Simons is not worth more to the Blazers than Hart. I would not offer more. With his sample performance in 25 games and showing that he will probably be a liability on defense, I think that giving him a $5M raise over his present $4M/yr salary is the target, i.e., $9M/yr next year with additional incentive bonuses if he meets certain targets. His player development incentives are the continued mentoring by Dame, Hart, and Grant, coaching by Chauncey, and the likelihood of playing in 3-4 rounds of playoffs. He might be paid more elsewhere, but choose the Blazers for development and opportunities. With Sharpe on the team and other competition for guard minutes, Simons has a lot of motivation and incentive to remain a Blazer.
It's kind of funny seeing Powell referenced multiple times in this thread, because Powell's and Simons' numbers for the Blazers last year were actually quite similar. I'd be thrilled to see Simons get a deal on par with what Powell received last off-season.
Powell can not be a lead guard and he is, pretty much, a known commodity at this point. Simons can be a lead guard on a team and he still has room for growth. I suspect he will get more than what Powell got - and that seems like a good investment
Of course they do but Simons already shown he shoot. But you look for progress every year in his overall game. His defense stats was bad as is rookie year stats. Plus he average couple rebounds and little over 3 assist game last year. Yes he did have some games that a big assist numbers last year. But do you see them numbers going up playing along side Dame. He did average over 20 a game when was the focus player but he not going be the focus player this year. His overall average was 17 a game I can see him get that but that's about high I see him average with this team this year. Now they give 20 million good for him but my opinion he not worth 20 million. Shooting is very good but the other intangible of the game his hasn't shown that willing to do yet. I hope he proof me wrong I will be the first say I was wrong.
https://bleacherreport.com/articles...on-dame-lillard-jalen-brunson-malik-monk-more If this article is true Ant would get a four year deal worth 80M plus incentives. That should make his salary for next season 19M with annual increases that get the total of the four year deal up to 80M in base pay.
when I said let the market decide it was more a reaction to people claiming Ant could get 30M/year as a free agent. I don't think that's anywhere close to the reality as for your worry that some team would poison-pill the Blazers, I suppose that's possible but I think it's really improbable. I'm fine with 4-year/80M. I've been suggesting a baseline of 18M first year which actually works out to 4-year/80.64M
