While much of the BE speculation has been packaging Gomes in a trade to benefit from his partially non-guaranteed contract, waiving his contract prior to July 1 will provide the team with significant cap savings into next season. I believe these savings are approximately $3M (which translates to $6M if the Blazers venture into lux tax land). The Blazers have always had the opportunity to use the MLE this off season, but it was not very attractive to anybody watching the Blazer bottom line. The luxury tax is awfully punitive to those that go over. I have been of the opinion that we would not use the MLE due to these financial constraints. Now, if we feel there is a good target in free agency, the suits may feel much more free to agressively pursue a targeted FA.

Seems like Mike Miller and Kyle Korver are the most frequent names mentioned who might be available for the Mid-level. Any other names that jump out? Does anybody like Gomes better than the possible alternatives? How does signing a mid-level player now affect our future luxury tax situation? We may not want to sign a guy, even if we are under the tax for next season, if it is going to put us in a tough situation in future seasons beyond next season.

Thoughts?