<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Spurs today will welcome veteran sharpshooter Robert Horry back into the fold and put out the welcome mat for newcomer Fabricio Oberto, but all other moves the club makes before training camp figure to be weighed heavily against a burgeoning player payroll. Horry, the 14-year veteran whose 3-point shooting in the playoffs has helped him earn six NBA championship rings, and Oberto, a 6-foot-10 center-forward and a teammate of Spurs All-Star Manu Ginobili on Argentina's 2004 Olympic gold medal-winning team, are expected to sign contracts with the Spurs shortly after the signing period officially begins at 11 a.m. CDT. However, for the first time since the 2001-02 season, when the NBA instituted a luxury tax on player payroll, the Spurs will have to watch every dollar they commit to their future roster to avoid exceeding the recently announced luxury-tax threshold of $61.7 million. With Tony Parker's contract extension, negotiated in September, bumping his salary by nearly $7 million from last season, the Spurs are committed to paying eight players almost $53 million next season: Tim Duncan, $15.85 million; Parker, $8.4 million; Ginobili, $7.43 million; Rasho Nesterovic, $6.7 million; Nazr Mohammed, $5.5 million; Brent Barry, $4.7 million; Bruce Bowen $3.4 million; and Beno Udrih, $905,000. Horry and Oberto are believed to have agreed to contracts worth between $2 million and $3 million apiece. Those two deals will bump the team's 2005-06 payroll over $57million, with at least three roster spots to fill for next season. The new collective bargaining agreement, ratified Friday and distributed to teams for examination over the weekend, requires all teams to carry at least 13 players. Among candidates to fill those remaining roster spots are Devin Brown, the Spurs' homegrown reserve whose late-season back injury has clouded his future; Sacramento Kings restricted free agent Maurice Evans, like Brown a 6-5 swing man; and Indiana Pacers 6-8 restricted free-agent forward James Jones. Spurs coaches also were impressed by two players at the recently concluded Rocky Mountain Revue summer league in Salt Lake City: 6-5 forward Melvin Sanders and 6-10 forward Britton Johnson. Teams with player payrolls that exceed the luxury tax threshold will have to pay into a redistribution fund, dollar for dollar, for the amounts that exceed $61.7 million. Spurs ownership, led by chairman and chief executive officer Peter Holt, typically has given executive vice-president of basketball operations Gregg Popovich and general manager R. C Buford wide latitude in making whatever moves they deemed necessary to maintain a championship-caliber roster, but this will be the club's first real brush with the luxury tax. </div> Source
Maybe we can send Rasho to Isiah in New York. Doesn't he collect players with bad contracts? LMAO, but seriously if we have to pay some fines so be it. I like our depth at every position except PG, and with our 2 guards capable of putting in PG minutes, I'm really not that worried there either. I do think we will be shopping Rasho all year long, but it will be tough to move him and his contract.
