It’s more a matter of paperwork more than it is an advantage or disadvantage…

There are some instances where holding onto these players is important (the aforementioned Keith Van Horn… Aaron McKie…) but most of the time League Executives just hold onto these players so there’s absolutely know chance they play for another team.

If you renounce them right away, you risk a Brett Farve-esque situation, where the player returns to the game for a division rival. Whereas, if you keep their “rights,” you have no risk of something like this happening. This is why a ton of foreign players pop up on like the HoopsHype Trade Checker, because this list includes players that may or may never come over to the US.

My understanding is that those guys did not have the paperwork filed with the league office, so they stayed on the books for their teams as free agents year after year. The only time it matters is during the summer because unrenounced free agents count against the cap. As long as the teams were over the cap, there was no reason to renounce them since they don’t count against the cap when it really matters (ie, when luxury tax is calculated).

Which also explains why they were renounced – teams like Philly wanted the cap room so had to renounce them along with the rest of their free agents.

In case my female admirers get outta line.. he knows how to keep them in check… hehe
i keed i keed