Our own RFA's

[The Poster]

What happens when/if Brand goes back to LA and the Warriors are now faced with the desperate need to replace Davis with a new PG? And to top it off they have a lot of cap space. But they also have Ellis and Biedrins Azubuike and Pietrus to resign because they are the Warriors RFA's.

I dont want to trade Iggy,but could anyone feasibly see the Warriors, 76ers and Bulls working something out with Iggy, Hinrich, and say Azubuike,/Pietrus and picks going to the right teams. Or could Miller, Iggy get Hinrich, +? and something from the Bulls and also make the Bulls and Warriors happy.

According to someone on the Philaphans site DNL said the Warriors might go after Iggy if Brand does not work out. Big time speculation I now but stranger things have happened.

[Derek Bodner]

I don't think it's all that bigtime speculation, and I do think it's fairly likely.  In fact, I think we may need to prepare for life after Iguodala if this Brand thing doesn't work out for the Warriors.

[jemagee]

According to the list provided in another thread, Iguodala was 3rd on the warriors list of interest.

And like I said in the thread, the warriors only get iguodala if the sixers allow it to happen,  so work out a sign and trade if it does

[Skates]

I see them going after Josh Smith first, and offering more than we can/should.  First let's see where Brand ends up.  Most likely LAC, but if he goes to GS then things return to relative normalcy as he would eat up most of GS's cap space.  Neither Smith nor Iggy is a franchise player and although their maximum salary as four year players is well below that of guys like Brand, there has to be a price tag over which we won't go.

Even with $19 million in cap space they can only offer one RFA a truly big money contract on June 9 since a contract starting at $9 or $10 million won't get it done for guys like Iggy, Smith, Deng or Okafor.  They have to be careful as some of their cap space only exists because of the low cap hold Monta Ellis has assigned to him.  If he gets an offer sheet from the Sixers on the 9th, they could match, but when they do their cap space will diminish.  The same thing can occur with guys like Iggy and Deng and Biedrins, but their cap holds are much closer to their eventual salaries.

[tk76-]

Rumor is that Ellis feels worth more than GS has offered.

It sounds like Skates and Bodner are saying that if we get Ellis to sign to a 9-10M starting salary then GS won't have the cap space to sign Iguodala to a reaonable offer sheet without renouncing Ellis.  If we lose Iguodala we might get the consolation prize of Ellis- and then still have 10M to go after another FA.

I'm not sure I am onboard for this plan- what do other people think about it?

[Skates]

I am not really a huge fan of Ellis becuase he is very undersized ath the 2.  If he had sufficient skills to play PG you could match him up with a guy like Childress, who plays D, passes the ball and doesn't need a whole lot of shots to be effective, at the 2.  Miller would then have to be the bait for a big man.

I think more of what Dabods and I are suggesting is that we may see these teams playing chicken over the next week or completely avoiding each others RFA's for fear of what a signing war could cause.  It also points out what could happen to either team if someone else signs one of the two former second rounders with low cap holds, Ellis or Lou, to a sizable contract offer sheet early on.

[anklebreaker]

Rumor is that Ellis feels worth more than GS has offered.

It sounds like Skates and Bodner are saying that if we get Ellis to sign to a 9-10M starting salary then GS won't have the cap space to sign Iguodala to a reaonable offer sheet without renouncing Ellis.  If we lose Iguodala we might get the consolation prize of Ellis- and then still have 10M to go after another FA.

I'm not sure I am onboard for this plan- what do other people think about it?

I'm not an advocate of letting Iguodala walk, however, if we can sign Smith and then snag Ellis I'd be able to cope

Miller/Williams
Ellis/Green
Young/Carney
Smith/Evans/Speights
Dalembert/Smith/Booth

Ellis and Williams are both undersized, but as Marbury would say, they are also 'youthier,' and can light it up on any given night.  Its an experiment I'd be willing to try. 

[tk76-]

You can play this game of Domiunos with almost any of the RFA's.  If we sign Smith then Atl could free up 11M to go after Iguodala if they renounce Childress.

I honestly thought the Sixers were in a stronger position when FA started, but as other teams lose FA's they become vulnerable.

