Kings Fan Seeks Clarity

I’m sure others on the site can add on, but here’s my thoughts on it:

G. Shinn will at least explore every possible avenue to reduce the payroll beneath the luxury. Evidence of this has been on full display (R. Butler, D. Brown, etc.), and at the end of the day, the dollar amount coming out of his pocket is very important to him. Now whether that makes him a good or bad owner is entirely another question, but considering that he’s one the only NBA owners without an additional external venture, one can at least see the rationale.

The luxury is at 69.92 million dollars this year; the Hornets’ cap figure stands at 73.294 million dollars. So essentially, he’s looking at approximately 3.374 million if he’s to avoid the dollar-for-dollar tax altogether. Shaving that much off is impossible unless Okafor, West, or Chris Paul (or Peja, for those that dare to dream big!) are moved. Moving Paul probably kills basketball in New Orleans.

I have just one measly source, but from what I hear, the situation isn’t nearly dire enough for Shinn to completely steer clear of paying one penny of the tax. The failed Devin Brown trade would have helped matters hugely. But as it stands now, they’d pay the 3.4 million dollar-for-dollar, only a little bit more than the amount they received for their 2008 27th overall pick. So worst comes to worst, they could move a 10th-20th pick and recover some money.

Point being, I don’t think they move a big player for space. My second point is more speculative, but I could see them moving West instead of Okafor. West does make 1.6 less this year, but he’d still possibly bring them close enough to the tax. His performance has dipped this year, he’s more than two years older than Okafor, and Emeka’s longer contract and position could potentially make the Hornets seem more stable in Chris Paul’s eyes. So even if the financial situation is more dire than I and others think, I don’t know that Okafor is necessarily the first choice to move.

Of course, I’ll end with: IF Okafor moves, then no, I don’t think the Hornets will demand tangible assets in return. Trading him would probably mean the team’s cutting cost at all, um, cost. Yeah.

Armstrong/B. Brown is $3.5.

My point is that all these guys don’t play for us, and would get the organization under the tax threshold without giving up players of value to this team. A team like Portland or Golden State may be willing to take a chance on Armstrong and/or Marks, particularly since it would be a relatively low-risk deal.

Also, I don’t know if we lose some kind of right-of-first-refusal by trading Diogu, but that might be something to consider with respect to our bench for next year.

May sound stupid, but is Peja in his last year?

Is Devin Brown another Phoenix rising from the ashes to become… servicable!

Confirms what I thought. I know how maddening it is for me to see the “Martin for magic beans” rumors, and I imagine this Okafor thing is just as frustrating for you.

Good luck on the rest of this season.

The Hornets send Hilton Armstrong and next year’s draft pick to the Kings for a 2nd round pick. Saves the Hornets a few million via moving Armstrong, and relieves the Hornets of paying a mid-first round pick next year. My bet is that you could sell that pick for $3 million on its own, but I think that moving Armstrong this way would save you about $4 million?

Viable, or pie in the sky?

Hilton Armstrong…

I’ll be honust this guy is pretty god awful. Every time he touched the ball I cringed. His rebounding is very poor, offensive rebounds are usually tapouts and the like.

Trying to post him up is like giving the ball to a twig in the post…he has no idea what to do in the post. In all honusty I hope you guys can make him succeed but I doubt it.