[Dirkenstien]

Originally Posted by BGMaverick9

Apparently the difference in price-tags might prove to be costly. DB.com suggested if its in the 8 million/year range, the price is probably right. If you get into the 10 million or more range, then see ya later. I probably have to agree with that statement.
Teams that could be in the market for 'Wood? OKC, New York, Atlanta, Miami
So there is a market for him. OKC has been in the discussion for a while and makes a lot of sense.

If he can stay, and the price is right, I'm all for it. If not then...

Oklahoma pretty much took themselves out of a chance at Haywood with their draft day trades that brought in Aldrich and more importantly Mo Peterson. I believe they now only have about $5-6million in cap space.

Atlanta has cheap management and I don't think they'll be chomping at the bit to sign a 31year old center to a big contract until 1) They figure out what to do with Johnson, and 2) Figure out some way to correct their front court rotation. Adding Haywood would theoretically allow Horford to play his more natural 4 position, but that would also force Josh Smith down to the 3 which he can't play well so that would mean either forcing Smith to come off the bench (unlikely) or paying big money and using valuable cap space (approximately $9-10million+) for a center they would have to bring off the bench.

New York and Miami won't touch any of their cap space until they go through the long "star" free agent list. Supposing both teams get their 2 and 3 max contracts respectively that means no room for Haywood and Haywood is left out to dry.

So with all of this in consideration, Haywood's leverage will never be higher than when FA starts on July 1. The more teams sign their prized "max cats" the more he will likely be left looking for an MLE deal because that's all the market will bear as team's cap space gets used up. His safest bet would be to sign with Dallas as soon as possible for a deal around the $7-8 million range and be happy with it.