Question about Ray

[bLACKpANTHER]

i understand why we might wanna trade him, but has he come out and said he wants to stay here? has he made any inclination that he will go somewhere else? if i were him, i would wanna stay under LBs guidance.. he is having his best season by far under LB..

what will the market be for him next year? ballpark, pls..

and how much do we have available for him.. if we cant trade Nazr and cut him, do we save anything?

[chabber]

He has said that he wants to stay here and that he loves that he is in Charlotte near his family etc...but he also said he understands it's a business and if he gets traded it is what it is and I'm sure he'd look at it the same way this off season when it comes to a contract. I do think he'd sign for less here if it came down to it though. How much less who knows.

As for his market value it should range anywhere from 6M to 8M a year. The thing is there are very few teams under the cap to make offers and a few of them that can already have decent PG's. So combining that with the fact that a lot of teams are trying to shed salary now instead of add it he might not see many offers this summer.

Right now he's still on his rookie deal and he's making 4.5M. Similar players talent wise to him are Jameer Nelson and Jose Calderon. Both make around to 7.5M. I'd expect the Bobcats to start with an offer around 6M and I doubt they'd go above 7.5 and definitly not 8.

If we do sign him his bump in salary will have us very close to the luxary tax. Especially if the salary cap drops like it's expected to this upcoming season. At that point we might be over the luxary tax and we'd definitely be looking to move salary off of the roster. Most likely Mohammad, like they have been trying to the last few months. I'm sure they see this coming which is why Nazr's name keeps popping up in all of these proposed internet rumors involving Felton.

[bLACKpANTHER]

if we cant trade Nazr and cut him, do we save anything?

^^^

[chabber]

No. He'd never be claimed off of waivers with a salary of his size. So all that would happen is he'd clear waivers and sign with another team all while we continue to pay the remainder of his guaranteed contract.

Most likely scenario involving him is we'll have to give up something of value to move him or wait until 2010/11 when his contract becomes and expiring and at that point he'd be an asset that we could actually gain something from.

[Its The Milk]

Keep Ray! He is a good young player that wants to be here!

[Zaximus]

I think you have to keep anyone that wants to stay here. The guy is tearing it up lately, he wants to play here, he's a #1 A+ class act, why not? Augustin has had some good games but he's still largely unproven, think about it? I think we have a good team now, keep Felton, we'll make playoffs next year and get better.

[L.A. Fanatic]

I would like to see him stick around as well

[bLACKpANTHER]

well the deadline has come and gone, and we still have Ray..

[RedMage138]

well the deadline has come and gone, and we still have Ray..

and Crash, thankfully

[Murph]

Sounds like teams inquired hard about Ray

http://www.nba.com/2009/news/02/19/bobcats.felton.ap/index.html?rss=true