Via The700Level, Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports reports a rumored deal between Philadelphia and Minnesota has gone down, sending Beautiful Calvin Booth, Rodney Carney and a pick to the Wolves for nothing but a $2.8 million trade exception. The real prize for Philly general manager Ed Stefanski: even more salary cap breathing room to chase someone like Elton Brand or Josh Smith. Here's Woj:Getting Carney and Booth off the cap gives the Sixers the chance to offer a starting salary of approximately $14 million a season.If Atlanta wasn't going to match a contract starting at $11 million for Smith (a disputed rumor), will they even be able to play a straight face if the Sixers offer something like a flat $13 million per year, five-year contract? Or, Philadelphia could go big in year one -- $14.75 million is the max for a four-year veteran, but Stefanski expects to have $14 million as stated above -- and taper the contract down to $12 million by the final year.
For Brand, the 76ers could now offer about five years, $80 million ... which is right in the middle of the Clippers' ($70 million) and Warriors' ($90 million) offers. Watson wrote about the expanded interest in Brand last night; now, that interest has a feasible outlet.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
7-08-2008 @ 3:05PM
Rickhouse said...
Doesn't Philli need shooters after dealing Korver? Carney seems to be the best shooter on their roster. If the 6ers come out of this empty handed they're going to look really dumb. Go big or go home, I suppose.
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