“We will be in a unique position with $12 million in cap space before the draft and before July 1 to entertain deals where significant contracts could come into play. You could move a player out with some value and take back a player with significant value even higher than that $12 million. If you package the pick along with a young player, what does that net you? All of those questions will be answered over the course of the next several weeks and months as Ed Stefanski and I entertain those phone calls from the various GMs and us placing phone calls to various GMs. We will have a lot of lines in the water.”
http://www.hoopsworld.com/are-the-ra...team-next-year
http://www.hoopsworld.com/are-the-ra...team-next-year
Lets make an assumption that young players BC speaks of on Raptors roster are 25 or under. That gives us a list of (2012-13 salaries in brackets): Amir Johnson ($6M), DeMar DeRozan ($3.3M), Ed Davis ($2.2M), and James Johnson ($2.8M).
Based on these comments, I am interpreting BC to suggest a big contract ($12M or more) coming back to Toronto is a possibility. With the $12M in cap space BC mentions, that gives the Raptors the opportunity to take on a contract up to $14.2M-$18M in any trading involving 1 young player and the draft pick (or just 1 player as the pick has no monetary value in a trade).
Looking around the league at players with contracts of $12M up to $18M who realistically could be had (i.e. LeBron James is not included nor is Kevin Durant) and the Raptors might actually want (in my opinion, add yours below), we get:
Atlanta: Josh Smith
Chicago: Luol Deng
Detroit: Ben Gordon (a pick would have to be coming with it, imo)
Houston: Kevin Martin
Indiana: Danny Granger
Memphis: Rudy Gay
New Orleans: Emeka Okafor (a pick would have to be coming with it, imo)
Philadelpia: Andre Igoudala, Elton Brand (a pick(s) and/or young player would have to come with Elton Brand, imo)
San Antonio: Tony Parker, Manu Ginobilli
Utah: Al Jefferson
Washington: Nene, Rashard Lewis ('only' $13M guaranteed next year and of course a pick would have to be coming back, imo)
The above shows what big contract players are out there. By no means does the inclusion above mean I think the Raptors can or should get that player - just showing the contracts out there that fits the assumption of BC's comments.
Also, multiple players coming back (saw 2 guys making $6-7M) in a trade and multi-team deals are not considered because that would be pretty much impossible to narrow down.
So any of the listed players seems worth a young player and possibly a pick?
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