Which means unless Aldridge improves by quite a bit each year, he will soon enough be overpaid. David West's extension did NOT include large yearly raises. It makes a big difference.
Almost all contracts like this are structured with the maximum yearly raises, from what I've seen. West may not have gotten those raises, but most top rookie extensions do. If the first year salary is market for his production, then the raises are, also. Any improvements (and potential does have value and is perfectly reasonable to pay for) are simply extra.
Before I saw that he has signed, I was going to post that it's pretty obvious he signed or he wouldn't have played last night. Why risk blowing out a knee or something with that piece of paper unsigned?
