I agree with Brick on planning ahead.
But disagree with anyone who says we should have left Webber exposed. Sure, it was likely that an expansion team would have shied away from such a big contract (I believe expansion teams have a diminished salary cap their first season or two). However, if one of them had taken Webber either for his talent, to sell tickets or to trade once he was eligible, it would have been a nightmare for us. Our window to contend would have shut instantly. We would have been a laughing stock for giving away a superstar for nothing. Fans would have been incensed. Imagine the PR nightmare of trying to explain to the average fan why you just became irrelevant, so you could protect a young player who got 0 PT and had a questionable work ethic. I liked Wallace. I wanted us to keep him. But leaving Webber or any other important rotation player on a contending team exposed in the expansion draft would have been lunacy.
I made a post about this a long time ago and am not about to go digging it up. But here is some info:
They were limited to 66% of the salary cap and were required to take 14 players. The salary cap was $43.9 mil, meaning the Bobcats could only spend $29 mil (rounded up slightly). With Webber making $17.53 mil alone that season, that would mean the other 13 players would have to earn, at most, an average of $880,000 each.
Here are the players available for them to draft with salaries:
http://hoopshype.com/expansion_draft.htm
There are enough players with salaries lower than $880 k for them to select 13 and stay under their cap, and I know that selecting a few lower than $880 k would allow them to select a few with salaries above $880 k, but look at the names available in that price range. And although better players were available, the Bobcats limited their spending to about $22 mil (and IIRC publically stated they were "going cheap" the first couple years). If they were intent on staying below $22 mil, that would mean with Webber they could only spend $344 k per additional player, not possible according to that list.
Had the Kings put Webber out there as available and he been taken, yes it would have been a disaster to the franchise
at the time. In retrospect, the draft was "post-injury" and if we knew then what we know now (and we obviously suspected it given the seriousness of the injury) about his rehab and condition of the knee, taking Webber's salary off the books at that time would have been a blessing and negated the need for "the trade".