Reports surfaced this morning via SI’s Chris Mannix that the cash strapped Philadelphia 76ers are concerned that they might not be able to keep their youthful forward, Thaddeus Young:
"Hearing the Sixers are very nervous about someone swooping in with a big offer for Thaddeus Young. Young’s stock soared last season."
With only nine players under contract for the upcoming season, the Sixers sit at about $54 million dollars – that of course doesn’t include the restricted contracts of players like Spencer Hawes and Young who currently await new offers.
The Sixers will of course match any reasonable financial offer, so, for a team to bring in Young, they’re going to need to pony up the Bengies – but 23 year old, high quality forwards don’t grow on trees either, so the Sixers nervousness is well warranted in my opinion.
For the Kings, making a bid on Young makes too much sense. I’ve made no secret about my distaste for John Salmons on this current roster (both on court and financially), so replacing him with Young is a no brainer.
The Kings have little use for the newly acquired “amnesty clause” outside of Salmons who’s due AT LEAST another 25 million dollars in the next three seasons (his fourth and final year can be bought out for a million if waived prior to 6/30/14). Sure, they could sit on the clause and use it down the road as it’s available throughout this new CBA (which should last six years) – but given their current financial state (Salmons being the only poor contract) and the fact that both DeMarcus Cousins and Tyreke Evans will have hefty extensions coming their way in 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 (not to mention the potential re-signings of J.J. Hickson and/or Jason Thompson after this upcoming year), the Kings essentially have this season and next to throw their money around at free agents. I don’t see many scenarios where the Kings (outside of a Chris Webber type injury to Evans/Cousins and shame on me for bringing that up *flushes brain*) would even find much use for the clause. The only other scenario would be to snag a young, talented player in a trade by absorbing a horrible contract – but that’s pretty out there.
By using the amnesty clause on Salmons, the Kings essentially could bring in Young for free given the fact that his contract would replace Salmons’ on the roster. It doesn’t add much (if any) money to the current Kings salary cap numbers and keeps their pockets wide open for other roster moves. In short, the Kings would essentially be trading Salmons for Young which doesn’t even need discussion.
A lineup of Cousins/free agent/Young/Thornton/Evans with a large amount of cap room to still play with? Give me that pen – where do I sign?