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Chicago is in the 8 seed spot with a 29-32 record. Milwaukee is 1/2 game back, Miami 1 1/2 back, Atlanta 2 1/2 back, and Charlotte is in 12th place, 3 games out of the playoffs. We would actually be in line for the 6th pick in the draft were the lottery held today.
I may just sim out the rest of my games if we don't get on a run here and have a legit shot in the final couple weeks. The NBA is about the playoffs, if we're not going to make the playoffs then I don't really care about playing a bunch of regular season games for no purpose.
And speaking off the offseason that we might have ahead, reviewing the potential free agent market really helped going into the last offseason. So I am going to take some time to do that now.
Charlotte Contract Issues
According to our team budget, we are going to have $27 million free next year. Lets see if there is anyone we need to look at re-signing.
PG: Felton - Signed through next season (2 years/$17.31M)
PG: Bibby - FA after this year. Rated 67 OVR and 34 years old, he's not willing to re-sign right now but says he likely will during the offseason. We have him for $1.34 million this year, I might like to keep him around as a cheap backup.
SG: Mayo - long term deal obviously
SG: Vujacic - expiring deal - willing to re-sign - 66 OVR but cheap like Bibby
SG/SF: Lindsey - 2 years + team options, this is our first round pick rated 60 OVR. He's not happy, I may D-League him.
SG: Stephen Graham - freeing up 500k
SF: Wallace - long term deal
SF: Henderson - expiring deal, making $3.1 million right now. Hasn't developed as I'd hoped but is rated 71 OVR and is a serviceable backup. If he's willing to re-sign for around the same amount I will likely try to keep him. I might even drop Vujacic and give Henderson some more minutes, he can play SG too.
PF: Padgett - one more team option year, he is happy but he's still talking about testing free agency. He's not the most loyal guy.
PF: Hill - $1.58 M epiring deal - He's been ok and could still improve a bit but he wants more playing time and isn't going to get it. I may dump him and sign someone else similar to Hill in the offseason.
C: Chandler - Has a $6.12 player option next year
C: Sparks - We've got him super cheap for 2 more years w/ team options
C: Diop - Thank god our $7 million committment to Diop ends.
We have a few team options and Chandler's player option that will eat up some of that $27 million. We also have 4 backups with expiring deals. If we lose them we'll need to replace them anyway. Realistically, The $7 million I'm losing in Diop may well be all we have to spend in free agency. And our roster is pretty well fleshed out, so its unlikely we'd try to make a big splash in free agency this year anyway.
Potential Free Agents
PG Chris Paul - 95 OVR - New Orleans - Paul is 27 y/o now, he wants to stay with the Hornets despite them having no success at all.
PG Deron Williams - 94 OVR - Utah - 28 y/o - Wants to stay in Utah
C Al Jefferson - 90 OVR - Atlanta - 28 y/o - Not ready to commit to re-signing. He's be as interesting a free agent as Howard was last year.
PG Devin Harris - 89 OVR - New Jersey - 30 y/o - would like to re-sign
SG Andre Iguodala - 88 OVR - Philly - 29 y/o - He has a $15.9 million player option but claims to plan on testing free agency.
PG Johnny Flynn - 86 OVR - Minnesota - 24 y/o - Just finishing up his rookie contract, he plans on testing free agency!
PF Blake Griffin - 88 OVR - LA Clippers - 23 y/o - Feels that testing FA is good business sense. So is signing with anyone not named the clippers.
PG Monta Ellis - 85 OVR - Golden State - 27 y/o - Plans on testing free agency despite an $11 million player option
SG Ben Gordon - 84 OVR - Detroit - 29 y/o - Might re-sign with detroit but not before testing free agency
SG James Harden - 83 OVR - Oklahoma City - 23 y/o - Might re-sign but not before testing free agency
PG Stephen Curry - 82 OVR - Golden State - 24 y/o - Plans to stay at Golden State
PG Mo Williams - 81 OVR - Cleveland - 30 y/o - Wants to stay in Cleveland
PF Dirk Nowitzki - 82 OVR - Dallas - 34 y/o - wants to stay in dallas
SG Kevin Martin - 81 OVR - Sacramento - 30 y/o - Wants to stay in sacramento
PG Tyreke Evans - 81 OVR - Sacramento - 23 y/o - wants to stay in sacramento
SF Gary Oakley - 88 OVR - Sacramento - 24 y/o - Getting under 30 minutes a game for no reason whatsoever that I can see. He is pissed off and plans on becoming a free agent. HE was the 3rd pick in the 2010 draft behind Padgett.
The talent level in teh league overall appears to be growing a bit, but really this FA market has the potential to be huge. I love Felton, but I could see myself not picking up some of these backups and going a bit thinner if I could sign any of the PG's mentioned in this list. I don't know if I'll be able to afford any of them anyway, but Looking through this I'm most intrigued by the PGs, Johnny Flynn would be a dream come true.
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