Free agents this summer

[mbkings10]

Now that we traded Bibby for all those expiring contracts, seeing that we don't resign Lue, Johnson or Wright, we will have a lot more cap space this summer. Do you think Petrie will look to big a big splash this summer or wait it out? Looking at the list of free agents, there aren't too many great ones. Arenas has said he wants to test the free agent waters and Jamison is also an unrestricted free agent. I'm not sure either one really fits with the Kings, but they may be the best free agents on the market. Who do you think the Kings should go after? BTW here is a link to the list of free agents this summer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=2008freeagents

 

[Glenn]

How much money do you think the Kings will have to pursue a free agent? Without calculating anything, I think the Bibby trade simply got us below the luxury cap which we were going to top once Martin's new contract kicked in.

The luxury cap is roughly $10 mil above the salary cap and to have enough money to pursue even the least expensive of free agents, because of paragraph 20 of this explanation of the salary cap rules, a team would have to be more than $10 million under the salary cap.

 

[SacTownKid]

yeah as of now we will have no cap space. I think this was moreso a deal to be able to re-sign Beno.

 

[bajaden]

How much money do you think the Kings will have to pursue a free agent? Without calculating anything, I think the Bibby trade simply got us below the luxury cap which we were going to top once Martin's new contract kicked in.

The luxury cap is roughly $10 mil above the salary cap and to have enough money to pursue even the least expensive of free agents, because of paragraph 20 of this explanation of the salary cap rules, a team would have to be more than $10 million under the salary cap.

As I stated before, all the team has to do is renounce the excemptions and it will have all the space available to it. Thus, if the team is lets say 7 mil under the cap and has both of its excemptions that add up to 7.5 mil total, it could renounce its excemptions and have the whole 7 mil to work with, as opposed to not renouncing its excemptions and have 5 mil and 2.5 mil to use on indiviual players. If the team is targeting one player to sign, then renouncing its excemptions and using the entire 7 mil would be advantagous.

 

[bajaden]

By the by. For those who are interested, aside from how much the Kings are able to releive themselves of salary by trading Bibby and Artest (hopefully), this year, they will also have $29,403,125.00 coming off the books after next year. Of course thats not counting what may be added to the books, by lets say resigning Beno etc. The cap after next year should be somewhere close to 60 mil if the natural progression continues.

All things considered, the Kings could easily be close to 30 mil under the cap even with some minor signings. We'll see.....

 

[Elektrik]

Now that we traded Bibby for all those expiring contracts, seeing that we don't resign Lue, Johnson or Wright, we will have a lot more cap space this summer. Do you think Petrie will look to big a big splash this summer or wait it out? Looking at the list of free agents, there aren't too many great ones. Arenas has said he wants to test the free agent waters and Jamison is also an unrestricted free agent. I'm not sure either one really fits with the Kings, but they may be the best free agents on the market. Who do you think the Kings should go after? BTW here is a link to the list of free agents this summer.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?page=2008freeagents

I certainly wasn't impressed with the list of free agents. There are very few who I would want to spend any major bucks on. I also didnt look closely at the restricted free agents either because I rarely see those players actually moving. I say keep making room for the following year, even if next year is painful, and thats when we should make our big play. It's a solid strateg.

 

[HndsmCelt]

Yup, untill the Kings cut a heck of a lot more sallery this FA list is just a wish list for the Kings.

 

[FakeInjury]

Sign and trades will be utilized

 

[HndsmCelt]

Sign and trades will be utilized

Uh maybe. First of all you have to have something the other team wants enought to s&t for. Im not saying it can't happen, but the last time we did pull one off it was the Brad Miller trade and whenI look at our roster there are not a lot of "moveable pieces"

 

[nbrans]

According to Amick, the Kings are at $62 million in committed salary next season after the Bibby trade, however, I'm pretty sure that includes Artest's deal (since he has an opt-out), so really they're around $54 million. The salary cap will probably be around $57 million, meaning if we clear Brad's salary for expirings (such as to Orlando) we could potentially have about $13 million in cap room THIS offseason.

In terms of fit, need and potential, I think this would be the list (keeping in mind that we could potentially sign two guys -- one bigger name and one smaller one). This isn't necessarily a rank of how good I think these players are, but rather ranked in order of how much they make sense for the Kings:

1) Jose Calderon - PG of the future. Steady, consistent, can push the ball and hit the outside shot. He's a restricted free agent and Toronto is probably going to want to re-sign him, but with TJ Ford already locked up in a big deal, how much can they pay these two guys to split time at PG?
2) Josh Smith - really more of a SF, but has shown he can play at PF in a running game. Great shotblocker and diversifying offensive game. Supposedly a head-case.
3) Elton Brand - a little older than the other guys on the list, and coming off bad ankle injury, but pre-injury was one of the best PFs in the league. Still only 28, but a lot of mileage.
4) Monta Ellis - we've seen what he can do. Some question about whether he could play the point, but I think he's shown flashes of PG ability and will grow into the role. Ellis/Martin would be a killer backcourt.
5) Luol Deng - maybe not the best fit since we're already jammed at SF, but a good hustle-player who doesn't need the ball
6) Beno - tough to know what his value would be around the league, and I'm not convinced he'd be a top-flight PG. But still young and a solid point guard.
7) Ben Gordon - tough player to place on the list, because he's a great 1/2 sparkplug off the bench, but probably not worth whatever money he's going to get in the offseason
8) Louis Williams - another 2 trapped in a point guard's body, but has shown he can score in bunches and is only 21.
9) Delonte West - forgotten man in Seattle, but was pretty solid in Boston
10) Kwame Brown - Just kidding.

Some people not on the list -- Biedrins, Okafor, Arenas, Iguodala, Marion, Jermaine O'Neal. The first four are likely to get re-signed by their own teams, and the last two probably won't opt out.