Re: Baker

[Ken Kokubo <Ken_Kokubo@harvard.edu>]

>Baker is a big crapshoot. I don't know what has happened to him, but it
>seems it was something that went around in the Shawn Kemp trade as both have
>ballooned into huge overpaid bums. Is he worth dumping Anderson and VP for
>if he agreed to restructure ?  Good question.

The thing is we will never be significantly under the cap to sign anybody 
of note. The cap is ~35, this year our payroll is ~50. That means to sign a 
"premier" player we would need to clear a whopping 25 million dollars of 
salary. If we ONLY cleared 20 mil that means we could sign a 5 million a 
year free agent (on our team that roughly equals kenny, v, eric, or 
battie). It wouldn't even get us Matt Geiger, Toni Kukoc, or Tariq 
Abdul-Wahad, and maybe not even Mercer back. However, there is no way we 
are going to be able to dump 20 million in one year. That means we have 
trades and the draft.

We need to clear space for our draft picks and dump crap salaries. Would 
you get rid of Kenny, McCarty, and V for Baker (~12mil/yr till '06)? What 
would he need to do to his contact to make this happen? Do you think a move 
to the east could give him a kick in the ass? Is there something 
*realistic* Seattle would throw in to make it worth it? Yeah we'd be taking 
a big chance. But of the the 3 above, only V could bring us something, but 
definately not a better big man.

I'm not supporting this (and I'm totally relieved we never pulled of some 
sort a trade a few years ago), just using it to stimulate some discussion. 
Any other creative "player management" ideas?

k