I heard the B Roy interview and he sounds offended. He's our franchise player, you PAY HIM!!!!! I don't give a rip what KP is doing, he should be on the phone with Roy saying this is taken care of and have a great summer. That hasn't happened!!! This looks bad, not a good showing for KP,or the Blazers.This is just STUPID, and could leave some ill will for B ROY,not a smart move! This doesn't even address what message this is sending the rest of the team about contracts and what they are worth!!!! Really HOW STUPID can you be? He's a two time allstar and rookie of the year, what else does he need to do in three years to get a max contract!!!!! KP doesn't look shrewd here, he looks clueless!!!
The local sports station is going to run the interview again (About 2 1/2 minutes where Brandon talks about contracts). Maybe folks at vulcan are listening in Seattle today!
If another team maxes him as a RFA, the Blazers match and they save about ten million bucks over simply maxing him our right now. If he's unhappy, that'll be tough beans. Ed O.
Based upon what? I see nothing in NBA regulations that prohibit a team from offering him the maximum amount of money that a player with his experience can earn. How does that save Portland money? As far as I can tell, a team can offer him starting 9 million dollars because he is under 6 years of experience. That is a hell of a lot more than Portland would be offering him in an extension. So either you know about some rule I don't, or your math is fuzzy. Because 9 million is a hell of a lot more than what Portland would be paying him in a contract extension with max raise. Secondly, you may say it would be tough beans in your scenario. I bet the people in Milwaukee thought the same until Mo Williams was unhappy and forced a trade. Money can't buy happyness if a player doesn't want to be here.
The team with a player's Bird rights is allowed to offer a higher starting salary than anyone else. That's why almost all big-time free agents stay with their teams; that's where they can earn the most money. Portland can offer Roy more than any other team can, a larger max deal. If Roy becomes a RFA and signs a max deal with another team, it'll be a smaller one than Portland could offer. Portland matches and gets a discount. I don't think it'll come to that, though.
Actually, I don't think this is right. Portland and another team can only start at the same max salary. He can make 25% of the cap as a "max" player, or 105% of his previous salary, whichever is greater. Let's say that the Knicks, for argument's sake, want to sign LBJ and then Roy. They can offer Roy the same amount we can ($12.6M on a 50.4M projected 2010 cap) for the first year. However, unless they do a S&T, they can only offer him 5 yrs and 8% raises. We (or any team we S&T Roy to) can offer 6yrs and 10.5% raises. That's a difference b/w 6yrs/93.4M and 5yrs/73M. Or an average of 15.9M a year vs. 14.6M.
I have thought about the whole negotiation situation, and here is my two cents, for what it's worth. First of all, I believe that Portland should have already had a deal in place and anounced at the earliest possible moment. Roy should get 5 and the max, IMO. Roy is going to have a shorter career than many of the other stars in the NBA due to the fact that he completed college prior to coming to the NBA. Some of these guys are into a veteran contract by the time that they are 22 or 23 which is when Roy was just entering the league. Since he got a later start, he probably will have opportunity to sign 2 max deals. So, I wouldn't blame Roy for playing hardball and insisting on the max deal. Be that as it may, I believe that Roy should not have gone public with his comments. It seems to me that it is actually a little bit out of character for him, and so I assume that he is following talking points from his agent. As far as Blazer management is concerned, sometimes you can outsmart yourself. Maybe they are trying to put LMA on notice that he isn't getting a max contract, I don't know. We have sought out high character guys, and with high character guys the best thing to do, IMO, is just be honest. In conclusion, I think that both sides have made mistakes. I don't know, and I don't pretend to know what the underlying circumstances are. I don't know if KP and team were so involved in evaluating talent available in the draft and FA that they put Roy and LMA on the back burner, or if it is a "toxic" situation. I have no problem with KP saying, hey, let us focus on the draft and free agency because they are time sensitive issues, and then we will focus on extending Roy and LMA. Whatever the case, I won't criticize either side because I respect Roy as a man and a player, and because KP has done a great job with managing the Blazers so far and I believe he has earned "benefit of the doubt" status.
I said KP effed up on draft day, and I'll say it until someone shows me how DaJuan Blair and Jon Brockman are worse fits for this team than Jeff Pendergraph and Dante Cunningham, two players they beat up on head-to-head and in the same conferences. Though I think you may be reading the Roy-free-agent comment wrong (or maybe I am): I read it as "LMA and I are ineffective at bringing FAs here b/c we may be gone next summer b/c we aren't locked up by the Blazers"--not as a threat to leave.
Obviously with Brandon going to the public like this it is to put pressure on KP and Vulcan. And it has gotten the desired effect, many fans are upset and pissed off at the FO.
1. The max salary, as I understand it, of the year that the extension is signed rules the day. I base that on Chris Paul and Deron Williams having first year salaries of 13,758,000, which was the max salary when they signed their extension, while the max salary for 2009-10 is 13,520,500. If I am correct with this (and I'm not 100% sure I am), then the Blazers could extend Roy right now/this year with a first year contract value of that 13.52m, but a team next summer could only offer NEXT year's max, which will be lower than 13m and might be merely 12.5m. 2. Another team can only offer 8% raises from that first year, while Portland can offer 10.5%. Taking those two things into account, and assuming a 12.5m maximum contract for 2010-11 (which is slightly higher than the 05-06 year, when the salary cap was just under 50m), there is almost a $10m difference between what the Blazers can offer now and what any other team could offer next summer. Oh, no! Mo Williams forced his way out! One player is supposed to make the Blazers negotiate from a position of fear, rather than strength? That doesn't make sense to me. Ed O.
Why the hell should Roy help someone else get 5 years, when the FO is dicking him around for his 5th year? Thats idiotic.
Softy is ridiculous. Also, Roy didn't sound frustrated at all to me. He sounded excited at the prospect of getting tens of millions of dollars, and he sounded eager to get a deal done. Ed O.
Do you think he would have helped if the Blazers had only offered Hedo four years? Of course not. Stop hiding behind nonsensical arguments. Roy didn't help out because he is trying to play hardball (and only has one more year guaranteed) and/or he was not asked to do so. It wasn't because Hedo was offered more years than Roy is being offered in his extension. Ed O.
You don't think he was frustrated about how its only 50/50 and that he thinks its pretty far from getting done?
