Even as Chris Webber was greeting his new public through the magic of the Bay Area media, even as the Warriors were celebrating his acquisition at no cost of current personnel, plans were afoot to find a way to add the NBA's top draft choice to a payroll buried under the salary cap.
Quite simply, the plans included - you may have guessed it - a loss of current personnel. Would you believe Tyrone Hill?One way to make room for an expensive player is by letting free agents go and restructuring holdover contracts to shrink them immediately and fatten them down the line. But the Warriors have no free agents to speak of, and they're so far over the cap - $5 million-plus - they can't do it that way.
That leaves the Warriors but one option where Webber is concerned: Trade one of their higher-salaried players for a draft pick, thus creating what is called an exception or "slot" on their payroll. It means they can give that player's salary to Webber for next season in a contract that will underpay him immediately but allow for a sizable future upgrade.
Team president Dan Finnane, who introduced Webber at Thursday's media gathering here, did not seem concerned when asked about the difficulty of signing him. "We knew about the cap (problem) before we traded for him," Finnane said, "so it's in our plans."
A reasonable guess for the man to go would be the 6-foot-9 Hill, a starter for most of his three seasons with the Warriors and last season the NBA's third-ranked player in rebounding efficiency, an average of 10.2 in only 28 minutes a game.
Letting Hill go would be something of a gamble, because he's currently the Warriors' most physical inside player. But the addition of Webber would make Hill a full-time backup; he'd undoubtedly chafe as the fourth-ranked player in the center/power forward rotation (behind Webber, Billy Owens and Victor Alexander) and he's entering the final year of his contract.
That contract calls for $1.6 million next season, hardly top-pick money, but maybe Webber can be convinced to accept that slot in a long-term agreement that would allow for a renegotiation to the NBA's upper-rent district in two or three years. That would skirt the league's 30 percent maximum-increase rule.
"They are going to have to do some things," said Webber's agent, Bill Duffy of Lafayette. "In my mind, some guys are not going to be here. I think Chris fills a very large void, and I think some other guys become expendable."