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Can Grant Hill still

help the Magic?

by Chad Ford

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Also Below: Teams no longer ducking Howard | Nuggets, Camby heading for a divorce this summer? | Peep Show

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The Good, the Bad, the Kitchen Sink

Grant Hill can no longer help the Magic in their quest for a playoff berth this season. But he could give them a sweet retirement gift this summer if he decides he can no longer play.

Grant Hill

Small Forward

Orlando Magic

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

29 14.5 7.1 4.2 .492 .819

The Magic's announcement that Hill will miss the remainder of the season came as a surprise to no one. While Hill maintains that he hasn't given up on his career, coach Doc Rivers and GM John Gabriel don't sound as convinced.

"The physical side of it is something he can at least keep working on," Rivers told Florida Today. "But mentally when does this stop being fun for him. He's pretty down right now, but tomorrow he may feel like he wants to try and comeback (this year). That's how wide the range of emotions have been with this."

Added Gabriel: "Grant's two comebacks already are what makes him Grant Hill. Even if he's down you'd be hard-pressed to ever get that out of him. We still think he's got more in the tank and you see what happens every day in medicine and makes you want to keep trying. If he's willing to hang in there and keep fighting this thing God knows we are too."

Hill's latest setback has led to suggestions in the media that, for the sake of the team, he either retire or tear up his contract and play for the minimum next season. Would either scenario really help the Magic? Whether Hill retires or continues to try to come back, insurance will pay 80 percent of his contract in future seasons as long as he doesn't actually play.

Retirement would help the team's cap situation long term. But the Magic would have to wait two years from the date Hill played his last game (Jan. 16th, 2005) to get him off the cap. Retirement wouldn't provide any short-term benefits. While teams can normally receive a disabled player's exception when a player suffers a season-ending injury, teams do not receive an exception to acquire a replacement player if a player retires for medical reasons.

Collective bargaining rules prohibit Hill from tearing up his contract. But Hill and the Magic could work out a buyout, a la Shawn Kemp, that would give the Magic immediate cap relief starting this summer. While the Players Association frowns on such agreements, technically it's legal.

Hill has four years and 60.4 million left on his contract. Even if he agreed to a 50 percent buyout, the savings for the Magic would be substantial. Under terms of the CBA, buyouts are distributed through the life of the contract. Even if Hill received his 30 million in a lump sum, the Magic would have to distribute the sum evenly over the next four years.

A 50 percent buyout for Hill would give the Magic an extra $6.64 million in cap space for the summer of 2003. Combine that with existing cap space and the Magic would be looking at around eight million in cap room for this summer. While that wouldn't be enough to land a player like Tim Duncan or Jason Kidd, it could get them a solid big man like Michael Olowokandi or young dynamic point guard like Gilbert Arenas.

Why would Hill do it? There's no financial advantage for him to take a $30 million pay cut. And the Magic wouldn't and couldn't force him to take such a drastic measure.

If Hill did it, his primary motivation would only be for the good of his team. The Magic are essentially screwed for the next four years if Hill can no longer play. The Magic would be forced to build a team without 25 percent of their cap for the next four years. There's a risk that Tracy McGrady would exercise his opt out after the 2004-05 season if the team still wasn't a playoff contender.

Still, the fighter in Hill is saying never give up. No matter what the ramifications.

"If it hadn't been for my faith and my family I might have quit," Hill told the Orlando Sentinel recently. "All you can really do is look forward. It's been hard, Lord knows. . . . But I'm going to work my tail off and rest to get this thing right."

Season ends for Magic's Hill

John Denton / Florida Today

Teams no longer ducking Howard

While Jason Kidd, Tim Duncan and Michael Olowokandi are getting all of the early free-agent ink, it appears the most recruited player this summer actually might be Nuggets' forward Juwan Howard.

Denver averaged 82.3 ppg in three games without Juwan Howard.

Howard has earned himself a lot of respect for the way he's handled his tour of duty with the lowly Nuggets.

"He goes all out, giving 100 percent," Memphis coach Hubie Brown recently. "Any time a guy leads a losing team, naturally you're always looking to see if the guy takes any time off or goes on cruise control. But that doesn't look like the type of attitude (Howard has)."

But the interest around the league (the Lakers, Pistons, Sonics, Heat, Magic, Sixers and Bucks are all interested) is based partially on the belief that Howard will settle for the mid-level exception this summer.

Will he?

"I doubt it," a source close to Howard told Insider. "If the money isn't out there, I think Denver will work out a sign-and-trade for him. They need to fill their roster, and if the young talent they're looking for isn't out there, a sign-and-trade may be the way to go."

While some GMs believe Howard, perhaps the mostly grossly overpaid player in NBA history (with Allan Houston challenging him for those honors), will play for the mid-level just to be on a winning team, no one likes taking a $15 million a year pay cut, especially a 30-year-old player with five to six good years left in his career.

The Spurs, Jazz, Clippers, and Heat are the only teams with enough cap room to offer him any more than the mid-level. And the Nuggets already have indicated to Howard that they'd like to re-sign him.

Juwan Howard

Power Forward

Denver Nuggets

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

60 18.3 7.8 3.1 .447 .818

"I would love to find a way to keep him on the team next year," Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe told the Rocky Mountain News. "I tell him point-blank that I'd love to have him here. He knows it's just not lip service. ... He's positive (about coming back). He knows we're on the right track here."

