<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">As much as I was against Detroit drafting Darko Milicic at No. 2 in the 2003 draft, I have to admit to being an unabashed advocate for the big fella now. If the Hawks want to shore up a major position of need, why not chase Darko and see if they can pull it off? He?s an unrestricted free agent now and a player that will be hard to come by because of the Hawks? limited cap space (after years of people complaining about the Hawks having too much now they wish they had a little more) and residency in the same (Southeast) division as the Magic. That said, The Hawks have plenty of the tools needed to try and make this happen (veterans with expiring contracts, young talent, etc.). But it?ll be a tough sell with most teams reluctant to deal in the same division, so as not to assist a direct competitor. But the Hawks have nothing to lose and quite a bit to gain in the 7-foot, 275-pound Milicic, who despite whatever limitations remain in his game is a an absolute physical specimen. Listen, I know the stigma this guy has carried the past few years is hard to look past. But it wasn?t his fault that some of these so-called experts you all love to hype up around here had him rated as the No. 1 player in his draft class (and if you do the research, you?ll see where folks suggested that the Cavs should bypass LeBron for Darko, seriously someone wrote that). And don?t think I?ve forgotten about all the players (Anthony, Bosh, Wade, Kaman, Hinrich, Collison, West, Diaw, Barbosa, Howard and others) that were taken after Milicic (8 points and 5 rebounds in roughly 24 minutes per game last season) that have turned out to be much more productive thus far in their NBA careers. The fact is, size is always at a premium in the NBA. Everybody needs quality big men. Hawks fans know this better than anyone. So why not dangle a package of say Josh Childress, Anthony Johnson and Lorenzen Wright for Darko - and if you were really slick you could try and get Keith Bogans, that gritty 2-guard type the Hawks could use, thrown in as well, in a sign-and-trade deal that gives you two more solid and experienced pros on a Hawks roster always in need of that kind of help? I don?t like the idea of giving up Childress (the other guys have expiring contracts and are vets, so they know the predicament they are in) anymore than some of you, but I understand you have to give up a valued player in order to get someone of value in return.</div> Source: AJC.com
If I'm not mistaken Darko is an unrestricted free agent now, the Magic withdrew their offer. This means he can sign with any team now, the don't have to trade for him.
<div class="quote_poster">magicfrankie Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">If I'm not mistaken Darko is an unrestricted free agent now, the Magic withdrew their offer. This means he can sign with any team now, the don't have to trade for him.</div> If the Hawks want him, they are still going to have to go through Orlando, because he's not going to accept a MLE type deal.
Actually it depends on what the Magic end up doing with the signing of Rashard Lewis. To sign Lewis, the Magic are going to have to renounce Darko if they haven't already officially done so, which means they will lose their Bird Rights on him. So the Magic are like any other team, and cannot go over the cap to sign Darko. What they're hoping to do now is get enough cap room to sign Darko because they can't use any exceptions on him, they've lost their exception. So unless the Magic can clear room under the cap more than the MLE, they can't offer any more money to Darko than other teams can. The only ways the Magic can sign Darko now are 1) with cap room that they have or 2) to a minimum salary. The only way a team can unrenounce a player is if they renounce the player in order to sign another teams restricted FA, and the other team matches, but they also couldn't have signed anyone else in that time. They can't unrenounce if it makes them go from under the cap to over it, or higher over the cap than they were before. So the teams total salary cannot increase anywhere over the cap after the unrenouncement, and it can only happen with trying to sign a restricted FA. So the Magic don't have that option. This is why the signing of Rashard Lewis hurts Darko money wise. Unless a team under the cap offers Darko money, the teams over the cap can only offer him the MLE, or whatever amount under the cap the Magic can clear to sign him. If the Magic can't clear over or even up to the MLE, then they have no advantage in signing and trading him, and teams over the cap are limited to the MLE.
The Magic are offering Rashard $75 million for 5 years, and since he's an unrestricted FA, that's a contract with max 8% raises. So it would go like this (my math is not exactly correct): $13,000,000 $14,040,000 $15,080,000 $16,120,000 $17,160,000 Total: $75,400,000 (a little off) The Magic's current salary without Darko's hold is $39,120,748, adding Rashard Lewis' $13,000,000, they would be at $52,120,748. The salary cap from last season was $53.135 million, let's just say it will be $55.5 million this year, to put it at a good amount, the Magic would have about $3.4 million in cap space. Now the mid-level exception should be about $5.5 million, so to just get to the mid-level amount to offer to Darko, the Magic would have to somehow dump $2.1 million on Seattle. Remember Seattle isn't here to do Orlando any favours, so it's gotta be something Seattle wants. Now here's where the problem comes, Seattle is over the cap. Orlando isn't over the cap with the signing, and could trade someone like Keith Bogans to get Rashard, but Seattle is over the cap and can't. It doesn't matter that Seattle would be trading a much larger contract for a smaller one, as long as you're over the cap after the trade, you need exceptions on a trade, so I'm not sure how they're going to do it.
