To have signed LMA to his extension last season? With the way free agency is going, there's no way he wouldn't have gotten max from another team and we'd be forced to overpay.
Indeed. By the same token, Oden might be resigned at a bargain if every other team shoots their wad this season and only has the MLE to work with next summer.
When teams like the Knicks and NJ start running out of options with guys like Gay and Johnson gone, I would imagine they'd start panicking.
That's what happens when you pin all your rebuilding effort on making your team stink for 2 years waiting for a superstar who is never going to join your shitty ass team.
It's total insanity so far, WTF are these owners thinkin? I'm glad we have our guys locked up, some of these teams are going to have serious regrets down the road. Gay 81 mil - WTF? Gooden 32 mil 5 yrs, Darko 3 yrs 21 mil? Might be some nie scraps left if we are patient and don't do a significant trade.
Never really bought into him being vastly overpaid like some people here would lead you to believe. Aldridge might not have the best possible contract for the Blazers, but I'd say it's close to being fair, especially for not even being in his prime yet.
Unless Greg has a breakout All-Star Caliber year this year that's injury-free, I suspect that he'll be resigned for a bargain regardless of the circumstances.
I don't think he would have received more than he got from the Blazers. We'll see how much money teams are willing to spend on other teams' players, rather than their own, as the summer moves along. Aldridge would have been a RFA like Lee was last year, and no teams were willing to tie up big money with Lee and the Knicks having a chance to match while there were other options out there. Ed O.
You don't think Aldridge (or his agent) would be smart enough to wait until the big names are gone, and then try to get an offer from the teams that were shut out?
No question in my mind LMA would have gotten more then we offered him. I also think D.Lee will get more this year then he could have gotten last year. I think Lee is going to end up with almost max or maybe even max contract unless he gives a discount to go back to NY.
Compare these crazy offers with what OKC has done. They've been very disciplined about using their cap space. If they can't get the player they want, they just wait until the next year. Along the way, they use their cap space to trade for players with bad contracts and draft picks. They chuck the player and keep the pick. Great strategy.