A Sam Amick profile of Mikki Moore gives us a look into the other offers The Lobster received this summer — $12 million/3 years from Chicago, $10 million/3 years from New Jersey. Geoff Petrie ended up dropping $17 million/3 years with only $12 million/2 years guaranteed.

At FanHouse, I chided New Jersey for letting him go for essentially $1 million each of the next three years — I assume a $13 million/3-year deal would've kept him, considering he liked playing with Kidd and Carter and the Sacramento offer didn't come until later. While it was a questionable move to let him go by N.J. (and of course it's easier to say that now than in July), the lush Sacramento contract makes sense.

Mikki's a placeholder. No one would dispute he's a better fit than Kenny Thomas or Shareef Abdur-Rahim, and no one would dispute this team lacked his long athleticism (ignoring Justin Williams). It doesn't really matter if you spend $12 million or $9 million or $15 million on him these two years — you aren't getting under the cap until 2009 anyways (barring a miracle). Bringing Mikki in helps the team compete in the interim, and we know now the Maloofs nor Petrie are going to all out tank a season. The brevity of the deal was key.