Morrow to opt out of his contract

[MichaelMcNamara]

I thought we had declined Aminu's team option, thus making him an unrestricted free agent this summer. Why would a team do a sign and trade with us if they can just sign him? Or because he was signed to the same amount he was supposed to make had we picked the option up, it counts as we picked it up and makes him restricted?

Couple reasons:

1. They can't sign him otherwise. Example - Clips will only have a room exception this summer. Lets say they use that to re-sign Collison or sign a big. Well, then they cant do anything else. But lets say they like Aminu. They can have the Pelicans do a sign and trade where they send us Dudley. This could apply for several teams, most notably ones that have trade exceptions left over from previous deals but no cap money.

2. Since we have Bird Rights, we can give him a contract that allows us to increase or decrease his salary by up to 7.5% each year, as opposed to 4.5%.

#1 is the most likely outcome. There are 18 teams currently that have trade exceptions that allow them to just accept a player onto their books without having to give anything back. Some of those teams, like Brooklyn and the Clippers, dont have much flexibility so something like this woul be one of the only ways to acquire a guy in FA outside of the room exception and veteran minimum deals.

[Rafa Brazil]

But he's unrestricted, right? So, let's say, the 6ers offer him 2y/10M, he can just sign with them an we can do nothing about it, can we? The only "tool" we have is his bird rights, that allows us to sign him back even if we're over the cap, and with bigger increase if we wish?

[HoustonPelicans]

if it's a choice between morrow for 5 mil and j hamilton for 6 mil im going for hamilton

Really what is with all the love for Hamilton? He was traded for Aaron Brooks for Christ sakes. He couldn't even see the court in the playoffs over frigging Troy Daniels. What has he done to deserve all the love he gets on this board?

[MichaelMcNamara]

Well of course. Any unrestricted guy can sign anywhere. But it is in Aminu's best interest to be signed and traded too because of the 7.5% increase he can ONLY get if he signs with us.

I did not say it is a lock, which is why I keep saying that it might be the second biggest key to the offseason outside of flipping Gordon. Remember, there is a 10 day moratorium period, so Aminu can agree to a deal with whomever and then we can go to that team and ask if they would allow us to do a sign and trade to them for that same deal. It is something we did to the Pacers with Peja. Originally we agreed to the deal, then Indy asked if they could make it a S&T and we oblidged. Sometimes teams just do it to be nice, sometimes GM's say scratch my back here and I will owe you down the line, sometimes teams do it because they have a relationship with the other GM. Honestly, it wouldn't hurt Philly to do that for us in your scenario. Just a matter if they would.

Or like I said, in some cases a team wouldn't be able to get him otherwise and only we can sign and trade him to them. Its definitely an option.

[MichaelMcNamara]

Really what is with all the love for Hamilton? He was traded for Aaron Brooks for Christ sakes. He couldn't even see the court in the playoffs over frigging Troy Daniels. What has he done to deserve all the love he gets on this board?

He was good for 2 months at the beginning of the season and I think some believe that he could return to that. And honestly, if he did, he would be a perfect fit here. But if he played like he did from January on, he wouldnt leave the bench. Just dont know which guy you are getting. Bit of a gamble, where Morrow is more of a known commodity IMO

[Rafa Brazil]

Got it! Thanks!