you eat RLEC and use the capspace for trades or signings this offseason. With D-Miles back on, I would say just forget cap space and trade RLEC before the deadline.

Good points all around. The rapidly changing landscape undoubtedly alters the probabilities regarding who will and won’t be available.

I would still be a little surprised if Utah lets Milsap go for less than $8 mil, though, even if Booz doesn’t opt out. He’s worth it, no question. But would that put them in luxury tax hell? If so, how’s the market doing in Utah – can their owner afford it?

I thought OKC was still a player in the FA market. Espn said they were going to have a “huge dallop” of cap space to work with. But you’re the authority on these issues, as I understand it. Are they really capped at the MLE?

As for Toronto, word on the street is they’d like to sign Marion to an extension, which would probably render them a non-player, as well.

So potentially, over the past week or so, we’ve seen OKC and Miami drop out of the free agent picture (MLE notwithstanding, of course), and no new additions presuming Toronto signs Marion.

Not sure how this would impact the analysis with respect to SFs, though. I’m not aware of anybody hitting the market this summer who the Blazers might be interested in, unless Artest gets a labotomy between now and then. Am I missing somebody?

The spot where the Blazers WOULD have the opportunity to step in and improve would seem to be back up power forward. People tend to minimize that spot on the depth chart, but take it from a Cavs fan who recognizes Varajeo’s value – it can be critical. Milsap and Lee would both be great (Milsap being the clear preference in my book), and there may not be much competition for them.

Is that more important than upgrading the three spot? Probably depends what you think of Webster and Batum…

It seems like most of the best possible trades out there involve getting the player we would want (like Hinrich or Wallace or Lee) and taking back a bad contract that we wouldn’t want (like Noccioni, Nazr, or Curry) for RLEC and filler…

The difficulty seems to usually hit when trying to guess at the extensions that Portland will offer.. specifically to Roy, LMA, and Oden. On the one hand.. if things don’t turn around then there won’t be any insane FA class of 2009 or 2010 or for awhile because the market will only be able to sustain a couple of max or near max guys..

Of course.. the unknown isn’t just the value of those players contract but the luxury tax mark and salary cap itself…
Still.. is there a simple way to project how much we’d hurt if we still had Nazr on our books going into the 2010 offseason when LMA and Roy’s large extensions are in effect?

If the Cap and Tax drop by three million does anyone know how low the MLE will be?

I personally believe teams will be reluctant to throw money at players this off season, either becasue they are hoping for better times financially or they just don’t have the money. I am curious if a guy like Anderson Varejao would be available for a long term MLE deal.

I also think a lot of guys that were going to opt out including Boozer will try to wait out next year in hopes the economy starts to rebound and there will be more suitors available for them.