Curse of the MLE

[Ferretsquig]

Mark Montieth:

Mid-level exceptions are the greatest threat to fiscal sanity for teams, and tend to lead to the most mistakes. They’re available to every team that’s over the salary cap, which is nearly every team, but there aren’t enough worthy free agents available to justify them. Some teams, eager to pacify their eager fans, inevitably reach out and touch the wrong someone.

An exceptionally well-connected league insider once told me the story of how Brian Cardinal got his mid-level. Seems Memphis owner Michael Heisley, frustrated by general manager Jerry West’s lack of activity, walked into West’s office one day and asked why he hadn’t signed anyone yet. So an exasperated West picked up his phone, called Cardinal’s agent and offered the mid-level on the spot. Then he turned to Heisley and said something along the lines of “There, you happy now?â€Â

For those of you thinking your favorite team just needs that little boost to get it over the hump and will find it in a player signed with that convienent exception. Last years crop of MLE players:

Marcus Banks
Mike James
Jared Jeffries
Nazr Mohammed
John Salmons
Darius Songaila
Tim Thomas
Vladimir Radmanovic