Re: 7mil for Palacio!!!!!!

[Alexander Wang <awang@MIT.EDU>]

The questions I have are:

1. Why didn't they sign him to their typical deal for minimum wage free 
agents when they brought him aboard last year? They usually use a two year 
deal, with the second year being a team option; they used this for Bowen 
and Adrian Griffin.

2. Wasn't Milt a restricted free agent? Couldn't we have just tendered a 
small contract and then matched any other team's offer?

I supposed another team could have offered him a longer deal, as Tom 
speculates, which we would not have wanted to match because Wallace is 
clearly targeting 2002 (and beyond) as a year when he wants to maintain cap 
flexibility. I wonder if we'll also hear that the contract is front-loaded 
to a degree, which would keep us away from the luxury tax next year when 
Pierce's extension kicks in.

I'm really curious about Stith now. I'm not sure we can make the argument 
that we could have signed one of the more desirable middle class exception 
free agents instead of Stith/Palacio because many of these guys are looking 
to cash in with 5-7 year deals. And this year's free agent class isn't 
really all that thrilling in this region. It could be that in later years, 
we'll see better players drop down to take long, middle class contracts. As 
teams start re-signing guys from Pierce's rookie class, for instance, a lot 
of them could be pushing against that luxury tax. We may have a good 
opportunity in 2002 to poach a decent free agent even if we're not below 
the cap.

Alex

At 02:05 PM 7/17/01, Thomas Murphy wrote:
>My guess is that it came down to a question of more years or more money per
>year and we are paying him a premium now in order to cut the contract down
>to two years. In other words we'd rather pay a higher per year than extend
>the contract out for several years like Rick did with Knight, Battie, or V.
>
>This contract won't push us over the luxury tax and it won't prevent us from
>signing FAs (Kenny's does that) so given the two year limitation the actual
>dollar figure will not really affect the team's long-term strategy. If Joe
>Johnson blossoms into a legit PG quality ballhandler you can say goodbye in
>two years. On the other hand if Palacio really steps up then you've not only
>got his bird rights but also a reservoir of good faith to draw upon.
>
>I would guess (hope?) we will hear that there was some competition for his
>services as well (probably offering a longer term contract).
>
>Cheers - TomM