Re: rebuilding timetable

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

On Tue, 29 Jul 1997 19:28:21 EDT, you wrote:

>I believe Rick Pitino is setting up to enter the free agent=20
>market during the summer of 2000, when the contracts of Dee Brown,
>Pervis Ellison, Tony Massenberg expire as well as the payouts
>to Dino Radja. Hopefully, Dana Barros and Minor could be gone via=20
>trade for players with shorter term contracts by then also.=20

To be honest I doubt that RP has any long term plan at all.  But you
are absolutely right.  When M.L. left the team it was set up to make a
big push for a quality free agent at the end of the 2000 season.  The
big problem was (and still is) how to shed Dana Barros's contract
(which runs through the 2001 season).

>
>Then, the money against the cap on contracts that year would probably =
be:
>  Walker	$8-9m (as part of a 6-7yr deal averaging 12-13m) =20
>  Knight	$3.5m or $4.3m depending on if he opts out and if
>				we want to keep him if he does.
>  DeClerq	$2.0m
>  Mercer	$3.5m (150% 3rd year salary)
>  Billups	$4.0m (150% 3rd year salary)
>for a total of $21-22m. The cap might be $30-35m by then. Add in the
>possibility of a contract for Eric Williams and various smaller free
>agents contracts and we could be left with $5-10m to spend on a quality
>free agent - say a veteran leader type. Then of course we re-sign Mercer
>and Billups under the exception.=20

Unfortunately, things aren't quite as rosy as Alex paints them.  The
Celts will also have to pay the salaries of the 1998, 1999 and 2000
first round draft picks, which will add another 4-5 million (depending
on how the team does the next few years) to the salary total (on the
other hand, those salaries for DeClerc and Knight look a little high
to me).  The signings of DeClerc and Knight to long term contracts
have pretty much blown this scenario out of the water.  Alex is, of
course, correct about using the LB exception to resign Mercer and
Billups (after they're signed the C's will be out of the free agent
market through the 2006 or 7 seasons).

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com