In his analysis of the free agent list yesterday, Clay said that Cheryl Ford isn't going anywhere. That's true, but Ford's moving from a rookie-scale contract to a max contract will put the champs in a financial bind.

Detroit already has five guaranteed contracts on the books for 2007 — Cash, Nolan, Riley, Smith, and Holland-Corn — totaling $446,000. Braxton is still rookie-scaled at just over $40k. Adding Ford at $93k will leave less than $150k for the remaining four slots.

Even if you fill three of those with minimum contract players (such as Batteast and Williams), that leaves less than $50k for Pierson, who, as an RFA, will likely command more than that. And it leaves nothing for Powell.

So what to do? Some options:

1. Try (again) to unload Riley.

2. Unload Holland-Corn (again), potentially to Chicago, whom Bill owes something anyway.

3. Let Pierson go.

It also wouldn't be shocking to see something more dramatic... say something involving Swin. She doesn't seem to have fully recovered from her injury, and her relationship with Bill doesn't seem as friendly as it once was. Maybe it's time for both parties to move on.