Mercer and Billups Salary

["Jay Bergan & Jill Hutchinson" <bergan@ici.net>]

Hello everyone,

 I thought you might want to know what Billups and Mercer will be signed
for.  I got this from The SportsChannel New England page.  This is the
first time I have seen the max figures.  I have read that when the cap goes
up we will have to up the salary on the picks also.  But I guess they can
sign them now and then maybe get another player and send a Pervis to the
injured list.  According to the Globe they still have 0.4M left from the
Radja situation.  And when the salary cap increases in mid August they will
have an addition 1.4M.  They could sign a new player or hopefully shift
things around and do some trades.  The Globe also said they will have to
pay Mercer and Billups a 20% raise when the cap goes up, but they could do
all the FA signings/trades before that in order to use all the extra money.
 The way I take it they might be waiting to sign Billups and Mercer until
then if they are planing on doing something more.  The 20% increase for
Mercer/Billups would amount to $650,000 I guess.  I don't want to have to
wait until mid August to have some deals. 

Jay Bergan	
bergan@ici.net


BASKETBALL: NBA first-round draft pick signing status 

The following is the signing status of first-round picks in the
1997 NBA draft.  All contracts are three years and guaranteed.
The dollar amounts represent the maximum under the rookie salary
scale:

 1. San Antonio -- Tim Duncan, c, Wake Forest			(signed -- 3 years, $10.239
million)
 2. Philadelphia -- Keith Van Horn, f, Utah-(traded to New Jersey)	(signed
- -- 3 years, $9.161 million)
 3. Boston -- Chauncey Billups, g, Colorado			(unsigned -- 3 years, $8.227
million)
 4. Vancouver -- Antonio Daniels, g, Bowling Green		(unsigned -- 3 years,
$7.417 million)
 5. Denver -- Tony Battie, f-c, Texas Tech				(signed -- 3 years, $6.717
million)
 6. Boston (from Dallas) -- Ron Mercer, f, Kentucky		(unsigned -- 3 years,
$6.101 million)
 7. New Jersey -- Tim Thomas, f, Villanova-(traded to Philadelphia)	(signed
- -- 3 years, $5.569 million)
 8. Golden State -- Adonal Foyle, f-c, Colgate			(signed -- 3 years, $5.102
million)
 9. Toronto -- Tracy McGrady, f, Mt. Zion Academy (HS)		(unsigned -- 3
years, $4.690 million)
10. Milwaukee -- Danny Fortson, f, Cincinnati-(traded to Denver)	(signed --
3 years, $4.455 million)
11. Sacramento -- Olivier St. Jean, f, San Jose State		(signed -- 3 years,
$4.233 million)
12. Indiana -- Austin Croshere, f, Providence			(signed -- 3 years, $4.021
million)
13. Cleveland -- Derek Anderson, g, Kentucky			(signed -- 3 years, $3.820
million)
14. Los Angeles Clippers -- Maurice Taylor, f, Michigan		(signed -- 3
years, $3.629 million)
15. Dallas -- Kelvin Cato, c, Iowa State				(unsigned -- 3 years, $3.447
million)
16. Cleveland -- Brevin Knight, g, Stanford			(signed -- 3 years, $3.275
million)
17. Orlando -- Johnny Taylor, f, Chattanooga			(signed -- 3 years, $3.111
million)
18. Portland -- Chris Anstey, c, East Melbourne Magic (Australia)	(unsigned
- -- 3 years, $2.956 million)
19. Detroit -- Scot Pollard, f, Kansas				(unsigned -- 3 years, $2.823
million)
20. Minnesota -- Paul Grant, c, Wisconsin			(unsigned -- 3 years, $2.710
million)
21. New Jersey -- Anthony Parker, g, Bradley-(traded to Phil.)	(signed -- 3
years, $2.601 million)
22. Atlanta -- Ed Gray, g, California				(signed -- 3 years, $2.497
million)
23. Seattle -- Bobby Jackson, g, Minnesota-(traded to Denver)	(signed -- 3
years, $2.397 million)
24. Houston -- Rodrick Rhodes, f, Southern California		(signed -- 3 years,
$2.301 million)
25. New York -- John Thomas, f, Minnesota			(signed -- 3 years, $2.210
million)
26. Miami -- Charles Smith, g, New Mexico			(unsigned -- 3 years, $2.136
million)
27. Utah -- Jacque Vaughn, g, Kansas				(signed -- 3 years, $2.075 million)
28. Chicago -- Keith Booth, f, Maryland				(unsigned -- 3 years, $2.062
million)