Atlantic Division outlook

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Since we're speculating about next year's playoff race already, I've put 
together an outlook about the offseason for the Celtics' Atlantic rivals.

MIAMI
Possible losses: Murdock and Barry. Both could conceivably leave, especially
  Murdock who can only get a 20% raise on his minimum salary.
Draft: 1st round draft pick was traded to the Clippers. 
Free agency: They should still be over the new cap but Riley will probably
  attract decent free agents at the minimum salary. 
Trades: They still covet Mitch Richmond but it's hard to imagine how they 
  can get him at this point. 

NEW YORK
Possible losses: Dudley, but they will probably already agreed to a long-term
  deal under the table when they traded for him.
Draft: 1st round draft pick was traded in the Dudley trade. It now belongs to
  Portland via the Stoudamire trade.
Free agency: They will be way over the cap. 
Trades: Marbury has expressed a desire to play in NY so maybe they could work
  something out where they send players and lots of cash to Minnesota.
  Would they trade Houston?

NEW JERSEY
Possible losses: Jayson Williams is a free agent but wants to stay and will
  probably get $10M per year. Sherman Douglas is the other contributor that 
  may leave and could be renounced if they pick up another free agent.
  It's possible they could dump Seikaly also since his contract is not
  guaranteed.
Draft: 1st rounder sent to Orlando in Seikaly trade.
Free agency: They will not have much cap room to play with unless they 
  renounce Seikaly. If they do, they have about $5M to play with before
  they re-sign Williams.
Trades: They tried to ship Gill and Cassell for Penny Hardaway. Gill in 
  particular is expendable if they play Williams at PF and van Horn at SF
  with a true center.

WASHINGTON
Possible losses: Strickland is the big one. Muresan's contract is up too.
Draft: 1st rounder gone from Webber trade. 
Free agency: No cap room unless Strickland walks. They may have a little
  bit then. 
Trades: There's a lot of talk about breaking up the Howard and Webber 
  combination which has not worked for them. I'd predict that Howard gets
  traded. Maybe to the Lakers for Campbell and others, or some trade 
  involving Sprewell? This is pure speculation.

ORLANDO
Possible losses: Harper may retire. Schayes, Armstrong, Wilkins, Strong 
  are all relatively cheap contributors that could leave. Strong signed 
  for another year with the understanding that he'd be rewarded though.
Draft: They have three first-rounders: Golden State's pick if it's a top 3, 
  New Jersey's, and one more I'm not sure of (Washington's?). The lottery
  will be vital to them this year.
Free agency: They have up to $8M in cap room but this doesn't count the
  draft picks, I think. They will be in the chase for a center.
Trades: Hardaway looks like he might get shipped.

PHILADELPHIA
Possible losses: Coleman if they buy him out, Joe Smith, Ratliff.
Draft: They'll have their own lottery pick.
Free agency: If they keep Coleman and Ratliff, they won't have much to work 
  with. I'm not sure how the buyout works with the cap. They could pick up
  someone significant if they don't re-sign Smith, Ratliff, and Coleman.
Trades: Iverson could be dealt if he can't work with Brown.

Alex