I forgot to write this earlier this week because I didn't want to give up my source and I thought no one would believe me. It's not all that "revelatory" or anything but is interesting. Long story short a friend of mine is actually a semi-famous Hollywood actor. I won't go into details about it but we were good friends during middle school and early high school and then sort of drifted apart. In recent years we have gotten back in touch. On Monday I was at a wedding reception for he and his wife and I started talking with him about the Millsap situation and also Roy's contract negotiations. He claimed that he played hoops with Roy and Aldridge's agent down in LA a month or two ago. He went on to say that mr. Agent guy stated that "he expected a hard negotiation with Roy because he knew for a fact that the Blazers did NOT want to pay big money for Aldridge and that a fight was spoiling over Roy's contract for that reason". If they played hardball with Roy then it would be easier to get Aldridge to take less money. That was all he said but this falls right in line with alot of theories I've read here and elsewhere. Sorry I didn't post this earlier but it's been a crazy week and I forgot about it until I read Tince's thread about Freeland. For what it's worth.
Hmmm. Sounds like the Blazers don't see Aldridge as part of their "core." I wonder why. Some NBA analysts think his ceiling is even higher than Roy's.
That is not what he said at all... He made it sound like the agent felt the Blazers didn't feel like Aldridge was a MAX contract type player, which I don't think he quite is yet either. He is a guy that should be locked into a deal for as long as possible, but not at a Max contract like Roy.
Aldridge is a good player. I like him and am excited he's a Blazer. I hope he's one for a LONG time. But he's not THAT much better than Millsap. He's not THAT much better than David Lee. Those guys are each going to end up with $8m a year or so. Is Aldridge really worth nearly twice that? A four year max extension (if the max salary is $12.5m next year, which is a reasonable estimate) would be about $58m... almost $15m a year. A five year max extension would be nearly $82m. No offense to LA or any of his fans, but if money matters at ALL, I'd prefer Millsap at 4 years/$32m to Aldridge at 4 years/$58m. Ed O.
I'd probably go to 4 years/$36 million or 5 years/$45 million for LMA because he is a more accomplished player than Millsap and Lee, at least in terms of being a primary scorer on a playoff-level team. That said, if LMA thinks he deserves Roy money (which he doesn't according to interviews), then I would understand playing hardball with Roy. Since LMA doesn't think that, however, I don't understand how stretching out the Roy negotiations does anything regarding LMA's extension.
Ditto to what <-=*PdX*=-> said. People need to separate the notions of core players and max contract players... Teams are not built around 3 cornerstone/max guys like we're headed toward with Roy, LMA, and Oden. Two of the three need to be paid relative to their production, not their popularity or marketability... I have doubts about making even Roy that guy, given that Oden may turn out to be the correct choice in two years. Aldridge may well end up being the best player of the trio, but he can't be maxed out on that hunch.
Has LMA even been offered an extension by the team? "Max" doesn't really come into play if the team hasn't even made an initial offer, does it? I say this not knowing if an offer has been extended to LMA.
Those numbers seem reasonable to me. They're still less than what Bargnani got, so I think that Aldridge might have something else (more money) in mind... Ed O.
How about Bargnani money then? I see that as a reasonable offer to Aldridge, maybe even add $1 million on the total on the back end just to make his contract worth more than Bargnani's. 5 years/$51 million with it escalating. Seems like a fair offer considering the market.
I like LMA's potential and he's improving every year. If you ask for the max for 5-years, make the all-star team at least once before you ask for that type of money!
Rasheed Wallace, if I remember correctly, had a lot of incentives in his contract; if he makes the all-star team he received $2m. Maybe we don't have to give out the max for LMA but load the contract with those kind of incentives.
He's not asking for that type of money. Perhaps his agent is, though. If so, it's not going to happen, nor should it happen.
Aldridge should and will get a similar contract like the ones Al Jefferson (65/5), Andrew Bogut (60/5 + 12.5 bonus), or Emeka Okafor (72/6) received. Wasn't that ZBo?
Amazingly, an extension like that, and a slightly-below-max extension for Roy could result in us having cap space next summer (if we were looking to).
Doesn't sound like that at all. It sounds like Portland wants to pay as little as possible for all their players...which is a smart thing to do. If Roy gets, let's say, 14 million a year. Aldridge gets 13. Oden gets 13, bayless gets 10, Fernandez gets 9. (or whatever) But if Roy gets 12...drop what everybody else gets by 2 million. You save 10 million dollars a year for 5 years. That's big money...and it's smart. none of that means that Aldridge isn't part of the core.
Quality info. It really makes sense as well. I don't think it has anything to do with liking Aldridge or not, but more about trying desperately not to have a 1 gazillion dollar payroll in 5 years. Also, people in here need to remember that this is just the agent speculating.
The important thing you are all missing here is we now have a 1 degree separation from Jaleel White through Idog! Autographs please! Good info, makes sense if there is pressure from Vulcan
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO my source has been revealed! I guess it's Jaleel's well known 42 inch vertical that gave it away. That boy can straight ball! Funnily enough he is somewhat like a Jaleel White...only...erm...white! He actually has played a number of nerdy type roles. I can give ya'll an obscure hint though! He was in a movie where my favorite line is "...Now why don't you ask me something relevant...like how much money I have in the bank." That wasn't his line but was the best line of that movie. And by the way remember this was speculation prior to the negotiating process (About two months ago) where the agent of LMA/Roy was speculating that there would soon be some hardball negotiating by the Blazers because they didn't want to max out Aldridge. There wasn't a hint that he though Aldridge would go elsewhere or that Portland didn't see him as part of the core. Basically the point of all this is that Roy will most likely get his max contract (I believe my friend said his agent said something to that effect) but that the Blazers weren't going to make it easy because they didn't want to pay everyone else (LMA) a max contract. There was no discussion of Oden or anyone else so I assume this was only relevant to the LMA/Roy negotiations. Basically I think we shouldn't worry to much about the negotiations Roy's agent knew it was coming so presumably so did Roy. Most likely everything thus far has been posturing more related to LMA's contract then Roy.
