Marty McNeal has a rare scoop in The Sacramento Bee: Geoff Petrie is setting up some sort of timetable for his next rebirth.
"At some point, you have to take a philosophical stance, and if you keep adding four- and five-year or five- and six-year contracts, it makes it a lot more difficult to get there. Potentially, on a two-year horizon, we can naturally arrive there. The exception is if something comes up you think is really good, I think you still do that."
Petrie said attempting to get that real room following the 2008-09 season is what he is looking to do at this point. The contracts of Mike Bibby and Ron Artest (who is expected to opt out of his deal in the summer of 2008) would be off the cap.
This is a big deal for two reasons: 1) Petrie never talks about this sort of thing, and 2) This is as close to proof as we're going to get about Petrie's 'rebuilding not retooling' strategy. (The difference is explained well here.) Essentially, Petrie is conceding he will wait for Bibby's big contract to come off the books to work his magic... which is further indication he's not taking a basket of crap back for Mike's contract in the trade market.
To go one step further: I wouldn't be surprised if Petrie didn't make a minor splash in 2009 and a larger one in 2010. Of course, he can't say this now... especially with the arena scab about to get ripped off in a few months. But 2010 is the summer Petrie can do whatever the frick he wants, with Brad's $12.2 million, Kenny's $8.5 million, and Shareef's $6.6 million gone. As I said, he can't tell us right now to watch an NBDL team making no offseason moves for the next three years -- so he will do something or some things between now and then. But I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't take real slow even then, in 2009.