talked. Naturally, the subject of free agent Rasheed Wallace came up and on that the two agreed — the Pistons were in the best position to sign him.

“Listen, they (Thomas’ Knicks) have a $5 million mid-level exception (to offer Wallace),” Dumars said.

The Pistons could, if they wanted, offer three times that amount.

“That’s Rasheed’s call now,” Dumars said. “I feel real good about it and Isiah said the same thing.”

It could very well be that the Pistons are now the only player in the Wallace sweepstakes. Teams with the most salary-cap space — Phoenix, Utah, Denver, San Antonio and the Los Angeles Clippers — haven’t as yet expressed interest in bidding on Wallace.

Also, suddenly several marquee players are being made available for trades — like Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce, Ron Artest, Shaquille O’Neal, Allen Iverson and others.

But, Dumars said, that will not change the way he plans to negotiate with Wallace.

“There are still a lot of teams out there with money,” Dumars said. “Even though we haven’t had a lot of feedback from anybody wanting to jump in, you still have to go about it and do it the right way. Even if you fully believe you are bidding against yourself, you can’t try to low-ball somebody. I won’t do that. I am going to deal straight-up and get a fair deal done.”

As for recruiting Wallace, Dumars said, that has already been done.

“Our situation speaks for itself,” he said. “I don’t have a huge sales pitch. What am I going to say? ‘Let me tell you about this city. We’re going to win a championship one day. We’ve got a great crowd. They are going to love you here.’ He lived that. He saw it.

“What else am I going to tell him?”

Wallace officially becomes a free agent on July 1 and can sign as early as July 14.

Dumars’ second priority of the summer is to re-sign Mehmet Okur. Okur is a restricted free agent. Dumars, though he isn’t giving up, isn’t nearly as confident of his chances to re-sign Okur.

“The big thing with Memo is playing time and knowing what his role is going to be,” Dumars said. “That’s what he has said to me. It’s that more than money. Now, do I think there are teams out there that will offer him more than the mid-level? Yes. But I don’t know if that will be his bottom line. I don’t know that he would just take the money and go.”

Dumars said a couple of teams have said they planned to overpay to get Okur.

“The fact that he played minimal minutes in the playoffs didn’t lessen the interest in him,” Dumars said. “It’s hard to find 7-footers with that kind of skill. But I am limited in what I can do. We can match, but if teams overpay him, I would have to renounce Rasheed Wallace (in order to have cap space to match), and I won’t do that.”

The Pistons can match any deal up to $5 million without renouncing Wallace.

If Okur did sign elsewhere, Dumars said he would use the mid-level exception to sign another free agent.

“We will be OK,” he said.

But don’t look for Dumars to get involved in the bidding for the likes of O’Neal, McGrady or any of the other available superstars.

“I would have to give up half of my team,” he said. “I am not doing that. Especially with our position, having just won the championship and with our team being built the way it was. That’s just not an option for us.”

I say, that's a good news. They want sheed ? great, keep him.

But from day one, we must offer okur the whole mid lev exception without optout after his third yr so that he can get a bigger contract if he deserves it.

We make him our starting center, big playing time. We show him the tremendous effect of playing pick and roll with marbury like doleac used to do it.

Whine and dine, show him the city. make him feel at thome. Ask the ny turkish community a lift to push him come around.

That would be a big play imho.

detroit can just match, we offer a better playing situation and the opportunity to play in NY.

What's your take ?

Aren't they a lil bit under the cap if they resign wallace with less than what he currently makes ?

I thought thatw as the deal, they had to make one of the 2 swallow his pride and take less to give his money to the other one in order to keep both.

I'm pretty sure thay wouldn't have a MLE in other case.

can anyone correct me if I'm wrong ?

If we are interested in Okur then why didn't zeke try to keep lampe, Is Okur that much better of a prospect than lampe? just asking..

Posted by fishmike:

This is exactly how it works. Any team over the cap has a MLE. Even if you are under the cap, but go over to sign your own FAs you still get one. Right now Det doesnt have ANY cap space until they renounce Sheed's Bird rights. Then they are only about $11 mill under the cap. They could give Sheed a big extension, go over the cap, then resign Okur using the MLE or match another teams MLE offer (Okur is an RFA). What they CANT do is match an offer larger then the MLE, unless the give up Sheed's Bird rights (thus clearing the hold on that $11 mill in space).
The bottom line is they cant resign both for more than the MLE. If one will take a MLE offer (it doesnt matter which one) they can give the other more money for the above mentioned reasons, either cap space or Bird rights.

Hope that made sense

that certainly clears up alot of things for me...

now, what is this "cap space" you keep referring to?

do you think that the detroit conenction isiah and joe d share would help ?