…however, the management has made it clear that it will not exceed the luxury tax threshold for a non contending team. Thus, they are unable to use their MLE, traded player exception or make trades in which they take back more salary then they send out. Additionally, its nearly impossible to address team needs when an important piece of their roster is effectively holding out…

And if BG has equated salary with respect and CSKA Moscow comes up a bit, it honestly wouldn’t surprise me.

Also, just generically, I’d totally jump at the chance to live in Moscow (or a lot of other places, for that matter) for a year, just for the experiences of living in a different culture.

who can make 10 times their WNBA salaries in Russia then he’ll be just fine. Very nice housing is provided along with a driver on top of their contracts. Russian owners aren’t trying to make money right now. They’re demonstrating their wealth and influence, which often leads to other lavish gifts on top of their contracts for their star imports.

he mentioned that his time was shrunk after Hughes was acquired (sure glad Boylan was ‘showcasing’ him, huh?).

He knows (much to Dave Berri’s chagrin) that PPG gets paid. More minutes means more points and more money.

What I’m not sure of is how the Bulls could spin limiting his minutes if they’re actually interested in winning (though that’s up to debate). ‘Developing Thabo’ is pretty flimsy.

I was trying to distinguish what I think personally from what Ben might be thinking – I think the QO is bad for both sides, but if I’m Ben and I firmly believe there are other teams that will pay me more I’d rather negotiate as an UFA than as a RFA. That only works is you’re firmly convinced that teams out there want you, though, and I personally am not convinced he’s ever going to get a better offer than roughly $10M/year.

As far as PT, is it better to play more minutes in Europe than to play fewer in the NBA, in the sense of getting a better offer next year? Unfortunately for Ben, I don’t think either is a good option – at least on the QO his agent can argue that what he did was against NBA level talent and try to talk in per minute terms. Would it be better to be completely out of sight but have great stats? I honestly don’t know. But PT is certainly another aspect of all this that might make the offer more intriguing to BG than it seems like it should be.

“But Atlanta would retain Childress’ rights for two years if he left, provided they make a qualifying offer upon his return.”

Would Gordon be willing to play overseas for 2 years?

The Bulls have to make the QO each year. If they make it, then Gordon is a RFA. If they don’t, he becomes a UFA.

However, when the Bulls make the offer, it applies a “cap hold” against the Bulls’ salary cap of something like $14M. That means that if the Bulls were under the cap by $17M, for example, making the QO puts them down to being $3M under.

That’s not much of an issue this summer or next summer, since the Bulls are already well over the cap this year and would be only slightly under it next year. They couldn’t sign anyone with the cap space they’ll lose protecting their right in Gordon anyway.

On the other hand, it might become an issue in two years. At that point, the Bulls would go into the Summer of 2010 with something over $20M in cap space (barring trades). If they renounced Gordon at that point they could sign a max salary free agent. Applying Gordon’s cap hold of $14M would wipe out that possibility.

That’s why, in the post above, I suggested Gordon might look to a longer deal in Europe with opt outs. He wouldn’t even have to play the third year there, just not opt out until the free agency period begins here, and put the Bulls over the barrel.

If they want to sign someone then, they’ll have to withdraw the QO and make him a UFA.