RealGM

As we talk about this offseason and potential trades and what not, I see a lot of people mention our ability next year to possibly sign a free agent to a max deal.

I got to thinking about this and how the Wolves haven't been in this postion as long as I can remember.

However, going from the realgm free agent database...
http://realgm.com/src_freeagents/2009/

...I don't really see too many players that are:

1) Worth a max deal.
2) Would come to a rebuilding Minnesota just to get a max deal.
3) Are young enough and have enough talent to put us over the hump.

Furthermore, a lot of the listed free agents are restricted meaning many of them could end up signing extentions before they even become free agents.

In light of all this, is our cap space next summer THAT valuable? Would we be better served using those expirings in a trade? I'm leaning toward yes.

It must be noted that it is questionable what kind of talent we could get with those expirings though.

What do you guys think?

Summer of 2010 is what some teams are saving for (Knicks). That is when Wade and LeBron can opt-out of their contracts.

As of right now, the only two players who would be under contract would be Big Al ($13M) and Jaric ($7.6M) for a total of $20.6M.

Buckner has a player option for that year for $4.3M, which he almost assuredly is going to exercise, and Foye and Brewer will mostly likely still be on the roster filling out their rookie contracts at $4.8M and $3.7M respectively.

Now the following will just be an estimate of what our cap situation may be in like in summer of 2010.

Jefferson, Jaric, Buckner, Foye, and Brewer add up to $33.4M. Now assuming we extend Gomes OR Telfair this year, that will be roughly $2-7M. So we're looking at $35.4M-40.4M for 6 players.

Throw in our #3 this year, who should be making roughly $4.4M that year and you have $39.8M-44.8M for 7 players.

Assuming we don't trade our 2nd rounders, those two players should equal to about $1.5M that year so now we're looking at $41.3M-46.3M for 9 players.

Then we have to factor in draft picks from the 2009 and 2010 draft. 2009 could be potentially 3 picks. Let's assume we're getting all 3 picks, that would be about $4M-$7M for 2009. 2010 we could lose our draft pick but once again let's assume we don't. That's another $2M-4M. So $6M-11M for our draft picks in 2009 and 2010.


Assuming the salary cap is raised by 4.5% every year until then, the salary cap will be $63.5M. So that leaves $6.2M-16.2M in cap space for that year with 9 players under contract.

Of course this isn't a realistic estimation but I think it gives us a good idea that potentially we could make a huge offer to someone.

I've never read anywhere that we were gearing up to make a big free agent acquisition in 2010 so all those calculations could be irrelevant.

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/19374834.html?location_refer=Homepage

Glen Taylor said he doesn't believe the team will be a title contender until the 2009-2010 season, when they can wipe $20 million off the books being paid to Troy Hudson, Juwan Howard and Antoine Walker. Then that money will be freed up under the salary cap to sign some top free agents.

In the 2010-2011 season, the Wolves have Buckner and Jaric in their last year.

Unlike trading expiring contracts, free agency gives you opportunity to add players without giving up any assets. There are a few nice complimentary players out there, maybe not worth the max but worth having on the team.
You can also trade cap space the same way you would an expiring contract. If we don't sign a quality free agent, we haven't lost the opportunity to make a trade.

Fyi, Buckner's contract isn't fully guaranteed. Just a little over $1mil in 09/10 and nothing in 10/11.

If anything, it's undervalued. Look what Seattle did this past year. They turned $8 Million in cap space into 3 late firsts. 2 from the Suns for taking Kurt Thomas' contract, and then one from the Spurs for trading Kurt Thomas.

You don't just have to blow it on a max deal free agent, Mayo-Jefferson-Foye should be a capable trio, we can use the cap space to pad the bench and bring in quality role players.