NBA Offseason: The Draft, Free Agency and Trade Rumors Oh My!

[Ramsay B.]

1 hour ago, Relic said:

In a desperate attempt to keep the title of Dumbest Franchise in the NBA the Knicks have offered Noah 4 years at almost 20 mil a year. Yes,  that's 4 years for a 32 year old who can't play offense,  has had multiple surgeries, and relies on throwing his body around to be effective. That Mosgov contract looks amazing in comparison. 

I liked Noah at first but seeing him sit in the 4th quarter of every close game grew tiresome...and that was when he was younger and healthy. It's really a baffling move.

[trickster]

Apparently the Knicks are in win now mode, finally their moves are making sense 

http://espn.go.com/blog/new-york-knicks/post/_/id/64804/new-york-knicks-closing-in-on-joakim-noah-in-win-now-mode

 

[Relic]

ugh fuck the Knicks. Seriously. 

Ok, it can't be said that i am not a man of my word -

http://imgur.com/mZ371yU

That's the man bun. I had more hair a few weeks ago, but there it is. I never wear a bun, but feel free to mock me anyway. 

 

Now to get Jaime his eggs....

 

[Ramsay B.]

Awesome shirt.

[trickster]

Great hair dude!

 

[Rhom]

2 hours ago, Relic said:

ugh fuck the Knicks. Seriously. 

Ok, it can't be said that i am not a man of my word -

http://imgur.com/mZ371yU

That's the man bun. I had more hair a few weeks ago, but there it is. I never wear a bun, but feel free to mock me anyway. 

 

Now to get Jaime his eggs....

 

Never let it be said that Relic is not a man of his word.   

[Rhom]

Heard this morning on Mike and Mike:  Hassan Whiteside has been a pro for 8 years in various leagues around the world.  His total earnings up to now is $3.2 million. After signing the contract he agreed to with Miami today, he will make that much in the first dozen games of next season.

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

15 hours ago, Andriy Czarchenko said:

Well it´s actually not that easy to compare. For one the absolute max after rookie contract is 30% if the player passes certain very high criteria (2x all-star starter or 2x all-nba or MVP). I think there are currently 3 of those contracts in the league.

Then you need to account for how that 80M/4 is structured. We know the cap is going even higher next year so front-loading a contract this year could make it very cheap in the future and this year you need to spend more than usual anyway due to all existing contracts becoming relatively cheap.

Then you need to beat the other teams for the players you want to sign. Usually just a few teams have a lot of cap space but now it´s most of the league. Obviously there aren´t that many more free agents than usual so the situation is shall we say interesting.

Reworking existing contracts isn´t really a thing in the NBA due to how contracts are structured. The only way to rework a contract I can think of is extension and that would in most relevant cases be really hard sell as everyone knows the cap will just be higher next year.

Then we have the situation where rookie scale contracts become insanely cheap as the scale was fixed before the influx of money was known of so teams have even higher percentage of cap to use on veterans.

Clearly I need to do a little more research over the weekend. 

15 hours ago, Andriy Czarchenko said:

Someone like Bazemore, unrestricted free agent, who can easily be seen as a playoff rotation player on a position in demand (3-D wing) is going to get paid. A lot.

That's a pretty generous description of Bazemore Imo, and besides Idk how you can justify dedicating a fifth of your salary cap to a guy who is just a rotation player. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

3 hours ago, Relic said:

ugh fuck the Knicks. Seriously. 

Their next target is reported to be Eric Gordon. I really do not understand what they're doing. 

3 hours ago, Relic said:

 

Ok, it can't be said that i am not a man of my word -

http://imgur.com/mZ371yU

That's the man bun. I had more hair a few weeks ago, but there it is. I never wear a bun, but feel free to mock me anyway. 

It actually doesn't look terrible. 

[Andriy Czarchenko]

13 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

That's a pretty generous description of Bazemore Imo, and besides Idk how you can justify dedicating a fifth of your salary cap to a guy who is just a rotation player. 

The salary cap really only matters if you want to sign free agents from other teams. You can always sign your own free agents and the luxury tax line will be somewhere around 112M this year and probably jump to 128M next year.

With existing multiyear contracts and rookie scale/exceptions stuck on pre-TV numbers, there´s just insane amounts of money to hand out over the next couple years. The last year could hurt the team but that´s the only way to get anyone this time. There´s way more demand than possible supply.

 

Let´s go through some early agreed contracts anyway:

 

Lakers - Mozgov 64/4

Heat - Whiteside  98/4

Lakers - Clarkson 50/4 - Arenas provision limited the other teams possible offers to 57/4 max poison pill contracts, probably would have got more otherwise.

Hornets - Batum 120/5

Wizards - Beal 128/5

Raptors - DeRozan 139/5

Pistons - Smith I. 18/3 - That´s a random backup PG getting more than 1st pick in this years draft.

 

 

 

[Fez]

Linsanity has returned to the Big Apple, but this time its Brooklyn style; $36 million/3 years.

[DunderMifflin]

I'm pretty surprised Batum stayed in Charlotte. Now you have two players at the same position with big contracts. (MKG) Both of whom were injured for last year's playoff run.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

7 minutes ago, Andriy Czarchenko said:

The salary cap really only matters if you want to sign free agents from other teams. You can always sign your own free agents and the luxury tax line will be somewhere around 112M this year and probably jump to 128M next year.

