If he is gonna give you a 17/9 and high teen PER; then 10 mil isn't expensive at all. If you can get a 20+ PER from Aldridge at Center and 17 PER from Hickson. That would give you a 40 point, 17 rebound per game @ 50% FG for your starting front court. Only Gasol and Bynum would give you better stats. But if Aldridge is making 13 mil and Hickson makes 10 = 23 mil per season; Bynum 16 mil and Gasol 18 mil are making 34 mil per season.
MLE-ish. I don't see why many teams would eat into their salary cap space for a guy who seemed all but worthless a couple of months ago. Ed O.
You may be right. Which then begs the question--if the best offer Hickson receives is MLE-ish, does he take it (hell, it IS $25M guaranteed), or does he accept the QO and play one more year here alongside Aldridge with the assumption that he can play himself into a much bigger payday next summer?
Again, I'd argue his time in Sacto, or his "worthless" performance, was more an aberration than the mean. Simple as that. The guy was improving every year, and he's still 23. Hell, I don't have to argue. This isn't opinion. It's based on facts of his historical stats (aside from a few minor decreases in stats last season, but several still improved). So, is a half-season enough to call Hickson "worthless"?
What did other teams give up to get him? His track record before arriving in Sacramento has not changed, and yet no team offered money or a second rounder or anything to acquire him. EVEN IF Sacramento made a mistake by waiving him (and they clearly did), that doesn't change that it appears that no team was that interested in acquiring him from them earlier in the year. I am not saying what you seem to think I am. Ed O.
I dunno... I would guess that a guy might think it smarter to take the money when he can. He learned how easily the bottom can fall out of a situation when he was waived by Sacramento. Ed O.
On another note, the guys on 1080 said Aldridge's condition could possibly be degenerative. Not that they have inside information or anything, just that it's not out of the realm of possibility. They were they first ones saying Roy was done after learning of his injuries.