Why exercise the #20 this year?

[Eggcentric@xxxxxxx]

Doesn't our conditional #20 pick (acquired from Philly in the Moiso 
trade) have a five-year window beginning this June? 

Catch 22 - And wasn't Philly shrewd enough to deem it lottery-protected 
until its final year in 2007?  

This draft is so thin that I wonder if we should pay $886,000 (rookie 
scale for #20 pick) for some plodding big-body or the sixth-best 
miniature PG wannabe who is not only raw but also bereft of upside 
potential.  After all, there are so many more talented and immediately 
helpful vet min. types available for $637,435 (max figure their 
salaries could count against the luxury tax). 

If it were me, I would postpone this pick. I would take my chances that 
future drafts will contain more talent, and that Philly will not finish 
as high as third in the ED for the next few seasons, yet hopefully
escape the lottery. 

The voodoo economics of the poorly thought-out luxury tax has 
created a disproportionate NBA middle-class (vet. minimum players), 
rendering mid-to-low first round draft picks essentially useless. 

EGG