It was reported Wednesday that Rick Sund, Sonic's General Manager, has reestablished contact with Ray Allen's agent concerning a possible agreement on a contact extension prior to the February 24th NBA Trading Deadline. Ray Allen apperantly concurred with these wishes, as a failure to extend his contract before that date would result in Allen becoming an unrestricted free agent this summer. Rumors prior to The Sonics impressive 23-7 start, was that the ALL-STAR Shooting Guard was infact on the trading block in Seattle. However, The Sonics guard is now averaging a career best 24 PPG, and his Sonics have jumped off to their best start in over a decade. Needless to say, Ray Allen's future is more than likely to land him in Seattle for quite some time...
This actually worries me a bit, as it sounds like by initiating contact, we are getting more desperate to lock up Ray, and that could result in us giving him a lot of money. Rick Sund needs to lay down a figure that we're not going to go over, and tell Ray exactly that. The last thing I want is to see us give him somewhere near a maximum deal just to keep this group together, and be paying for in 4-5 seasons time. I have no doubt he'll be worth that much next season, and maybe the season after that, but we're going to be paying him for a long time and it needs to be a smart deal for the franchise, as well as the player.
You better give Ray a lot of money! He is worth every penny. He is one of those rare shooters that can actually SHOOT!!! SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Supersonic:</div><div class="quote_post">This actually worries me a bit, as it sounds like by initiating contact, we are getting more desperate to lock up Ray, and that could result in us giving him a lot of money. Rick Sund needs to lay down a figure that we're not going to go over, and tell Ray exactly that. The last thing I want is to see us give him somewhere near a maximum deal just to keep this group together, and be paying for in 4-5 seasons time. I have no doubt he'll be worth that much next season, and maybe the season after that, but we're going to be paying him for a long time and it needs to be a smart deal for the franchise, as well as the player.</div> I think that the team may actually possibly get to keep some money if they lock him up early. It will prevent them from getting into a bidding war with another team for Allen in the off season which would probably lead to him getting a contract that makes him extremely over payed like Juwan Howard's old contract. I think if they can resign him this season they will be doing the team a favor moeny wise, but then again they might be hurting them selves as well as Allen hypathetically might drop his level of play after getting the money he was seeking rather than setting out to porve he deserves it.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Pure Skillz:</div><div class="quote_post">but then again they might be hurting them selves as well as Allen hypathetically might drop his level of play after getting the money he was seeking rather than setting out to porve he deserves it.</div> Not gonna happen. Ray is way too professional for that and takes too much pride in his game to ever slack off simply because he's gotten a contract extension.
i dont think he should sign wit them. they have a very good record but i doubt they will have one like this next year. i think its possible for him to sign wit a better team but thats just what i think
Ray has pretty much made it clear, that if we haven't signed him by the deadline, he won't be coming back in the summer, thus eliminating the chance of us being involved in a bidding war. That being said, who knows what will happen if the Supes can make a decent playoff run, he really enjoys playing with Luke Ridnour, Rashard continues his level of play and he sees a lot of promise in Nick Collison?
