Wolves to amnesty Darko
Basically every team gets to put a blind bid in for a player being amnestied and the player is signed to the team with the highest bid. He will become an unrestricted only if no team puts in a bid. Tell me a team with cap space and a desperate need for a centre (which team isn't?) like Portland, Houstin, Bobcats etc wouldn't offer him around $2 million. That's a good signing in my opinion. Although he's widely considered one of the biggest bust in draft history, the fact he is still in the league show he is far from useless. And can servicable at least; he can clog up the lane for 20 minutes a game and give you 6 foul. I don't think Miami can afford to outbid anyone unless Mike Miller retires or is amnestied so they would need Darko to recieve no bids at all and become a UFA
its considered a minor signing, but the toronto raptors resigned Aaron Gray already to a 2 year deal. Joel Pryzbilla is available though and last i read on twitter and one of the names floating around being connected to Miami's need for a center, as is Kwame Brown's. however when i read that, i think it was more of an oppinion of a sports writer and not something comming out of the Heat's camp.
... they have clear waivers and then you can sign them like any other FA. Darko'ns problem at this point is he has been unfairly demonized for the position he was drafted. Without knowing him personally, I would think that it has adversly effected his confidence. I dont think sending him to a place where he would play with 3 guys from his draft class, 2 of which were drafted later than him will help that. He needs to be in a small market where the media praises everything the club does and not much is expected. Milwaukee, OKC, Portland, Phoenix.. some place like that... but then again,.. he is not that much of a gamble at this point.
Also I know Iverson and Camby were 1 and 2 in 96... they played together on the nuggs. I liked that team... too many injuries and cancer tho...
That was the first sign that Joe Dumars might have been suffering from some sort of mental disorder. The signs re-appeared when he used all his cap space on Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva. It seems he may have cleared up whatever craziness he was suffering from, recently at least, in the draft taking Greg Monroe, Brandon Knight, and Andre Drummond.
Hindsight is always 20-20. If you will recall, the Pistons just won a championship and wanted to draft a very talented young big man for the future. Guess what, 18 year old Darko Milicic was a fantastic young 7 footer who could run the court, jump, and was very athletic. That kind of physical talent doesn't come along very often.
Unfortunately for the Pistions, Dumars couldn't get into Milicic's head which is where all of his problems are. There's no doubt that even today, if Milicic's head was screwed on properly, he has the talent to be a fantastic big man in the NBA.
But that won't happen as Milicic proved after finally getting an opportunity in Minnesota, that he doesn't have the mental skills and discipline to become a star in the NBA.
Darko is one of the biggest wastes of talent in the league. The guy can play, but he is mentally weak. I think every team he has played for has seen flashes of him showing what he can do, but he is so inconsistent. Miami won't touch him because he is completely useless if he doesn't start. He's a guy that his play is all about confidence and when that confidence gets down, then it's hard to get it back up. If he doesn't start, which I doubt he would in Miami, then he's already going to be in the hole. Championship teams need guys that accept and play their roles.
Mental toughness is so hard to determine. If people knew those things for sure then there would be less wasted draft picks across all sports. I still remember when Ryan Leaf was being considered for the first pick in the NFL draft and he was a can't miss prospect. How lucky San Diego got to have a top two pick in a year with two franchise quarterbacks...
Miami would be a good fit for Darko, all he'd need to do is run the floor, rebound and block. I've always felt he has been harshly treated due to where he was drafted but for his size he's never been a great rebounder which Miami would probably want.
Personally I think that some team will make him an offfer but at worse he can go back to Europe and be a star there.
What about the acquisition being like manna from heaven?
What about the fact he has passing abilities like Divac?
What about him being worth 20 million over four years??
Seems like you have just got on the same page as the rest of the world Mr Kahn.
The Lakers could use him as a backup center. Just put him in there to bang, rebound, and defend. Nash could probably get him some easy baskets. Darko played with Pau Gasol in Memphis for whatever that's worth.
Boston could use another center too, if Steimsma doesn't resign.
I think the Heat need a better center than Darko, or the Heat need to go after Luis Scola for his post scoring and rebounding. Bosh would still be their center then but he would have some help inside, and this would allow LeBron to go back to the 3.
So the Timberwolves are going to amnesty Darko Milicic and he could potentually end up anywhere and I'm not saying this is going to happen but if Miami signs him they will have the 1st, 2nd, 4th and 5th pick of the 2003 draft. Has 4 of the top 5 of the same draft every played on the same team before? I know Shaq and Alonzo Mourning played together in Miami during their first championship run and were the number 1 and number 2 pick in the 1992 draft but I cannot think of that many top 5 picks from the same year playing together. Now this is nowhere near guaranteed to happen and probably unlikely since I can see Darko getting ridiculously overpayed by a team desperate for a centre due to the blind bidding system. Plus Kwame brown got $7 million last season so anything is possible. Here is the link to the report:
http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/47714/wolves-to-amnesty-darko-milicic