Boykins Opts Out

As was expected/hoped, Early Boykins declined his player option for 07/08, becoming a free agent rather than playing another season for $3 million. Far more importantly, Boykins' decision means the Bucks will actually have the cap flexibility to go after a free agent on the order of Gerald Wallace or Andres Nocioni (I'm not even going to mention a certain Finals MVP-award winning Colorado alum). While I'm not sure if Boykins will be able to get a raise with his next contract, he just turned 31 and is coming off a career year (14.6 ppg/4.4 apg), meaning this was his best chance to get the security of another multi-year deal. Good luck Earl, it was (kinda) fun while it lasted.

Assuming Skinner's $5.85 million option is not picked up by the club, Ruben Patterson's $11.7 million cap hold is renounced, and David Noel's second-year option is picked up, that gives the Bucks eight players under contract for $39.4 million, plus the 6th overall pick's rookie scale value of $2.314 million, plus the cap holds of Mo ($3.84 mm), Charlie Bell ($973k) and Ersan Ilyasova ($964k). That adds up to $47.5 million, which if the cap was around $55 million leaves about $7.5 million in cap space. With the max 8% raises, that means the Bucks could offer a contract worth up to $43.6 million over five years ($8.7 million per season) without renouncing their Bird rights on Mo and their Early Bird rights on Bell and Ilyasova. I'll be running some more possible free agency scenarios in the coming week.