Interesting Tidbit about Expansion Draft

[Mark Piotrowski <markp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Charlotte Observer: Little-known fact about the expansion draft in
June: Each NBA team must make at least one veteran available to the
Charlotte Bobcats, regardless of how few players that team has signed
through the 2004-05 season.

Teams with more than eight veterans under contract in '04-05 can
protect eight of them from the expansion draft. But you might be
surprised how few players some teams have under contract beyond '03-04.
For instance, the Miami Heat has four players -- eight short of a full
roster -- under guaranteed contract in the fall of '04.

At first, this sounds like a coup for the Bobcats -- an opportunity to
snag a great player off another roster. But all of the teams with lean
rosters in the fall of '04 are rebuilding, and would probably love to
dump an overpriced contract on the Bobcats.

Some examples:

The Heat has Eddie Jones, Brian Grant, Caron Butler and rookie Dwyane
Wade under contract for '04-05. Jones, Butler and Wade are all best
suited to play shooting guard, so you know Miami would love to stick
the Bobcats with the $43 million-plus in Jones' last three seasons.

The Denver Nuggets have five players under guaranteed contracts for
'04-05. If Marcus Camby continues to be injury-prone, I'm sure the
Nuggets would happily ship his brittle body and his final $7.75 million
season to Charlotte.

The Atlanta Hawks have seven players under guaranteed contracts for
'04-05. Discarding Allan Henderson's $8.2 million salary on Charlotte
would make new Hawks owner David McDavid very happy.

These examples suggest that forcing each team to make at least one
veteran available isn't any advantage to the Bobcats. But team
executive vice president Ed Tapscott sees a plus. That's because he
hopes to use the dispersal draft as a means to broker deals.

"The dispersal draft is not just a chance to pick a player; it's also a
way to trade a player," said Tapscott, whose team would have plenty of
room under the salary cap to facilitate such deals. "We would need to
find a buyer, somebody who wants a player (on the unprotected list).
Then you would select a player who you have no plans for, but someone
else does."

That "someone else" would send a draft pick or a prospect to the
Bobcats as compensation.   Read Article