But Howard isn't sure he wants to end his career on a team in the first stages of rebuilding. More likely, a team with some young talent to offer in return -- like the Bulls, Pistons or Grizzlies -- would agree to a sign-and-trade. The Nuggets might struggle to lure top-flight free agents to Denver this summer. Using Howard as sign-and-trade bait could help them land the talent they need.

The key for Denver will be getting something done fast. Howard's cap hold will be huge next season, and the team won't be able to make offers to free agents like Gilbert Arenas or Corey Maggette until his situation is resolved, either by signing him, trading him or renouncing their rights.

Either way, for the first time in a long time, Howard finally will get to choose his own destiny. And he'll do it without that albatross of a contract hanging around his neck.

"It's a relief," the source told Insider. "It's tough to feel sorry for a guy making $20 million a year, but it's really affected his career. I think it's obscured the fact that Juwan's a really great basketball player. Hopefully when the contract's gone, people will see that again."

Nuggets, Camby heading for a divorce this summer?

Speaking of the Nuggets, remember that contract extension they were working on with Marcus Camby? Forget about it.

Marcus Camby

Forward-Center

Denver Nuggets

Profile

2002-2003 SEASON STATISTICS

GM PPG RPG APG FG% FT%

13 5.5 5.3 0.8 .385 .692

"From my perspective, it doesn't make sense (to talk about it now) because he's not at the top of his game," agent Rich Kaplan told the Rocky Mountain News. "The Nuggets, I'm sure they'd be happy to re-sign him if it was a good value to them. When Marcus Camby is healthy, he's worth more than (the $7.75 million option he has for 2004-05)."

Now for the punchline. When is Camby ever healthy? Don't read too much into this, it's is all spin. Coach Jeff Bzdelik has soured on Camby's work ethic and lack of toughness.

If the Nuggets can move Camby this summer they will. Not only does it get him out of the locker room, in the right deal it may buy them a little cap room. The lack of an extension will only help facilitate the deal.

For Camby's part, he still claims he wants to stay in Denver.

"A lot of people have gotten caught up in a lot of my expressions," said Camby, who's played in only 13 games because of hip and ankle injuries. "But I'm happy. If I wasn't, I would have been trying to get out at the trading deadline. I didn't say one thing. I kept saying I wanted to be here. I wanted to tough it out."

Agent insists center 'happy' to be with Nuggets

Chris Tomasson / Rocky Mountain News

Peep Show

New Jersey Nets: Dikembe Mutombo plans on shooting this week, practicing next week, playing against Yao Ming the week after that. "I'll definitely be back before Houston," he said of the March 31 home game. "I'm very close." Since his departure to recover from surgery on his right wrist, the Nets have fallen to second in the East, only a two games ahead of Philadelphia in the Atlantic and have lost eight of their last nine games. "When I come back, I am going to have an impact," Mutombo told the New York Times. "I'm going to be much better than I was at the start of the season. I'm more fit, and skill-wise, I have improved a few things. I have improved my shooting with my left hand."

Milwaukee Bucks: Three weeks have passed since Ray Allen was sent packing to Seattle for Gary Payton but the dust has yet to settle. "The trade was good for Gary and it was good for Ray, too," Milwaukee head coach George Karl said to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I don't know if Gary could get over the negative hurdles hanging over his head (in Seattle). Ray had some of the same things. He and I had battles. Sometimes, it's better to go somewhere else with the knowledge that you've gained through the experience. Ray had battles with Glenn (Robinson), he had battles with the Big Three, he had battles with me. I've been watching Ray play (in Seattle) and he seems to be playing with a new energy. I think it's been good for him." Allen agreed. "In Milwaukee, it got to be a situation in which there was so much frustration just trying to play, almost like I wasn't free anymore to be who I was," he said. "The coach criticized me for being who I am. George would tell me to be careful with the media, to not say things about the team. I did say we weren't as good as we needed to be, but I didn't bash people. It got to a point where, outside of some of my teammates - I wasn't happy. As far as (offering) my opinion, I can't be hushed. I've got to speak my mind, be who I am. I was becoming less than I was."

Seattle SuperSonics: Brent Barry began the year as the starting shooting guard but hearing whispers that he would quickly become the sixthman in favor of Desmond Mason. Then he became the starting point guard after the trade and now coach Nate McMillan is telling him to shoot more. "I want him to be aggressive and not play off Ray," McMillan said in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "Because he is at the point guard position, he is capable of doing it, and not play the style of ball that he played with Gary, of waiting for Gary to create or waiting for Ray to create." And, well, Barry is kinda tired of being told what to do. "I'm just tired of hearing the word," he said. "Maybe I should just go out tomorrow and shoot every time I touch the ball and see if I could ever be called too aggressive. I don't know when it crosses over from being too aggressive to selfish play. It's kind of a gray area to talk about and expound upon."

Utah Jazz: Karl Malone may very well become the all-time career scorer in the NBA but Monday night he became the seventh-leading rebounder, too, with 14,470. "It just means I've played a long time, that's all. It just means I've been around and played a lot of minutes," Malone said of the milestone while refusing to accept the ball he did it with. "If it's not first or second, no, I'm not keeping it," he told the Salt Lake Tribune.

Looking Ahead, the Nets Can Finally See Mutombo

Liz Robbins / New York Times

Karl, Allen fences couldn't be mended

Tom Enlund / Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Get the point, Barry told

Danny O'Neil / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Malone Philosophical About His Milestone

Phil Miller / Salt Lake Tribune