Re: signing Wesley

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

On 20 Mar 97 13:58:54 -0800, you wrote:

>The C's next year should be substantialy under the cap. Here is a list =
of=20
>players along with there current salaries that won't be celtics:=20
>=20
>Todd Day     - 2.90 mil=20
>Rick Fox     - 1.76 mil   < possibly, it's Rick's call >=20
>Brickowski   - 1.70 mil=20
>Alton Lister - 0.50 mil=20
>David Wesley - 0.30 mil=20
>Hamer        - 0.25 mil=20
>               --------=20
>               7.31 mil=20
>               --------=20

This is a little optimistic. =20

#1 The Celts are over the cap right now.  So if you subtract from the
true amount it's probably a million less or so.

6.31

#2. AS Mishra points out, the Celts have to figure the cap as though
they have already signed their draft picks (since the amount is fixed)
before they can spend it on FAs.  It looks as though the Celts will be
looking at 4.0 million to do this.

2.31 mil.

#3 Dana, Dee, Dino, Pervis, Minor, Walker, Williams all have small
(for them) salary increases coming next year.  None are especially
large, but taken as a group they are over 1 million.

1.31 million

#4 Fox does have the option, whether to stay or not.  If he does stay,
he is entitled to a 100k raise.  Of course, after the third year of
his contract it can be renegotiated.  I would assume that the Celts
can influence his behavior by the way that they treat him, so that if
they really want him gone they can convince him to leave.  I suspect
that this would also significantly effect their chances with Wesley.

- -.69 million

#4 Of course, the salary cap itself isn't static.  If it goes up by 4
million next year the C's might have as much as 3 million to spend.
Enough to get a solid leadership vet like a Buck Williams?   Probably
not enough to get a player who would displace any of our starters.

The bottom line is that the Celts can't expect any major help from the
free agent market until after the 1999-2000 season (assuming that Ted
Stepien doesn't buy another team and take some of the dead wood off
their hands).  And that's fine by me. It will give the draftees from
this year a chance to settle in, and a coach a chance to instill a
system of play.  Then the C's can go out and get a player (maybe two
depending on prices) who can fit into that style and push the team up
to a level where they and compete for a ring for 5 year or so (much
like what happened in Orlando when they acquired Grant).  Even by
2005, Walker will be only 28 or 29.
>=20
>I would let Rick Fox go if some team wants to pay him more money, and =
sign=20
>Wesley. In addition the C's will need a lot of money to sign the two =
draft=20
>picks. The best scenario for the C's would be if they could dump Dino =
and move=20
>up with the Dallas pick.=20

Mishra, do you think there is a team in the league that would view the
opportunity to pay Dino 5.5 mill a year for the next 3 years as a
positive and give us something in return for it?  If Dino were
healthy, you might take the view that he's barely worth the 5.5
million and that the Celts certainly have worse contracts.  But I
don't think that the contract has any positive value.