Good information og, the only thing is we renounced his qualifying offer, which doesn't in fact renounce his bird rights. Magic still have his bird rights right now.
Hmm, I'm not going to say for 100% certainty, but I think those go hand in hand. Here is what the CBA says: Firs of all: "(k) A Team that holds the Right of First Refusal with respect to a Restricted Free Agent may relinquish such Right of First Refusal at any time except during the period that the player has been given to accept a Qualifying Offer. If a Team relinquishes its Right of First Refusal with respect to a Restricted Free Agent, the player shall immediately become an Unrestricted Free Agent and the Team shall be deemed to have renounced the player in accordance with Article VII, Section 4(g) hereof. In order to relinquish its Right of First Refusal with respect to a Restricted Free Agent, a Team shall provide the NBA with an express, written statement relinquishing such Right of First Refusal. The NBA shall provide a copy of such statement to the Players Association by fax or e-mail within three (3) business days following its receipt thereof." http://www.nbpa.com/cba_articles/article-XI.php#section4 The more important part: "If a Team renounces a Veteran Free Agent, the player will no longer qualify as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, or Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, as the case may be, and the Team will only be permitted to re-sign such player with Room (i.e., the Team cannot sign such player pursuant to Section 6( below) or pursuant to the Minimum Player Salary Exception" http://www.nbpa.com/cba_articles/article-VII_4.php Qualifying Veteran Free Agent = Bird Free Agent Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agent = Early Bird Free Agent Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agent = Non Bird Free Agent Section 6b is the section on Veteran Free Agent exceptions which allow a team to go over the cap to sign a free agent. All those exceptions are lost when a played is renounced, or when a qualifying offer is renounced. If by renouncing the qualifying offer, the Magic still had his Bird rights, they wouldn't be looking to clear space in order to sign Darko. The luxury tax in 06-07 was $65 million, using those same numbers, unless they gave Darko a starting $13 million contract, the same as Rashard, they wouldn't be in luxury tax realm, so that's not the issue. So the issue is that they've lost their Bird Rights on Darko, and in order to now sign him they must clear enough space to first of all be able to offer him up to the MLE, and if they want to sign and trade him clear room above the MLE unless the other teams won't need to sign and trade. It doesn't make sense that they'd have to clear cap space to get Darko in any other situation. I know the Magic released something saying they still had his Bird Rights, but I'm thinking there was some mis-information going on because with his Bird Rights they don't need to kill all their depth in order to get Rashard as they would still be able to sign him, cap space or not. Now the reason they might be going after a trade if they actually did still have his bird rights would be so they could sign another free agent, and not him.
