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Originally Posted by Dirkenstien
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.
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It's just really eerie when you think about it how everyone is talking about Dirk and the big prizes and all things free agency in Mavs land, but Haywood is barely being mentioned. He can easily come back, but I do not think we're getting any finality to that situation in the immediate future.
Quote:
Originally Posted by grndmstr_c
The rumors that Orlando may target Miller really are a huge hint that Gortat's going to be made available, not least because Miller in Orlando makes a ton of sense. Granted, he's getting close to the tail end of his career, but he's still plenty good enough to handle 10-12 mpg as a backup C, and his ability to play outside the paint offensively makes him a better option in a 4/5 pairing with Howard than Gortat could ever be.
Have to say that I hope the Mavs take a more realistic view of the situation than that. Even taking account of Gortat's contract I don't think there's any way you're going to get Orlando to sacrifice additional assets to unload a functional young center.
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That 4/5 option is true but Bass can present the same situation. SVG did a bad job not utilizing Bass during the season and Bass did his job coming in out of nowhere during the playoff run when he got some time. The fact that a big seems to be their first option definitely hints that Gortat is gone.
I agree with the second part. Unless we add more to the table other than JJ and Stevenson as the core, it's getting greedy and deal-breaker status asking for more.