First official day of free agency open thread
I don't even think there's a real point to this post, but tomorrow officially opens the free agency period. The official 2007/08 salary cap is 55.63 million, and the luxury tax threshold is 67.8 million. The Wizards apparently are just under 60 million in total salary, according to Ivan's article. Contracts can be officially signed starting tomorrow, so I guess player movement should pick up a bit.
Post any free agency comments here. I'll leave you with this nugget from the end of the article linked above.
I'm going to sleep on that news and consider it tomorrow, but in the meantime, feel free to post your reactions and any other random free agent thoughts of any kind here.
Update [2007-7-11 14:4:44 by Pradamaster]: Here's more Stevenson stuff, as well as a new name we haven't heard about yet. Per Ivan's blog:
Neither side has said anything crazy about the other and it's obviously possible that a meeting of the minds can take place. The wild card in all of this is DeShawn's leverage via talks with other teams. So far, he's had nibbles but I think everyone is waiting to see what goes on with the Wizards because it's been no secret that Ernie's priority has been to keep DeShawn. Stay tuned.
Something to chew on: I saw free agent shooting guard Devin Brown out here yesterday. His agent, Derrick Powell, has a bunch of guys playing in the summer league, including Wiz pg Brian Chase. I hear that Powell and Ernie rapped last night but I can't say for sure that the team has serious intentions for Brown, who put up 11.6 points per game on 42 percent shooting in 58 games with the Hornets last season. Again, I'll keep you posted.
As for Devin Brown, that's actually a pretty nice cheap alternative. Check out their numbers from this past season.

Note: WS is Win Shares, a stat extensively used in baseball that, admittedly, is still being tinkered to work in the NBA. Here's an article that describes how it's calculated. RR refers to Roland Rating, a stat popularized by 82 Games.
Brown actually has a leg up in pretty much every category on that list. DeShawn's true shooting percentage is a bit higher, but I imagine Brown's will improve if he's paired with Gilbert Arenas. I don't really know much about Brown's defense though, so I imagine Stevenson has a leg up there. Still, if the options are Stevenson for 4.5 million or Devin Brown for 2-3 million, give me Brown every time.
One last item for now. Not only is this the first official day of free agency, but it's also Mr. Writer/Youtubesman's 19th birthday. The site has grown considerably since Jake started posting on the main page at the end of the season, so I hope everyone can wish him a happy birthday.
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DeShawn Stevenson did not learn from last year
History repeating itself?
by Vanilla Gorilla on Jul 11, 2007 9:17 AM EDT reply actions
comparisons
by future on Jul 11, 2007 10:00 AM EDT reply actions
AD proved in the playoffs he has skills still
The bigger problem with AD
This will definitely be the subject of a longer post, but Ernie would be very dumb to not try to explore AD's value. To a team that needs a point guard, he would be very valuable. The Wizards simply aren't that team.
If you trade Antonio Daniels
by Spence on Jul 11, 2007 12:33 PM EDT up reply actions
Maybe
Again, I think AD can have an effective function
Agree
Exceptional
The more I think about it, the more I agree with LoneWiz that $3 million per ought to be the max offer for DeShawn.
by Vanilla Gorilla on Jul 11, 2007 10:38 AM EDT reply actions
agreed
by future on Jul 11, 2007 11:12 AM EDT reply actions
devin brown
Im well on the record for this, i think 4 years 18 mill for deshawn is a deal we should just go ahead and sign. The effect of his salary having an extra 500 grand on it each year is less than the impact of us losing him. It might be a little bit of an overpay for his skill set, but compared to salaries other people are getting, its fair and fine.
Just no jarvis hayes!
I hear what you(prada) have been saying about the interest of other teams never being mentioned, but that doesnt mean it wont be there if negotiaions break down with the wizards. I just dont want us to lose him over a couple million that, big picture, arent very signifigant.
Any word on blatche negotiations? I dont know what to think of the fact that we havent seen any rumors concering where negotiations between him and the wizards are at this point.
The problem
My view is not that Stevenson isn't worth 4.5 million a season necessarily, it's that it makes no sense for the Wizards specifically to pay that much for him. If the cap situation was more flexible, then I don't see a problem overpaying Stevenson a bit. But since overpaying Stevenson could very well mean we have to pay the tax (and believe me, Abe's not going there), there's no reason to do it, not with capable alternatives in Devin Brown and JCN waiting in the wings. From Stevenson's perspective, the fact that there have been very few rumors out there increases the chances that he'll simply have a repeat of last year. Since I doubt Ernie's going any higher than 4 years/15 million, I think it would be prudent for DeShawn to just re-sign, to be totally safe.
I've been meaning to clarify this point with Ivan through e-mail (we've met once or twice, so he sort of knows me), but I'm pretty sure the Wizards can't do anything with Blatche until someone signs him to an offer sheet. I know that, with first-round picks, you can elect to make a minimum qualifying offer to keep him as a RFA, and then, provided nobody makes a higher offer, he just accepts it. I'm not sure the same rule applies to second-round picks though. Either way, it seems like Ernie's waiting for someone to throw an offer at him that they'll just match, which I'm not sure is the right strategy, if in fact they are allowed to work something out. The good news is that Amir Johnson, a similar upside-type guy for the Pistons, reportedly signed for just over 3 million a season today, which would be very reasonable, IMO, for Blatche.
Yeah yeah yeah
Maybe im just too quick to spend abe polins millions.
That makes sense about blatche. Id be thrilled if we could sign him for 3mill, but i expect it to be 4-5.
Clarification on Blatche

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