rebuilding timetable

[Alex Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

I believe Rick Pitino is setting up to enter the free agent 
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 
trade for players with shorter term contracts by then also. 

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)  
  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. 

I welcome comments on this scenario.

Alex