Post#24 » by Scoot McGroot » Sat Jul 19, 2008 8:52 pm
I'm guessing all the other teams that had cap space were simply hoping for Baron Davis or Elton Brand, and possibly a Gilbert Arenas moreso than a Marcus Camby. Once the Sixers spent their money on Brand, the Warriors got rebuffed in their offer to Arenas and Brand (and then spent their money on Maggette), and the Clippers spent their money on Davis, and had some money left over from brand signing in Philly, Camby was next on the list of valuable commodities, yet Memphis was one of the only teams that still had significant cash under the cap, and they had already said they're not going to spend their cap space this offseason, but rather next or the year after.
Rather than sending Camby and Nene out for large expiring deals (the only possibility might've been Marbury, but Nene's enough negative that he would've shut down that deal, just like Martin would've) they cleared the cap space immediately. They got under the luxury tax this year, thus saving them almost $20 million in salary, and earning them the roughly $6-8 million they'd get in luxury tax redistribution payments. If they moved Camby and Nene for Marbury, they would've lost roughly $26 million this year, and then saved $33.4 million over the lifetime of Nene's contract, but Denver would've already been under the luxury tax just from Iverson's contract expiring.
I think, ultimately, they did the right thing financially, but should've gotten back a future 1st rounder in return and taken on a small salary this year if they needed to. However, I think they just needed the financial benefit.
Apparently the Clippers were driving a hard bargain. They apparently demanded a Knicks 1st rounder, $3 million in cash, and for the Knicks to take on the last year of Brevin Knight's deal as well. The Nuggets didn't have to pay anything in cash, picks, or taking on any salary in return.
