Foyle's signing was a lot of money, what do you guys think will happen when Murphy and Jrich are due next year? Does Foyle kind of undo all the work done to remove bad contracts and get a possible max free agent next season? Are we back in salary cap hell again? Also could Foyle be moved in a possible sign and trade? I like Foyle and I think he definitely got some love from Mullin that was well deserved for a player of his tenure with the warriors. But I'm wondering if other players are going to understand why he got that much money or are simply just going to be asking more than they're worth because Foyle got more. I'm hoping Mullin knows what he's doing.
Well, this season, we're pretty much broke. With the Foyle signing, we're about $42 million, and the cap was $44 million last year. So there's about $2 to $2.5 million in salary cap space this year, along with the two exceptions ($5 mil and $1.7 mil). We have 10 players signed, so we could grab 2 more and maybe stash one on IR, depending on how much Cohan wants to pay out. (If we sign and trade for Damp, and get two players back, we'd have a full roster already.) After next season, we still should have plenty of cash. In the 2005-2006 season, with Biedrins, Claxton, Eschmeyer, Foyle, Dunleavy and Pietrus, the Warriors have $17 million in guaranteed contracts, with roughly $28-31 million in cap space. (Assuming salary cap goes up about $1 million per year. Van Exel and Robinson combine to about $18 million off the books, and Murphy and Richardson's contracts expire. The rest of the warriors are under contract.) Murphy and Richardson will be restricted free agents and their minimum qualifying offers will be about $3.1 mil and $4.7 mil respectively. If we got them at minimum, (yeah right?) it would raise the total to about $25 mil. Now, this is pure speculation on my part, because there's still a season to go and a lot can happen. More likely Murphy will command the minimum of $5 to $6 million that most good big men get, depending on his season this year. Richardson will probably land around $8 to 9 million. That would increase our salary total to $33-35 million, leaving the Warriors a theoretical $11-16 million under the cap for next season. To be able to offer a max contract, we'd have to trade one of our players for an expiring contract for next year(or a draft pick who would be willing to sign after our offer) or not resign either Murphy or Richardson. (Or, I could be overpricing them, and we could barely by the skin of our teeth offer one max contract.) And, for the 2006-2007 season, now only three players are signed: Biedrins, Pietrus and Foyle, combing to about $12 million, with at least $33 million in cap space. Again on my salary predictions, if we locked up Richardson and Murphy, that'd bring us to $28 million with at least $17-19 million in cap space, enough for a max contract. Assuming we resign Dunleavy too, it'd probably end up with another $10 million in cap space. We'd have no PG, though. Sorry I didn't make any nifty tables or anything, but I hope that helps you clarify the future. Here's the theoretical roster. 2005-2006 C Foyle C Eschmeyer PF Biedrins PF Murphy*RFA SF Dunleavy SG Pietrus SG Richardson*RFA PG Claxton Total: 6 players at $17 million guanteed. Resigning Murphy and Richardson: 8 players at about $33 million
I think the Warriors are still hoping for Yao, but even if he's a no go, there's plenty of cap space to sign Murph, J-Rich and another impact player. The Rockets having T-Mac dramatically lowers the chances he'd leave, though. The plan clearly leaves 2006-2007 as the year where everything should come together (as opposed to just rebuilding, I suppose.) So, that's why I'm not too worried about next year. I mean, even if we get stuck in the lottery, it'll be a good cheap player, right? And, I think you can see that in 2006, there's another chance to work it all out. By then, there will only be Mullin's hand on the Warriors, which should make it a bright future.
Hopefully so. Money should never be an issue with a large market team like the Warriors even with the cap. This whole decade of having a lousy roster year after year wasn't due to money IMO. It was the foundation set in place. Lousy front office, lousy ownership, lousy GM's, hand-me down staff from Portland, lousy draft choices, mediocre veteran role players to mentor rookies, lousy trades (Webber, Sprewell, etc.). Even if we don't end up with Yao, but let's say become a really good competitive team that can go deep in the playoffs, most people could live with that.
