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I thought David Kahn said all of the right things while Papa Glen Taylor came off grumpy, defensive, and like a guy who filled an position with a process better suited for a Carlson Craft IT Manager than an NBA VP of Basketball Operations. 

Wyn will have a write up of the event later on today, but what are your initial thoughts?

UPDATE: You can listen to the audio of the presser at the team's website by clicking here (Taylor's remarks), here (Kahn part 1), here (Kahn part 2), or here (Kahn part 3).

UPDATE: David Kahn appeared on the Dan Barreiro show.  You can listen to the segment here.

via www.rashadmccants1.com

As the summer of money for the Draft Class of 2004 winds down, only three members of the 2005 class have received extensions so far:

• #1 pick Andrew Bogut got $60 million over 5 years from the Bucks (plus $12 million in potential incentives)
  
• Deron Williams and Chris Paul both got max deals for 4yrs with player options for both (about $64 million right now, but could change with annual cap calculations).
  

As other members of the class get some extension buzz (Danny Granger and Andrew Bynum to be specific), our very own Rashad McCants hasn't been mentioned at all.

McHale and Co. have until October 31st (essentially two months from now) to sign Shad, or else he'll become a restricted free agent after this season. Until that date, the Wolves can add up to 5 years onto his deal and up to the max in amount (about $15.4 million for Shad next year). As always, see Larry Coon's FAQ for more detail.

Shad's obviously not a max player and the extensions given thus far don't provide a basis for comparison with what Shad could reasonably expect. He's in the same position most 1st round picks find themselves in at the end of their scale contract: cash in early for security, or hold off and bet you're market rate will go up.

While his perimeter scoring is something the Wolves have needed the past few seasons, with Mike Miller on board and a presumably healthy Foye in the backcourt, McCants may find his scoring role diminished in comparison to last year. Given his high self-confidence, however, I fully expect Shad to hold off for free agency next year.

But what does that mean for the team's overall cap situation? If McCants got a deal slightly above the MLE at about ~$6 million per year, that would put a noticeable crimp in any free agency plans being laid out for '09 or '10. Not to mention that Randy Foye will be up for a pay raise for 2010.

The Wolves may end up having to choose between Shad or a free agent. Shad's a quality player, but my gut (been wrong before) tells me that the Wolves would rather get a shot at a free agent than sinking $6 to 8 million per year into Shad.

Disclaimer: If you're completely uninterested in how the NBA salary cap works, ignore this.

First, big ups to Jerry Zgoda over at the Strib for being the only consistent source with Wolves salary figures. Frankly, I tend to think Wolves coverage from the two major newspapers and the local TV stations leaves a lot to be desired. Not Zgoda.

He recently posted this info about Gomes' deal:

Officially, it’s for five years, although the Wolves have options after the second and third years and Gomes has the option after the fourth year. So the first two years are guaranteed, at $3.5 million next season and $3.8 million in 2009-2010. His salary jumps above $4 million after that if the team exercises its option. If Gomes remains a Timberwolf for all five seasons, the contract will approach $22 million.

Great stuff and more than I've found anywhere else. But, it doesn't tell the whole story.

First, regarding the "team options" on the the third and fourth years and the player option on the fifth year. According to Larry Coon's NBA CBA FAQ:

Team Options give the team the right to invoke the option year.  There can be only one option year (except in the case of rookie scale contracts), and the option year can't be for a lower salary than the previous season.

SO, one can reasonably infer that there aren't two team options, but rather those years are non-guaranteed (just like in Antoine Walker's contract). They could also be partially guaranteed (like Greg Buckner's contract). To the naked eye, they act just like team options, however with non-guaranteed years, there is no one specific date by which they must exercised (as there is with team options). The dates at which those years become guaranteed are most likely specified in the contract.

Also, you'll notice that Zgoda provides amounts for years 1 and 2, an estimate for year 3, no info on years 4 or 5, and an inference that the total contract is worth less than $22 million (including the non-guaranteed years and player option).

When re-signing their own free agents, teams can give up to 10.5% raises each year. However, as noted in the NBA CBA FAQ (I just like typing that), they're calculated based on the first year of the contract. Thus, year two can be up to 110.5% of the value of year one and year three can be up to 121% of the value of year one and so on. With these max raises and using the $3.5 million as a starting point, Gomes' contract might look like this:

That roughly follows Zgoda's description, and although we probably won't know the precise numbers until another leak comes out it's the best guess I can come up with.

Small points, but worth noting as just an FYI and an explanation as to why I've done what I've done on the contract info page.