The Guilty Party wrote:Am I the only one who believes Ed is not going after any of the FA's this summer? Stefanski stated over and over when he was hired that he is against the idea of overpaying players and putting his team is financial hell. While Okafor and Smith would look nice on our team, in order to get them here we would have to severely overpay for them.
I have said the same thing. I think Ed's primary goal is going to be finding a trade to get that PF. Unless he like Jamison, I think the trade route will be the only other option. I'm not sure either Okafor or Smith fit the profile he has layed out for the type of PF he wants and they both will probably command more $$ than he wants to pay them. I doubt he would give out a long term contract to either if they aren't what he wants (scoring, back to the basket style PF).
I know it was mentioned that Marion may be the guy he really wants, but I'm not convinced of that. Marion is not a back to basket style guy and would be a short PF. I think he will fit great with an athletic lineup, but with the age factor, I think guys like Brand, Gasol, Amare, and my sleeper pick...Krstic (RFA) all fit better than Marion long term. I would not be unhappy if we got Marion though, just not my 1st choice.
If going the trade route, the PF's I pray that we avoid at all costs are Zach Raandolph, Gooden, Al Harrington, J. O'Neal and Villanueva. For different reason, I think all those guys would be horrible fits.
The Guilty Party wrote:I believe Ed is happy with $10MIL in cap space because he plans on trading it and not just banking on overpaying someone. Look at some of the deals that were done this past off-season.
I'm pretty confident he's looking to get more cap room and 10 mil is not quite enough in his eyes to get that "impact" player. It might be enough if going the trade route, but I still think he sees a big diefference between 10 and 14 mil.