# Raymond's Free Agency



## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

I was talking about this with my brother the other day. It looks like this will be the big question for our offseason. This is an aging team. We've got ten players under contract next year for just under sixty million. Now I like DJ fine, but I like him as a backup PG. I like Raymond given the obvious fact that we're not going to find a better option.

Problem is that Raymond will likely have plenty of suitors next year. He's making 5.5 million this year and he's about to turn 26 years old. In his circumstances he has little choice except to take the best offer he can get. I'm guessing that any competitive contract we offer him will push us into the luxury tax, except the fact that we may be able to trade Tyson Chandler at some point as he has a 12 million dollar expiring. This assumes someone will offer him around 8 million a year. I'm okay with that...It's not my money and we just have to have someone to play the point. Question is if someone offers him stupid money.


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## Ninerballin (Feb 21, 2006)

Diable said:


> I was talking about this with my brother the other day. It looks like this will be the big question for our offseason. This is an aging team. We've got ten players under contract next year for just under sixty million. Now I like DJ fine, but I like him as a backup PG. I like Raymond given the obvious fact that we're not going to find a better option.
> 
> Problem is that Raymond will likely have plenty of suitors next year. He's making 5.5 million this year and he's about to turn 26 years old. In his circumstances he has little choice except to take the best offer he can get. I'm guessing that any competitive contract we offer him will push us into the luxury tax, except the fact that we may be able to trade Tyson Chandler at some point as he has a 12 million dollar expiring. This assumes someone will offer him around 8 million a year. I'm okay with that...It's not my money and we just have to have someone to play the point. Question is if someone offers him stupid money.


If he's affordable, I'd like to see us resign him. But, if someone, like you said, offers him "stupid money," there's no point for us to keep bidding.


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

The big thing for us next year will be whether or not we can move Chandler at some point. You pay luxury tax based on your salary at the end of the season...And there are some FA's who'll be available in 2011. Really something I forgot to mention is that we'll have a lot of capspace in the 2011 offseason. 

The obvious target for us would be trying to get Chris Paul to come home to North Carolina, but regardless we'll have a lot of room to maneuver in the offseason after next season. If you started out next season thinking about Free Agency maybe you don't set a high priority on Raymond. Raymond is a pretty good player, he does a lot of things well...but we need a legitimate star to get where we want to go.


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## nutmeged3 (Apr 11, 2005)

I'd hate to see somebody come in an offer him a big contract because Charlotte really is starting to get behind this team. Obviously if he's trying to get to much there's no reason to overpay we'll just be in a bad position because Augustine just isn't ready to be a starter. Who knows if he'll ever be, I'd just like to see this team keep up the winning. Playoffs should just be the first step, just really sucks that the Morrison pick was wasted. We could have a superstar on the team now if not for that.


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