It should be an interesting few weeks.  I'd be somewhat surprised to see a big cascade of player movement, but there will be a lot of playing chicken.

I hope somehow the Sixers come our with an upgrade in their overall base of Young talent- even if they are still a few moves away form a finished product.

Is the offseason always this confusing- maybe I just haven't been playing attention since the Sixers have rarely been a major player in off season signings.

[Derek Bodner]

You can play this game of Domiunos with almost any of the RFA's.  If we sign Smith then Atl could free up 11M to go after Iguodala if they renounce Childress.

Not really.  They're not in as good of cap situation as we are.

Bibby: 15.8 million
Johnson: 14.232
Claxton: 5.757
Marvin: 5.636
Horford: 4.026
Zaza: 4.000
Law: 2.071
Solomon Jones: .797
total without Smith & Childress: 52.339 million

Even after renouncing both Smith and Childress, they'd only be about 6 million under the cap, and no real threat to offer Iguodala a contract.

[Skates]

I think this year is an unusually fluid one.  Usually you know where most of the free agents are going, most RFA's receive little attention in a typical year and the unexpected opt-outs have created cap space where it did not exist before.  Now that there is more cap space and some desparate teams I bet Marion wishes he had opted out, Artest certainly does.  The cap-hold issues with the RFA's and its affect on certain teams' cap space is another wrench in making this a decipherable process.  

Given the current state of things if the Sixers can find a decent trading partner it might make much more sense to make a trade quickly and re-sign your own RFA's before something goofy happens.

[TheGuiltyParty]

If Marion were a UFA... does he supplant Smith as Target #1 even though he's older but UNrestricted??

[tk76-]

If Marion were a UFA... does he supplant Smith as Target #1 even though he's older but UNrestricted??

It would depend if the team though they were in position to win now or wanted to build.  For the Sixers Smith would still be #1, for more of a contender I would think Marion would be appealing.

[TheGuiltyParty]

I agree tk but the reports of us making a big push for Jamison is what throws me off. If we would throw our cap space at that old bastard, why wouldn't we go after the younger, better Marion?? Either way, with the way things are shaping up on the market.... I'm really hoping that we at least come away from this summer with Smith and our two players.

Would it make sense for the Warriors to come after Lou Will? Can a backcourt of Williams and Ellis actually exist? Also, I have to believe there are teams out there that will throw the full MLE, so doesn't that mean that we're going to have to overpay someone who we believe is the 6th man of this team in the future? I don't mind giving Lou money if he's the future starting PG, but Ed doesn't seem so sure of that and neither do I.

[Skates]

I find Marion more appealing in a trade as a one year stop gap/expiring contract as long as we don't use any young, useful assets to grab him.  I don't have the link, but somewhere in a HoopsHype blurb I read that D Wade wants to make sure he stays at SG, hence the Heat would seem to need a PG.  We would still have Marion's expiring contract for future cap space/deadline deals.  Bring in a young PG (Marcus Williams?) to compete with Lou this year at the 1, sign Childress or Maggette and re-evaluate the team's needs at the deadline or next summer as Thad, Speights, Lou, Jason Smith and Carney continue to grow this year.  

I think Marion would have been very high on the GS radar if he had been available as a FA.  As a Sixer I don't want to commit to him long-term.

As far as Jamison goes, how exactly did we make a big push.  He verbally agreed on an extension with Washingtom before FA began.  Those reports I have heard essentially accuse us of tampering and I think they are beyond bogus.  That said, I am sure we would have had some inquiry into Jamison if he became available.  The likelihhod is that he would want less years and money then MArion would have sought as a FA.

[tk76-]

Our rumored offer to Jamison shook my confidence in the Sixers thinking, but hopefully it all works out.

Unfortunately, there is a legit chance that we come out of this summer having to overpay both Iguodala and Lou (12M and 5.8M next season) and a FA like Magette who is a good player, but doesn't exactly fill our biggest needs, while eating up capspace.  it would almost force us to move Iguodala or Thad, while making us an older team.

Hopefully this is not how things play out.