With existing multiyear contracts and rookie scale/exceptions stuck on pre-TV numbers, there´s just insane amounts of money to hand out over the next couple years. The last year could hurt the team but that´s the only way to get anyone this time. There´s way more demand than possible supply.

 

Let´s go through some early agreed contracts anyway:

 

Lakers - Mozgov 64/4

Heat - Whiteside  98/4

Lakers - Clarkson 50/4 - Arenas provision limited the other teams possible offers to 57/4 max poison pill contracts, probably would have got more otherwise.

Hornets - Batum 120/5

Wizards - Beal 128/5

Raptors - DeRozan 139/5

Pistons - Smith I. 18/3 - That´s a random backup PG getting more than 1st pick in this years draft.

 

 

 

It's not just the last year that could hurt, it's anything over two years when the market resettles once teams adjust to the new normal.

Take the Batum deal as an example. Does anyone know if he'll be anything more than OK in 3 years? That's a big percentage of your salary cap to put on a guy who is a nice player, but can't be better than the third or fourth best player on a contender. And that really applies to every one except DeRozan that's been signed so far. 

Also, Timofey Mozgov now makes more than Curry. That's hilarious. 

[DunderMifflin]

8 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

 

Take the Batum deal as an example. Does anyone know if he'll be anything more than OK in 3 years? That's a big percentage of your salary cap to put on a guy who is a nice player, but can't be better than the third or fourth best player on a contender. And that really applies to every one except DeRozan that's been signed so far.

In the case of Charlotte, are you going to have a shot at a better free agent in the next 3 years? Probably not, unless you start winning more, in which case you need some talent. At the moment I think Charlotte only has about 4 people under contract so money isn't really an issue now.

[Relic]

1 hour ago, Fez said:

Linsanity has returned to the Big Apple, but this time its Brooklyn style; $36 million/3 years.

Always knew Lin wasn't a winner. I think he'd rather be a high usage guy on a shit team than a 6th man on a winning team. Pretty sure Lin doesnt want the pressure of winning. 

[Relic]

5 hours ago, Ramsay Blow said:

Awesome shirt.

yeah, it really is. snatched it off some random store rack like 4 years ago, have grown far too attached to it. 

[sperry]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's not just the last year that could hurt, it's anything over two years when the market resettles once teams adjust to the new normal.

Take the Batum deal as an example. Does anyone know if he'll be anything more than OK in 3 years? That's a big percentage of your salary cap to put on a guy who is a nice player, but can't be better than the third or fourth best player on a contender. And that really applies to every one except DeRozan that's been signed so far. 

Also, Timofey Mozgov now makes more than Curry. That's hilarious. 

 

What do you mean the "new normal"?  The new normal is that anyone who can play at all will be making $10+ million per year. If you're an above average rotation player you're making $15 plus. The cap is going to be like $120 in a couple years, meaning you've got $8 million per roster spot, when most teams go 8-9 deep on plyaers who actually play. 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

16 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said:

In the case of Charlotte, are you going to have a shot at a better free agent in the next 3 years? Probably not, unless you start winning more, in which case you need some talent. At the moment I think Charlotte only has about 4 people under contract so money isn't really an issue now.

Charlotte seems to be stuck in the awful position of continuously being a middling playoff team. I'm not sure keeping Batum makes them better in the bigger picture given his age. They might be better off trading him for a couple of young prospects. 

16 minutes ago, sperry said:

 

What do you mean the "new normal"?  The new normal is that anyone who can play at all will be making $10+ million per year. If you're an above average rotation player you're making $15 plus. The cap is going to be like $120 in a couple years, meaning you've got $8 million per roster spot, when most teams go 8-9 deep on plyaers who actually play. 

Adjusting to the new market and getting a better read on how you should pay players. It's going to take teams a few years to know how they should pay players with the new cap. The teams that are jumping in early with a lot of long term deals with questionable value will probably regret it a few years from now. 

44 minutes ago, Fez said:

Linsanity has returned to the Big Apple, but this time its Brooklyn style; $36 million/3 years.

That's a good deal. It's less than 4 years and not an outrageous percentage of your salary for a solid backup PG, especially considering who the new starter is. 

[DunderMifflin]

3 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Charlotte seems to be stuck in the awful position of continuously being a middling playoff team. I'm not sure keeping Batum makes them better in the bigger picture given his age. They might be better off trading him for a couple of young prospects.

Being a middling playoff team is huge for them though, they arent that far away from record breaking awful seasons. To let this moderate success slip away for more rebuilding seems a waste. Kemba walker is about to enter his prime and you want to give him some help so he doesn't skip town when it comes time for his free agency.

[sperry]

2 minutes ago, DunderMifflin said:

Being a middling playoff team is huge for them though, they arent that far away from record breaking awful seasons. To let this moderate success slip away for more rebuilding seems a waste. Kemba walker is about to enter his prime and you want to give him some help so he doesn't skip town when it comes time for his free agency.

 

Middling playoff team is the kiss of death in the NBA. You never have any hope of getting better.