Or moronic GM's from agreeing. I wonder how many RFA agents will just ask Khan for a solid favor and get him to offer $12 mil a year every time.
HIbbert, Lopez, Gordon all got max deals Gerald Wallace got 4-$40 George Hill got 5-$40 Chris Kaman got 1-$8 Jamal Crawford 4-$22 Marcus Thornton 5-$40 Those are all this year....although maybe Thornton was last year, but after the new CBA
I would much rather have Batum than Deng. Deng is at his ceiling and it isn't any better than Batum now. Batum is only 23 and could do much better on a team with more movement. Looking at the salary chart he seems close to where you would expect.
But like I said, a bunch of teams had cap space this summer and it seems like they were still operating as though the CBA had not changed. I get the feeling that some teams will regret these signings in a year or two. The Gerald Wallace move especially was a huge error on NJ's part, but they were obviously doing it to convince Deron to stay.
My point is that NBA teams will continue to overspend, so Nic's deal is not that bad. 1.5 less a year and it would be great. 1.5 is not even the exceptin amount
The contract is only four years instead pf the old CBA six. It is also given to him when most players get better. The next coach should do a better job of utilizing Nic's skillset. Most of our roster will be on rookie deals for the life of this deal. When we lose our first FA due to this signing or it is confirmed we turned down three ones and Williams, I would then be upset.
We can afford to overpay Batum (and we are going to if we weren't we would have done a sign and trade) because we only have one big contract with no young players that we must extend the next two years. This contract won't hurt us(unless you believe we can lore FA here without overpaying the begesus out of them) until we must extend lillard/meyers( no way to know if they will be worth big extensions yet). This is an overpaying because we can afford it. Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk 2
1.5 million a year, which is the difference between what he will get, and what would have been awesome for him to get, is not going to kill our cap room
The thing I dont like is we are making a big assumption he takes that leap into the next level of small forwards. If he doesnt improve more than he is now, id much rather have my swingman role player making sefolosha, ariza or barnes money.
But we're talking about the league as a whole. You're saying that teams are throwing around money willy nilly and I'm saying they will regret it when the luxury tax rolls in. I just don't think reality has set in for some of these teams. They had money, they wanted to spend it and they threw big deals at players that didn't necessarily deserve them. That's all fine and well, but the new CBA will be less forgiving about big contracts and it was my understanding that you really only wanted to throw big money at established stars like Durant, Deron, Aldridge, etc. Nic Batum is a far cry from an established anything.
Well personally I think it's a mistake. I sure hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see that "fire in his eye" like most players at that pay scale. He just doesn't look like he wants to be a #2 option.
Not surprisingly, I look at the situation in a very different way... I look at the players in Tiers. To simply, let's momentarily categorize all rotation players in 3 Tiers: Role Players, Stars, Big 3. If we had Hibbert, our team will look like this: Big 3s: Hibbert, LMA, Lillard Stars: Batum, Leonard Role Players: Everyone else Under these conditions, it makes sense to pay these players as much as they want as long as you stay under the Luxury Tax. Here's what our team actually Looks Like: Big 3s: LMA, Lillard, X Stars: Batum, Leonard Role Players: Everyone else We need one of the following to happen: A) Batum improves and becomes a Big 3, an RP becomes a Star B) Leonard improves and becomes a Big 3, an RP becomes a Star C) We sign or trade for a Big 3 By paying Batum like a Big 3, we better hope for plan A). If you listen to Olshey, he seems to think like I do. He has said several times that he needs to trade several "assets" for a top player like he did with Chris Paul. edit: I don't think of Deng as a Big 3. Rashard Lewis was not a Big 3 and Orlando paid him like a superstar, which was one of their downfall.
We only run into problems if we far exceed the luxury tax or are above it three times. That should not happen.
It's just that a 12 mil per is actually more like a 14 mil per player we've been used to. With the new agreement; that average is for a legit #2 option. Batum is not even close to a legit #2. In fact, LMA is more of a Legit #2 than a #1 IMO. I am hoping management doesn't fall into this trap and find a true #1 option someway somehow. Who is it? I really don't know, but I do know Batum will never be that type of player. He is easily a role player and that's it. If we want to pay role players like they are superstars, then we will free fall.
