Post#5 » by shrink » Thu May 21, 2009 1:31 pm
The Wolves have said that they only wish to add two rookies to their roster, and we already have roster size issues. The #28 pick will carry $900,000 guaranteed salary in 2010 that bites into our raw cap space. Finally, the #28 in this year's draft may not even be a rotation player.
The trade I might hope for from any of them is a future protected 1st.
San Antonio only has 12 players under contract, and is already at $69.5 mil, so it makes sense that they may want to trade into this year's draft and pick up a cheap player. Their team has been built to "win-now" for several years, so their cupboards are pretty bare for assets that fit our team. I suppose that if they are feeling that their promising young euros, Mahinmi or Splitter, won't become anything in the NBA, that's a possibility, but I don't follow that drama very closely.
Toronto could offer us 2009 cap space if they renounce their. Perhaps something like Madsen + #28 for a TPE. This is intrigueing, because since we got the #6 pick, we are sitting at close to $3 mil under the salary cap. The MLE may be around $5.6 mil, so we can't make an attractive free agent offer with our cap space that would exceed what a player could get for the MLE. however, in a deal like that, we'd remove Madsen's $2.84, plus $836,300 for the pick, and be sitting at about $6.5 mil under the cap. We could use the space in free agency, or as a valuable commodity in trade.
Of course, TOR might make a nice team to trade up with. They own the #9 pick, and have a pretty short roster as well. #18 + #27 probably doesn't get there, but perhaps we could add more. I might give the 6' 5" PG Roko Ukic a look as well.
HOU's a very tough, and I just don't see anything except trading a future 1st.
Of course, many of these teams may just try to buy the pick for cash. Hopefully, Glen Taylor's wealth makes him less likely to accept that offer, but its commonplace for GM's, (or any businessmen), to sell an asset for more than its worth. Obviously it only helps us fans if its dealt for something that improves the team, but its hard to imagine that the #28 pick in this draft is worth $3 mil, plus the guaranteed salary attached, so I wouldn't blame him if he sold it. Even a direct sale helps our roster issues and gives us a little more raw cap space in 2010.