More on salaries

[Alex Wang <awang@mit.edu>]

Here's a rough estimated salary chart, taken from OnHoops.com 
and extrapolated by my estimation. I assume that most players
have raises built into their contracts, as is typical nowadays.
If anyone knows anything about the older players, let me know.
I've put question marks on the ones most likely to be significantly off.

player		97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02	02-03	
Brown		3.5	4.0?	4.5?
Barros		3.4	3.9?	4.4?	5.0?
Radja		2.5	2.5	2.5
Billups		2.4	2.8	3.2
Minor		2.2	2.4?	2.6?	2.8?	
Ellison		2.1	2.5?	2.9?
Knight		2.0	2.4	2.8	3.2	3.4	3.8
Walker		1.9	2.2	(10)	(12)	(14.4)	(17)
Mercer		1.8	2.0	2.2
DeClerq		1.2	1.4	1.7	2.0	2.2
McCarty		0.86	1.00	(3)	(3.6)	(4.3)	(5)
Jones		0.80 	0.95
Rogers		0.76	0.90
Thomas		0.64	0.75	0.90
Bowen		0.43	0.47
Edney		0.40	0.40	

I'm projecting Walker's salary based on a 6 year, $100M extension.
You see what a bind Pitino's in with the salaries of the older players,
none of whom is starter-material. In fact none of the seven highest
players are solid starters, and only Billups really has the potential
to be.

I am guessing there is going to be some trade before the deadline that
ships one or more of Brown, Barros, or Minor along with Billups and
others for a decent big man and some expiring contracts.

In the '98 offseason, I would expect to see Walker and McCarty signed to
extensions. McCarty would probably get around or somewhat less than 
Chris Mills numbers, 6 yrs, $20-30M. Hopefully he'd give a "Pitino 
discount" for saving his career from dying on the Knicks bench.
I don't see Jones or Rogers getting an extension unless there are some 
drastic changes. 

It doesn't look like we're going to have much cap money to play with since
we are going to have another first round draft pick costing about $1M
as well as all the salary increases. We probably need about $5M in cap
space to get a decent center (can offer 6 yrs, $50M, or 7 yrs, $65M). 

I believe in 2002-03 season a new TV contract should be negotiated,
so perhaps another big boost can be expected in the cap. 

Alex