Calling it now, this contract will become the most untradeable contract in the NBA within 2 years. Rudy Gay has company
About as fast as his broken foot would let him. But something tells me the Nets are looking over their shoulder to see if the Magic are watching....stalling long enough to see if Orlando might reconsider.
hopefully because that means the rockets will land either him or bynum. sucks for the nets, he's not worth max. $10M maybe, not $15. if the rockets land dwight, they better figure out a way to bring in a second star before the deadline or dwight will up and leave houston with nothing in return.
Here's what gets me about the alleged max offer for Lopez: He is a RESTRICTED free agent. He's not a bad player at all. In fact, given that skilled 7 footer are hard to find, I would pay substantial money to retain the guy if I have the chance and hope that his body holds up and his game (especially rebounding) improves. However, his contract status is such that you can match any outside offer for him. I don't know what kind of interest teams have expressed on him, but even if someone is willing to pay him the max, 4 years and $58M (which I doubt, since if someone had that level of interest in him, we'd probably heard about it by now), you can still just keep him by either officially matching or do what IND did with Hibbert and give him an identical contract to sign. Outside teams are not even allowed to give him that 5th year so why are you bidding against yourself and allegedly offering 5 years and $78M?
perhaps they're trying to bewilder Orlando into thinking that Lopez is totally worth it and they'll trade em Howard.
Lopez is not worth anywhere near that amount 15 million for a 7-footer who cant even rebound and is WAY injury prone
In my hopeful, optimistic mind....the Rockets are really pushing to find enough picks to send Orlando's way so they can hold on to both Donatas and White. I think they would ship one off when it is all said and done, but if they can get rid of K-Mart or Scola first, they don't have to make that decision.
I think people are forgetting that the Brooklyn Nets are like the Real Madrid of soccer - willing to spend any amount of money to create a competitive advantage. While Lopez is worth maybe half the max, the Nets have just created a ton of envious players around the league who will feel that Brooklyn is among the teams that are "fair" and "take care of their players". If we had that kind of money to spend, I would advocate spending it the same way, especially given FA's have totally shunned Houston as a FA destination and we need to create some sort of competitive advantage. Then again, it's easy to support dishing out someone else's money lol
But the problem is that these two things are mutually exclusive. If you want to draw players to come to your team, you can only do so freely through FA. And by overpaying players, you deny yourself this right. If you do end up being over the cap and can only get impact players through trades, then Lopez at $10mil would be much more attractive to other teams than Lopez at $15mil. Dwight Howard is a good example of what happens when a player tries to go to a team that has no cap room.
I think NJ thinks as Mathloom above does. And in a way, they do kind of have to sell their team to their fanbase in the move to Brooklyn. So there's definitely some PR benefits. I mean, Morey does things the cold, calculating way. And many Rockets fans dislike him for that. For a team that wants its fans to cheer for the team, there are some intangible negatives to letting Lopez seeking contracts elsewhere. At least they must feel this way, or it would be kind of stupid.
Funny thing is, from the moment it was signed, it looked like Joe Johnson's would be the most untradeable contract in the NBA... and he's since been traded - to the same team that's giving Lopez his millions, no less!
The issue with the "overpaying to appear generous" theory is that there is a salary cap in the NBA when there isn't one in European soccer. Even with a soft cap, overpaying one guy makes it harder to pay another guy in the future-- due to not having cap room, only having the $3M midlevel, and not being eligible for a S&T recipient beginning next year, etc. Prokhorov can be willing to pay everybody, but when the Nets out there chasing guys with the $3M midlevel, whatever fond memory the free agent has of Prokhorov being really nice to Brook Lopez back in 2012 will not be worth very much, particularly in comparison to another team being able to offer more with their cap room or the $5M midlevel. Prokhorov can be willing to pay future free agents all the money in the world, and it makes no difference because he won't be allowed to.
Couldn't agree more. People act like lopez is a scrub. He's a very,very good offensive center and he had 1 yr when he rebounded the ball poorly. He's what 24 or so and this was the 1st time he's been hurt. I didn't understand snt max for him. The shorter deals with no opt out makes it easier to stomach these max deals
You mean calling it a week after you called this? http://e3.f2.84ae.static.theplanet.com/showthread.php?t=222341&page=10 Our biggest and best asset to get a superstar, that is among the most untradable contract in the NBA?
Prokhorov has 5 times more money than Mark Cuban (and possibly 5 times the ego too). The Nets are the face of his image in America (where Russians always have an inferiority complex). There is probably no limit to the luxury tax he would pay to make his team a winner because it advances his business interests. $78 million is just loss leader money to him.
