FanPost

Cap space in 2009?

A certain columnist at the Oregonian wrote a couple of weeks ago about the Blazers having cap space in 2009.  He said that 'all' options could be picked up and 'all' draft picks signed and 'all' qualifying offers could be made and the Blazers would still have $15-20 million in cap space.  I posted in his blog that he was wrong.  His reply was essentially "Tom Penn says so.  Thanks for posting."

I did write a longer post with the numbers, but it didn't make it past the 'censor' and onto the blog, so I've been posting the numbers on various bulletin board sites as an alternate method of getting the truth out there.

And the truth is?  The Blazers can get under the cap in the summer of 2009. but will need some good decision-making and a little bit of luck.  For example, here's one possible scenario:

Keep these players:

Przybilla $6,857,725
Oden $5,361,240
Aldridge $5,844,827
Webster $7,000,000 (signed to extension in 2008)
Roy $3,910,816
Jack $6,007,869 (cap hold as restricted free agent)
Rodriguez $1,576,696
Fernandez $1,165,320
McRoberts $1,000,497 (cap hold as restricted free agent)
Green $1,000,497 (cap hold as restricted free agent)
Koponen $824,200 (cap hold with expectation of signing in summer of 2009)
Freeland $824,200 (cap hold with expectation of signing in summer of 2009)
2008 1st round pick $2,255,880 (assuming #10 pick)
2009 1st round pick $1,099,100 (cap hold assuming #20 pick)

That's $44,728,867 for 14 players.

Bye bye to Frye, Jones, LaFrentz, Outlaw and Blake. Hello to bidding for the best player (SF?) on the free agent market.

Oh, and yes, Miles must retire.....if Miles is still on the books, getting significantly under the cap will mean even more sacrifices than outlined here.

This is one of any number of possible scenarios - illustrating the type of cuts and sacrifices that will have to be made.  I'm grateful that Pritchard and Penn and others have positioned the Blazers in such a way that cap room is a possibility - it's nice that they have that kind of flexibility - but it is by no means a sure thing.