Very interesting on why Olshey is doing this... Does Olshey believe Crawford has trade value on an expiring 1 year $5mil deal? Only reason I can think of us hoping to keep him. He can't actually want Crawchuck playing for us can he?
Think about it - he's a trade chip. He can be used to make salaries match in a potential trade, with the receiving team knowing Crawford will be a FA a couple days later this clearing cap space. Or perhaps the receiving team would want to convince him to stay. It was actually a pretty smart move, IMO.
I am pretty sure when a player has a player option, he can not be traded until a decision is made on his option year.
Olshey just said that he extended Jamaal's opt in/out date to the 29th because 95% of the leagues players have that date. Normally he said it's the 30th, but that is a Saturday. He said he has not talked to Jamaal, but rather with his agent, Andy Miller. He said he wanted Jamaal to be the most comfortable with his decision as possible, which is another reason he pushed it back. Also that he wanted a chance to evaluate where things were as long as possible since he just got here. He said he knows Jamaal and would be happy to talk to him about what he feels his role would be if Jamaal opted in.
Plus, no "draft day" trades can be finalized until the week of July 1st, which means Jamal will already have either opted out or kept his final year.
Did the new CBA change things? Used to be draft day trades involving current NBA players could not be finalized until the week that FA begins.
I know that they're done on draft day, but there used to be a lag in processing the trades that lasted until the first week of July. This year's draft is 6/28. Crawford's contract now runs through 6/29. If his agent finds the right situation, he could always opt into his deal, and be used in a trade by the Blazers, since Crawford opting in prior to the draft would count toward the Blazers' cap space available on 6/28.
there was not a lag in the felton deal, otherwise it would not have been official until free agency started, which was in december. Lags in draft day deals only happen when they are deals like the Bayless-Rush swap we made, where the deal required salaries from the following season to be legal.
There was a lockout after last season. Pretty much every draft day trade in every previous year has not been finalized until after July 1st, when the new contracts are in play, and the FA signing dead zone begins. I'm still wondering what the impact of Crawford's deadline being extended means. If he opts in prior to the draft (doubtful), then he can be a part of a trade. If he doesn't, then he still needs to make a decision by 6/29, doesn't he? I ask because I'm a bit confused on it.
deals are done and finalized on draft day. The felton deal is an example of this. It did not need to wait. Brandon Roy was traded on draft day. That deal was finalized on draft day. Jerryd Bayless was agreed in principle, but not traded until July 9th or so.
Draft day deals are normally finalized in June and fall under the ending season salary cap. However teams have the option of agreeing to the trade on draft night but having it delayed until July 1st to fall under the new seasons salary cap and contract structure. In either case players who have ETO, player options, or team options cannot be traded in draft day deals.
I think one thing that people haven't really noticed, or simply forgotten, is that Olshey used to be involved on the agent side of the business. He knows and understands the power these agents and the power brokers in the NBA have over player movement and he seems to be doing a lot of things in order to appease the agents and build strong relationships with these people. There was a portion of the ESPN article on him and the Paul trade that really highlighted this aspect of Olshey and it was really a driving force behind the acquisition of LeBron. Regardless, Crawford is going to opt out. He is not going to risk missing out on the last multi-year contract of his career, and this is simply a nice gesture by Olshey. I'll try and find the article.
