Isn't the salary cap going up next year? http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawaka...nothing-with-the-17m-in-expirings/#more-10405
It all depends on a few factors. I could easily see it holding flat in order to give more leverage to the owners in their negotiations. It always seems that the Dubs get hit harder when the league plays games. We essentially lost Arenas because they last minute bumped the cap so the Lakers could sign Malone and Payton, That deal to Move Gasol to the Lakers (totally lopsided, I'm still convinced that the League was involved in that one) kept Kobe in LA. The Alan Houston Rule came in a year when the Warriors really didn't have any one albatross of a contract to move. This may be another one of those years. Welcome to the Bay Mr Lacob & Mr Gruber.
We were in a similar situation a few years ago, where we had a lot of expiring but still had cap holds, and then we signed Maggette with that money. Let's hope we do better this time. Free agency has never been our strong suit, so I think that we have to stick to the draft. No matter how far back I can think, I can only remember guys leaving Golden State, not joining. Unfortunately, the Warriors are not willing to do a draft-centric rebuild, and even then it may be difficult to do in the next two years given the expected talent available, poor management regarding trading for draft picks, bad luck on lottery ping pongs, plus not to mention unproven scouting/GM draft decisions regarding drafting players.
If the Warriors didn't have bad luck, they wouldn't have any luck at all. That seems like the Warriors life story under Cohan and yet it continues -- cap holding steady due to possible lockout (?), the Ws have expiring contracts, but no cap space, the Ws have expirings, but no draft pick to make a trade with, the Ws have a draft pick, but they're a borderline playoff team instead of the Sacramento Kings or Minnesota Timberwolves. I'm sure we'll hear a lot of trade Monta (our best player) during the off-season. And we still have Rowell, Riley and Smart. Not much has changed. I wonder Lacob and Guber will even realize that. Extension has become a dirty word. I am in dread of it.
