Interesting take on Day-1 from Hollinger........

http://espn.go.com/nba/dailydime/_/page/dime-freeagency-100701/seller-market

 

Bill Simmons:

 

This shit is getting out of control!

 

Imaginary cap space.

 

We know the answer, though it wouldn't surprise me if it happened.

 

I just don't get the rush to sign these mediocre guys like Gooden, Darko and Amir to ridiculous amounts first. You'd think they'd be the last guys to be signed. And if you lose them... seems like you can easily replace them with another player equal to their talent at a much lower price.

 

You did notice these are all SHIT teams making the moves.

 

The sad thing is they're not even MEDIOCRE. They're lower tier players who generally should be among the last four players on a good team's bench. I thought the Darko deal was slightly overpaying, but still fair considering he'll probably start next year, but Johnson getting $34 mil and Frye-- a one dimensional "big man"-- getting $30?! Totally reprehensible.

 

Yeah, I noticed. But damn, even noob fans would recognize how stupid those deals are ... and these guys are actually getting paid a ton of money to make these moves. It's just mind boggling.

 

Yeah, no doubt. Toronto is paying Hedo and Amir a combined $80-plus million over their contracts.. yikes. There are a TON of good players out there, who are not necessarily those elite franchise players.. and these are the guys that are getting paid the big bucks? Man.. how stupid.

 

Aldridge got 5/$65m, right?

Not 5/$70m as it says in the article.

Fire KP!

 

IIRC, it's 70 with the incentives.

 

The Bucks are not a shit team. And Gooden makes them better.

 

My takes:

Darko @ 4 years, $20 million. Honestly not that bad. He'll get some burn and its little risk IMO.
Channing Frye 5 years, $25 million. He earned the money, but he plays yo-yo ball. Only shows up every other year. Great blogger
Amir Johnson- 5 years/$34: a bit overpaid for a backup PF/C. Not much T-dot can do though, who would want to play in #Canada?
Drew Gooden: About $6 million per year. Sounds about right. Kind of a boring move. #bucks have some real snoozers of players
Rudy Gay-> Way overpaid. Should have let him walk and sign Travis Outlaw in the 5 years, 32 million dollar range.

 

It's actually 30 mil. Does that change your opinion?

It has been five years since he was drafted and he has started more games in the DLeague than in the NBA. He's a career 5pt, 4reb player. Combined with the contracts of Turkoglu and Bargnani, TOR would be in lux tax territory if they signed Bosh or acquired similar contracts in a S&T. Just horrible management.

Agreed.

 

Phoenix isn't going anywhere w/o Amare IMO. Frye is a local guy who played awesome last year from behind the arc and stepped up in the playoffs. For that team he fits. $6 million a year isn't too much of a stinger IMO for what he did bring and in this crazy market.

Is he worth 1/2 of what La Marcus Aldridge makes? Maybe. I wouldn't do it personally.....like I said, he plays good every other year...he could regress next year, and its actually pretty likely.

 

He might make them better, but that is still a lot of money for him.

 

$80 mil to Gay? So they got rid of Pau Gasol's contract so they could give the same thing to Rudy Gay? WTF?

 

But from what I've read in here, Aldridge sucks so he'll never reach those incentives.