Bryan Colangelo has quietly put together some congruent player contracts in order to position our team for roster changes next season. If you take a look at our roster as it is today, we have at least five expiring contracts in 2009, and potentially six if we don't make a qualifying offer to Joey Graham (which seems likely at this point--either to make his contract an expiring one, or to make him an unrestricted free agent and attempt to re-sign him for less). We're talking about at least $20-million in expiring deals for 2009. That is huge. If we re-sign Jose Calderon and Carlos Delfino, and sign our draft picks for 2008 and 2009, we are looking at being at the salary cap level (approx. $60-million) if we let all the deals elapse. We're not creating any cap space so the only way we can add players is through the MLE (around $6-million) and LLE (around $2-million), <u>or by trades</u>. Our biggest expiring contract is Rasho Nesterovic, who will be earning roughly $8.5-million next season. At the trade deadline that is a ferociously appetizing contract. In addition to his deal, we have Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbajosa expiring as well, their combined salaries totaling about $9-million. The extras will be Jamario Moon (about $0.5-million), Maceo Baston (about $2-million), and (potentially) Joey Graham ($2.5-million). At most we can come up with about $22.5-million just in expiring contracts. We'll also have guys like Kapono on the roster making MLE-type money that can easily be added into a deal without disrupting the team core (Bosh, Bargnani, Ford, and Calderon). We've seen this winter what expiring contracts and some youth can get you. I don't want to start throwing too many names around because we don't know what the landscape will be like next year, but there are some guys out there (AK47, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Sam Dalembert, Michael Redd, etc.) that can probably be purchased with the right kind of package--especially one that includes a lot of cap relief. That's why I think Colangelo's plan is to let this team gel for another season and then make a power move at or before the deadline next year.
I thought this was a good thread Chris Bosh's recent comments about giving the team more time to marinate reinforce the idea that our make-or-break will be our record at the deadline next year.
Yeah me and my buddies always talked about how alot of player contracts on the Raptors expire all in 09 and what that means, I think it has also alot to do with the fact that if this Raptors team he created didnt do so well and still kept missing the playoffs he could just begin from scratch again and think of another formula to build around Bosh.
i don't think they'll be starting from stratch but it certainly shows a great deal of foresight on BC's behalf.
this is a very very young team, we are blessed with all of this BC is excellent Smitch is better then people give him credit for CB4, Jose, TJ and AB7 core is strong IF we make it to the second round this year, watch out, and i honestly think this team has something to prove
also when the raptors hit there shots, its is extremely hard to stop them, maybe toughest in the East because of the caliber of shooters we have
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (speeds @ Feb 19 2008, 11:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't want to start throwing too many names around because we don't know what the landscape will be like next year, but there are some guys out there (AK47, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Sam Dalembert, Michael Redd, etc.) that can probably be purchased with the right kind of package--especially one that includes a lot of cap relief.</div> Im just following what speeds brought up. It probably wont happen but its one hell of a scary thought.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (downunderwonder @ Feb 21 2008, 11:48 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (speeds @ Feb 19 2008, 11:07 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div><div class='quotemain'>I don't want to start throwing too many names around because we don't know what the landscape will be like next year, but there are some guys out there (AK47, Shawn Marion, Brad Miller, Sam Dalembert, Michael Redd, etc.) that can probably be purchased with the right kind of package--especially one that includes a lot of cap relief.</div> Im just following what speeds brought up. It probably wont happen but its one hell of a scary thought. </div> A frontline of Bosh, Bargnani, and Kirilenko would be *something*.
Man, that'd be a scary trio. I'm glad you picked up on this too, speeds. I think its just proves how frickin' smart Colangelo is. He came in here with an unorthodox approach and basically with the mentality that he'll throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks. At the end of this 3 year experiment, we'll have a really good idea of what the core of this team will be, who the keepers are, and what the roster needs most of all. And we'll have the money available to address those needs. The future definitely looks bright.
