A reason Pitino must move Mercer

[DJessen33@aol.com]

This is another reason why Pitino will look to move Mercer from Miami Palm 
Beach Post:

<snip>

As remote as that sounds, Riley believes modern-day economics may force teams 
to start stocking draft picks. 

The new collective bargaining agreement includes a luxury tax that will 
penalize teams over the cap starting in 2002. Since rookies could be bound to 
a team's payroll for five years at a relatively low salary, teams could 
rebuild through the draft. 

"We have to think of fiscal responsibility," Riley said. "There will be great 
penalties and we have to begin to manage our rosters in a way that we don't 
want to get caught paying that kind of tax. 

"Where I would never have traded players for high draft choices, I might now 
take a look at the landscape and say, `Maybe we will trade somebody for the 
eighth or ninth or 10th pick.' " 

Who's out there: The Heat have two picks tonight, Nos. 25 and 53. Among the 
players who should be available in the first round who could interest Riley 
are Terrell Baker, a 6-foot-5 point guard from Florida State; Rodney Buford, 
a 6-5 swingman from Creighton; Evan Eschmeyer, a 6-11 center from 
Northwestern; Lari Ketner, a 6-10 forward from Massachusetts; Melvin Levett, 
a 6-foot-3 guard from Cincinnati, Trajan Langdon, a 6-3 guard from Duke; Todd 
MacCulloch, a 7-foot center from Washington; and Laron Profit, a 6-4 guard 
from Maryland.