James Posey

[...] And this is probably a good thing. Of the 106 players from 2008, 31 of them had an average salary for the duration of between $3 million and $9.3 million, and only two of them (Ben Gordon and Robert Swift) were one year deals. Included in there were four years deals for the likes of Eduardo Najera ($12 million) and James Posey ($25,020,800), five-year deals for the likes of Ryan Gomes ($21,175,000) and Daniel Gibson ($20,054,000) and oversized three-years deals for the likes of Sasha Vujacic ($15 million) and Stephen Jackson ($27,769,500). Of those players, only Gomes has ever received another deal and is still in the league, an unguaranteed minimum salary one with OKC. You know your contract was too long when the player never gets another one afterwards.

T.J. Ford and James Posey - Ford retired one year ago this week with his persistent neck trouble, and now runs an AAU team. He has also returned to school to complete his degree. Posey helps out with Ford's AAU team, which is the only post-retirement news on him other than the sale of his house.

James Posey — Once considered one of the best role players in the league, Posey did little over the span of his last contract, and thus joins the scrapheap. His transformation from poor-shooting-but-explosive young scorer into a jumpshooting specialist with versatile defense was unexpected, but was most effective. Was.

[T]he amnesty clause (that we're having to pretend will exist here, but which almost certainly will exist in some form) will further expand the range of available talents. A lot of decent players are going to become available, not because they can't play the game, but because they can't justify their contract. A lot of the candidates are obvious and inevitable, some perhaps less so. Here's a potential list:

- Indiana: James Posey - Indiana acquired Posey as salary filler, and his $7,595,600 salary for next season is merely an obstacle in the way of Indiana's still-flickering cap space dream. In light of Posey's worst season of his career - 34% shooting in 49 games - this is doubly true.

Filling out the remaining spots on that roster will again put the team back into tax territory. But things are manageable by then. Darius Songaila could always be pawned off for a slightly smaller expiring salary, or for a longer one of a decent player. The same is true of Peja; now that he's finally expiring, he's finally an asset and not a burden. He could even be used in a big trade, if New Orleans decides they're ready to now go that route (which they should be). And if we adhere to the earlier rule of how no two year contract can ever be too bad, James Posey is also now tradeable, particularly because of his (largely mythical) value to contending teams. For example, would the Lakers give up Sasha Vujacic for him? They could do, and that moves represents both long term and short term salary savings for the loss of only another backup. Or what about Cleveland trading Delonte West and Danny Green for them, if they can't get a better deal with the asset that is Delonte's deal? Could happen. Depends on whether the James Posey Aura circa-2008 Finals is still on life support. (Neither of those trades should happen, but they might. Executives looooooove James Posey. Or at least, they used to.)