We likely are not using the full MLE. Had we held on to Norman Powell, we definitely would not have had access to the full MLE.
sure, it's probably next to impossible after Irving opted in. They could gain some margin if they traded Durant for players making a lot less salary
He is better than anyone we could have gotten with the full MLE anyways. Althought I do wish we still had Trent Jr instead.
when it comes to nurk, theres a couple of possibilities: a) they have a deal in place since they shut him down, but nurk & rich paul are testing the market to see if they can get better offer b) theyre not happy with the offer and theyre testing the market (that would mean the blazers didnt shut down nurk for tanking reasons, but he was injured indeed) c) something is up, most likely a trade and theyre trying to get it done
He's no better than Hart, so at best, he would be our 3rd best SG, making 18 million a year. And stealing minutes from our recent pick. Sounds smart.
As I said, these deals getting thrown around makes you wonder what we could have gotten for him this offseason. When Gary Harris is making 13 million a year... Lets not act like everything would have went exactly the same if we had kept Norm with the offseason so far either.
I wonder if we could have gotten some cap relief and a recent 1st rounder for him, that'd be a good off season!
If Ant's contract were closer to $15M (where it should be) - then Portland likely could be using the Full $11M MLE.