<div class="quote_poster">og15 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Hmm, I'm not going to say for 100% certainty, but I think those go hand in hand. Here is what the CBA says: Firs of all: "(k) A Team that holds the Right of First Refusal with respect to a Restricted Free Agent may relinquish such Right of First Refusal at any time except during the period that the player has been given to accept a Qualifying Offer. If a Team relinquishes its Right of First Refusal with respect to a Restricted Free Agent, the player shall immediately become an Unrestricted Free Agent and the Team shall be deemed to have renounced the player in accordance with Article VII, Section 4(g) hereof. In order to relinquish its Right of First Refusal with respect to a Restricted Free Agent, a Team shall provide the NBA with an express, written statement relinquishing such Right of First Refusal. The NBA shall provide a copy of such statement to the Players Association by fax or e-mail within three (3) business days following its receipt thereof." http://www.nbpa.com/cba_articles/article-XI.php#section4 The more important part: "If a Team renounces a Veteran Free Agent, the player will no longer qualify as a Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, or Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agent, as the case may be, and the Team will only be permitted to re-sign such player with Room (i.e., the Team cannot sign such player pursuant to Section 6( below) or pursuant to the Minimum Player Salary Exception" http://www.nbpa.com/cba_articles/article-VII_4.php Qualifying Veteran Free Agent = Bird Free Agent Early Qualifying Veteran Free Agent = Early Bird Free Agent Non-Qualifying Veteran Free Agent = Non Bird Free Agent Section 6b is the section on Veteran Free Agent exceptions which allow a team to go over the cap to sign a free agent. All those exceptions are lost when a played is renounced, or when a qualifying offer is renounced. If by renouncing the qualifying offer, the Magic still had his Bird rights, they wouldn't be looking to clear space in order to sign Darko. The luxury tax in 06-07 was $65 million, using those same numbers, unless they gave Darko a starting $13 million contract, the same as Rashard, they wouldn't be in luxury tax realm, so that's not the issue. So the issue is that they've lost their Bird Rights on Darko, and in order to now sign him they must clear enough space to first of all be able to offer him up to the MLE, and if they want to sign and trade him clear room above the MLE unless the other teams won't need to sign and trade. It doesn't make sense that they'd have to clear cap space to get Darko in any other situation. I know the Magic released something saying they still had his Bird Rights, but I'm thinking there was some mis-information going on because with his Bird Rights they don't need to kill all their depth in order to get Rashard as they would still be able to sign him, cap space or not. Now the reason they might be going after a trade if they actually did still have his bird rights would be so they could sign another free agent, and not him.</div> The money might not be going towards Darko. We might try to go after Gerald Wallace or any of the PG's. Gerald Wallace's camp has been pretty quiet and he's the best FA still available now that Shard/Billups are off the board, maybe they have a silent offer from someone? It makes sense if he was coming to Orlando that he wouldn't say anything because the Magic would lose all leverage in a potential Seattle trade. Another thought is that our owner Rich Devos decides that he doesn't want to pay the luxury tax and he hasn't given Otis the blessing to sign Darko fully over the cap. On RealGM, a couple of the "capologists" that are Magic fans said it was possible to take away the qualifying offer, but still not fully renouncing all rights. I don't have the exact quote of the CBA, but I could probably search for it tomorrow after work.
Actually I got it now, the Magic took away the qualifying offer, but they didn't renounce Darko yet. Since official signings aren't being done yet, they can still wait before that has to be done, but if the Magic can't get a sign and trade done with Seattle, they would have to renounce Darko in order to sign Rashard Lewis. So we'll have to wait till everything is official to see how it ends up.
Does Orlando own his Bird Right's? I thought a player had to play 3 full seasons with the same team before the team received Bird Rights? From my understanding the only way Orlando can sign Darko is working a sign and trade with Seattle for Shard.
A player has to be under contract for 3 seasons without having being waived or become a free agent. If a player get's traded, the team recieving him maintains his bird right. The real rule is that the player can't have been waived or changed teams as a free agent for three seasons. <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">From my understanding the only way Orlando can sign Darko is working a sign and trade with Seattle for Shard.</div> Yea you're right with that, that's how I understand it too. This is where Orlando is right now: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">(i) A player who receives a Qualifying Offer must be given at least until the October 1 following its issuance to accept it, but in no event may a Qualifying Offer be accepted after the March 1 following its issuance. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, a Qualifying Offer may be withdrawn by the Team at any time through the July 23 following its issuance. If the Qualifying Offer is not withdrawn on or before July 23, it may be withdrawn thereafter but only if the player agrees in writing to the withdrawal. If a Qualifying Offer is withdrawn, the player shall immediately become an Unrestricted Free Agent. If a Qualifying Offer is withdrawn on or after July 24, the Team also shall be deemed to have renounced the player in accordance with Article VII, Section 4(g). </div> Since the qualifying offer was withdrawn before July 24, by doing so, they don't have to also renounce him. All the reports though were saying the Magic renounced Darko when they should've been saying the Magic withdrew their qualifying offer on Darko. This way, Darko can't accept the qualifying offer, play for one year on the Magic and become an unrestricted FA, but kill the Magic's chance of signing Rashard if they can't work a trade. ...now, this means that the Magic STILL have a cap hold due to Darko still being their free agent, and can't sign Rashard Lewis directly unless they renounce Darko, or make the trade, but they haven't renounced him yet. All they've done is say they would renounce him in order to sign Rashard, but since July 11th isn't upon us yet, they haven't done so. So they're likely working out what they can do right now, if they can't get a trade to work, they will have to renounce Darko, Diener and their MLE in order to have space under the cap to sign Rashard.
Darko should be waived IMO... pistons choose him at the #2 spot and did u see how he "rewarded" them? the human victory cigar strikes again
