if we did not already have Roy on a huge and now awful (because of injury) contract I might agree with you, no way we can take a max contract risk on Oden already having Roy IMO.
I find it extremely hard to believe that an amnesty clause won't be included. It benefits both owners and players
no argument there, but then we take a huge risk on Oden after having already used the likely "one-time amnesty on Roy?
"what if" games eh? So if they did that it would be under the new CBA and not the current? - even though it was done before current CBA expiration? and what is a max offer for greg dollar wise at the current time? and for a guy who has missed 3 of 4 years with 2 MF's and another knee related injury? I'm glad it's not my call cause I'd be tempted to cut bait and let him go.
The contract figures for next season would be under the new CBA. The definition of the word "max" is fungible and is set as a percentage of the salary cap. It's the same reason when Roy got his contract, no one actually knew how much it would be.
Then wait until the new CBA is agreed to and negotiate a near max deal with Oden then. Giving Oden a max contract today would be a dumber move then the horrible contracts we gave to Theo Ratliff and Darius Miles which hindered this franchise for years.
It may be that it's in the Blazers' best interests to get all of the salary they can now, under the current CBA, so that it's grandfathered in. It sounds as if the new CBA would be phased in to allow teams to work down to the new cap figure, but there may be no sign-and-trades and who knows what exceptions would be allowed for new contracts. Grabbing salary now and then working down later may be necessary to avoid losing guys due to new cap restrictions. What a crazy mess.
My first hope is that we end up signing him long term and he ends up being at least 70% of what we hoped he would be. My second hope is that some idiot GM tries to mess with us by making a ridiculously huge offer, Blazers let Oden go, and the GM has to eat the contract because Greg doesn't end up ever getting out of the training room.
