kumquat wrote:If we get Hinrich and it kills our cap, I want Nocioni to come along too.
it wouldn't kill the cap-space if Blake was not on the roster come summer.
with Hinrich added to the other contracts (other then blake & Diogu), the team salary would be about 43.8 million (10 players). Bump that to about 45 million for automatic cap-holds for 12 roster spots (although with four 2nd round picks the blazers could have a couple of player at rookie minimums)
then, if you assume a salary cap of 57-61 million, Portland could have 12-16 million in cap-space. It's not enough to sign a max contract player, but it's not likely portland would want one with roy, aldridge, & oden being in line for extensions. It would be enough space to pursue a player like Turkoglu, and it's certainly enough space to be major leverage in a trade.
of course, it all assumes Miles does not play. But that Miles situation coupled with Hinrich's injury would make this a deal more likely to happen close to the trade deadline. There could be some kind of tentative deal in principle in place right now, contingent on a few factors. For portland, the closer to the trade deadline it gets, the safer they would be going for an injured player...who should be recovered by the deadline. Furthermore, if Miles hasn't signed with a team by then it's very unlikely he will be signed with that 10 game suspension hanging over his head, and the fact it would have to be a guaranteed contract.