Since the topic du jour is Roy's medical retirment, and how his contract is not insured, so PA would have to pay the full tab, it got me thinking how this may apply to Greg Oden. I think it's quite simple. If Oden's contract falls under the 'uninsurable' category, I don't think he'll see a long contract offer from any team. If his contract can be insured, I expect teams to offer 5-years/$55 million, at least. Does anybody know how the insurance question is decided by the league? It may play a big role in keeping Oden.
Amare has played in more than 25% of the games in his career, and he's proven to be an elite player over many years. Offering Oden $55 million uninsured is a hell of a gamble for some teams, and I think it could limit some of his options.
Are you seriously comparing Stoudamire to Oden? Or are you just arguing to argue? I can't tell. If it's the latter, I'm busy. If it's the former, um, OK.
It could very well limit some options but it only takes 1 idiot out there (KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN) to throw a huge deal at Oden. His contract won't be insured but the upside of Oden is quiet tempting and might make some take a gamble. A 15 looks horrible, but sometimes you just gotta take a hit and hope for the best.
Oden has had it on both knees, plus he cracked his patella. Anyhow, this is a stupid comparison, so let's move on.
The league wide insurance covers the top 5 salaries for each team, with teams being able to submit a few more names if they'd like. The provider can exclude up to something like 14-15 of those contracts if they deem the risk of injury to high in relation to the remaining amount left on the contract. So with Oden it's a combo of whether or not he's top 5 on his team in yearly salary, and what the total guaranteed money on the contract ends up being that the insurance company will weight in relation to the risk of other highly paid players going down.
Thanks. In other words, the more money Oden is offered, the more likely he is to be a top 5 player on his team. Kind of falls in line with what I was thinking.
It suggests a balancing act with what teams will offer for sure, if he's looking for a long term deal of say 5 years some teams could offer him 6-7 or so million a year(sort of MLE like money) and not worry about the insurance because he wouldn't project to be in the top 5 salaries for their roster. If he's looking to get as much possible on a per year basis, say 8-10 million a year, then a team can try and restrict the contract length in a way that the total contracts of guys like Roy/Amare are still just so much larger that the provider is willing to take a risk and not add Oden to the exempt list. An example would be like in Minny, they have 4 guys who will make 4.6mil or more next year and could have between 12-14 mil in capspace (or the equivalent in the pending CBA), If the sign another guy with a starting salary of 7.5mil with the regular raises and keep the guys they're already paying that much too then using the remaining 4.5 mil on Oden and giving him a 5 year deal will keep them from ever worrying about the insurance, with raises that could be a bit over 32mil total. There's a few other teams that can do the same or similar things, some can even offer more like 5-5.5 starting, but Minny was the 1st thing that popped into my head. From the looks of it Boston could offer Oden a full MLE starting salary and he wouldn't be top 5 for at least 2 years, same with the Lakers. Memphis, like Minny, with a resigned Zach is only 1 contract away from being able to do this too.
The full MLE after accepting an $8.8 million Q.O. wouldn't be a bad deal for Oden if it means the team signing him has the contract insured. If he stays healthy, he's a steal, and if he suffers more injuries to the point he can't play anymore, the team gets out from most of the remaining contract. I think this makes it more likely Greg takes the Q.O., if it is offered, simply because he knows Portland would match a MLE contract this summer.
what it really boils down to is....calculated risk. for new york, it was worth the risk to them to offer amare the uninsurable contract, many other teams were completely turned off by it. id guess that the same can/will be said when greg reaches FA
yeah, but Amare covered up his privates with basketball. Oden would need one of those globes you stick liquor bottles into.
