James Posey's Hornets contract now called "crummy, lucrative."

We all wish we still had James Posey to back up Paul Pierce and to guard high-scoring, athletic SF's but the contract he was able to get out of New Orleans was an obvious mistake by that franchise. At the end of some blogs talking about the Hornets dumping Hilton Armstrong on Sacramento yesterday, the last line sums up the prevailing attitide about Posey's deal. Hope the big payday erases any of his desires to have a realistic shot at another ring or two:

The Times-Picayune:
"Ours is not to question why Sacramento wanted Hilton Armstrong. Ours
is just to sit back, giggle and pat the New Orleans Hornets on the back
for finally managing to unload Armstrong, whose first name became
'underachieving' while with New Orleans. The No. 12 overall pick of the
2006 NBA Draft averaged 3.6 points and 2.7 rebounds per game in four
seasons with the Hornets, 2.8 and 3.4 this season. And, yes, those are
embarassingly pathetic numbers for a 6 feet 11 player who was as
athletically gifted as Armstrong, who easily should've been able to
post those numbers in a decent quarter or a bad half. The fact that the
Hornets were able to swap him for a second-round pick in 2016 says
everything, because serviceable big men simply aren't exchanged for the
equivalent of a bag of sneakers and compression shorts. [...] Ours is
not to question why the Kings wanted him. It's just to be happy, for
the Hornets' sake, that they did."
Hornets247.com:
"Not only do the Hornets get that $2.8 million off the books
immediately with this trade, but they also save themselves the $3.85
million qualifying offer Armstrong would have been owed next season. No
other team would have offered Hilton more than that as a restricted
free agent in the summer, so the Hornets would have been stuck with
him."
NBA FanHouse: "The
bigger boon is that New Orleans is only a very minor move away from
slipping beneath the threshold. At the trade deadline in February —
likely on the very day, if recent history is any indication — the
Hornets can trade any of Devin Brown(notes), Ike Diogu(notes), Sean Marks(notes) or Bobby Brown(notes)
to any team in the league without a player coming back, due to the
league's minimum salary exception. Doing so would officially get the
Hornets under the threshold, and would put New Orleans in the group
receiving tax distributions, which are expected to be more than $4
million per team this season. Assuming one of New Orleans' minimum
salaried players leaves on circumstances similar to those Armstrong
experienced today — in which the Hornets would also send cash to cover
the player's salary and net the tax reduction benefit — today's trade
could effectively be seen as responsible for the lion's share of a $7-8
million cash swing. As with Utah's exiling of Matt Harpring(notes)
and rookie Eric Maynor, the cost-benefit is easy: Hilton Armstrong and
one member of the Minimum Salaried Quarter of Doom is not worth $7-8
million for a pickled franchise like the Hornets. Smart move by Jeff
Bower, one which would have been unnecessary if Bower himself hadn't
signed Morris Peterson(notes) or James Posey(notes) to crummy, lucrative contracts."