RE: trade timelines

["Thomas Murphy" <tfmiii@worldnet.att.net>]

There seems to be some confusion as to when trades may occur so I thought
I'd post my understanding of the situation - which will hopefully
contribute to clarifying and not *confusing* the issue. I'm doing this from
memory so my apologies in advance for any inadvertent errors.

Trades may now be made (not that it matters but I believe each team could
trade as soon as it was eliminated). However no team has any incentive to
pull the trigger on any trades since you never know how desperate another
team may get as the draft gets closer and GMs get a better feel for what is
available both "collegiately" and on the "meat market" - this is one reason
no trades have happened or are likely to happen before names get called
tomorrow night. 

Another reason no trades have happened is that it is one cannot yet legally
negotiate with FAs - so no sign-and-trades are possible. Beginning July 1
teams may open negotiations BUT MAY NOT SIGN FA's until August 1. Hence any
sign-and-trade must wait till then. 

This moratorium on signings goes for the players drafted tomorrow night as
well, they may not sign until August 1 (why?!?). So any trade for a drafted
player's rights might actually not be consummated until August 1, since a
team may not want to risk injury (or - god forbid - another Len Bias?) when
trading a valuable commodity for a player before they can actually sign
that player. How much this may impede such trades from taking place before
August 1 is unclear and I imagine dependent upon the skittishness of the GM
or touchiness of the situation (Hakeem Olajuwon?). 

Finally, none of this matters in Mercer's case (or Battie's for that
matter) since his value is determined by his third year salary of the
current contract and not in any way dependent upon his upcoming
negotiations.

I found the bit about the drafted players a bit counter-intuitive but that
is what I remember reading about the situation. I hope some of you found
this useful. 

Let's keep our fingers crossed tomorrow night!

Best wishes - Tom Murphy