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Last November, Chad Ford wrote a very compelling article on the state of the free agencey class for 2008. You can look at it here if you are an Insider http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=FreeAgents--071127.

The gist of the article was that there are 22 of the 30 teams are very close or over the luxury tax threshold. With the exception of the Knicks, it is really becoming a hard cap.

What this means is that most free agents are not going to get good deals. The MLE is not being used by most teams. It was just a few years ago that everyone seemed to be using it. Not anymore.

Over the next few years, teams are going to bring down salaries by not overspending. It will take a few more years for the adjustment to take place. The free agents for the next couple of years are basically going to get screwed.

Why is this important? I think a team that has cap space will be able to pick up free agents with the MLE very easily. We're not talking LeBron and such, but solid rotation players should be able to be picked up for just a partial MLE, and some starters should be available for the MLE.

I know a few of you mentioned that cap space is overrated, and in the past, I agree. But I think there might be a window opening in the next couple of years where cap space could create some huge shopping potential for those well managed teams. I can only assume that Joe D will make sure we're one of them.

Chad Ford also wrote that Darko was "lethal from the post and the perimeter". Still, it's an interesting argument...just thought I'd throw that out there.

Yes Chad Ford probably wrote something like that and he (and most of us) were all wrong about Darko. No one checked to see if he had a heart.

Anyway, I'm sure that it will be a tough couple of years for free agents - whether or not we can leverage it or not is another question, but getting rid of Nazr sure helps.

Our problem (and strength) is that our core is not over-paid, but they all make about 10mil a year. We really could use one or two of them to be making the MLE.

^yeah, even though we have everybody at such a "bargain" on the whole our starters probably make about as much as most other teams. It's just divided more evenly amongst the 5 as opposed to having 1 or 2 max players and then a couple of mle caliber salaries.

Dumping Nazr does help though. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Sheed next year. He'll be a big expiring and could potentially have decent value to another team looking to contend if we finally decide it's time to retool or rebuild. But I have a feeling that we're gonna extend him like we did with Dice, and between that and Maxiell a lot our cap space is gonna go buh-bye.

Hunter wrote:^yeah, even though we have everybody at such a "bargain" on the whole our starters probably make about as much as most other teams. It's just divided more evenly amongst the 5 as opposed to having 1 or 2 max players and then a couple of mle caliber salaries.

Dumping Nazr does help though. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Sheed next year. He'll be a big expiring and could potentially have decent value to another team looking to contend if we finally decide it's time to retool or rebuild. But I have a feeling that we're gonna extend him like we did with Dice, and between that and Maxiell a lot our cap space is gonna go buh-bye.

Sure does, hopefully it can give us some flexibility this off season as well. With Sheed, we can't extend him until the off season, is that correct, or is the other possibility of just letting him walk after next season.

Who might we bring in?

I'd be interested in seeing numbers. If we let all of our expirings go, how much room do we have? also who's available and who's restricted-available?

According to hoopshype we will have 53,837,079 tied up in Rasheed/Chauncey/Rip/Tay/Amir/Stuckey/Maxiell/Afflalo/Samb. McDyess' salary is not included, which according to ESPN is $6,373,900 for this season. It'd go up next year.
We'd have over 60 million dollars in salary, I expect, between ten players. The MLE, LLE(?), and any veterans or rookies are ours for the signing.
http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries/detroit.htm

theBigLip wrote:Last November, Chad Ford wrote a very compelling article on the state of the free agencey class for 2008. You can look at it here if you are an Insider http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/insider/columns/story?columnist=ford_chad&page=FreeAgents--071127.

The gist of the article was that there are 22 of the 30 teams are very close or over the luxury tax threshold. With the exception of the Knicks, it is really becoming a hard cap.

What this means is that most free agents are not going to get good deals. The MLE is not being used by most teams. It was just a few years ago that everyone seemed to be using it. Not anymore.

Over the next few years, teams are going to bring down salaries by not overspending. It will take a few more years for the adjustment to take place. The free agents for the next couple of years are basically going to get screwed.

Why is this important? I think a team that has cap space will be able to pick up free agents with the MLE very easily. We're not talking LeBron and such, but solid rotation players should be able to be picked up for just a partial MLE, and some starters should be available for the MLE.

I know a few of you mentioned that cap space is overrated, and in the past, I agree. But I think there might be a window opening in the next couple of years where cap space could create some huge shopping potential for those well managed teams. I can only assume that Joe D will make sure we're one of them.

Ive always said cap space is overated (been sayin that for years, actually), but there's a clear distinction between cap space and LT wiggle room. Ill restate my general problem with cap space, then address your particular point.

Cap space itself is overated for two reasons, at least in my eyes:

1) It gives players leverage over teams and the ability to hold out for most or all of a team's available money (see Rashard Lewis, Peja), forcing the team into a bad deal just so they can have something to show for their the self deprivation they went through leading up to their bonanza of cap space.

2) If you have cap space, you either dont have much talent and are therefor unappealing or you have young talent thats due a big payday down the road. Again, take a look at Orlando. When Howard's big extension kicks in and they are still paying Rashard all that money you can BET theyll be feeling the pinch if they wont pay the LT. Theyll be shelling out 30 million to two players (who IMO arent a championship combo), with that figure rising over the next 4 years. Yikes.

You might be right about the market changing, so its important to this team to be well under the luxury tax limit. The MLE could be extremely valuable. I dont know how realistic it will be for us to be looking at actual cap space, though. Rasheed will likely get a new deal (hopefully cheaper than the one he's in now. Dice, Rip, Tay, and Billups are all safely under contract for a few years, and if our youth pans out theyll eventually need paydays as well.

If we play our cards right, we could remain under the LT, but Im not really inclined to believe we'll have cap space exceeding what the MLE would be. Doesnt strike me as realistic, and the sacrifices we'd have to make to get cap space (as often is the case) may not be worth it.