How much salary is Sergio Llull worth and how much $$ gets him here?

He won't. No way Morey pays over $10M per year for 4 guaranteed years for a 10 ppg and 3 ast guy. He's just another in a long line of shiny for the ABJ crowd.

 

Llull wasn't a free agent, he signed an extension. Contract length does not matter to NBA teams. It's whether there's a manageable buyout which according to Morey this new contract does.

 

He would have reached the end of his contract if he didn't sign the extension. And though he didn't literally reach free agency because he extended, the effect was the same. He was given an open choice of either going to the NBA or staying in Europe, and he chose to stay in Europe. Rockets and Real Madrid were both lobbying him, so he knew he could come over to the NBA if he wanted. He made his choice.

I see him coming over when he's past his prime like Pablo Prigioni. Guys like them had a chance to come over to the NBA lots of times with teams asking for them in their primes, but they keep putting it off and finishing the prime of their careers in Europe.

 

He had the choice between a lot of money in Euro with option for NBA or risk injury by waiting for NBA. Provided his buyout isn't prohibitive, he made the best decision for himself and his family.

 

If the Rockets were lobbying him, they would do so with some competing contract offer, no? Then he wouldn't be waiting for the NBA, but signing with them once his contract ended.

And the interview with Llull after he signed his 2018 extension indicates a prohibitive 6 million euro buyout. If that's the case, of course Morey and the Rockets would want to downplay it as "manageable" for PR purposes to keep the trade value of his draft rights up so they would get something back for it.

 

I would take trade his rights away and try to buyout Nick Calathes. He would love to play with Parsons also (I had asked him in a tweet last season).

 

Do you honestly believe other Nba GMs don't know his buyout status? At worst, Morey is doing it for the fans. Llull has also said the door to the nba is still open.

 

Yes, you're probably right that he's doing it for the fans. The other GMs probably know about the prohibitive 6 million euro buyout. That would account for why you don't hear any chatter about other GMs wanting to extract his rights from the Rockets in the various trade scenarios (whether Royce White salary dump, or T-Rob or whatever miscellaneous cap space or asset offloading measure), the way you hear with everyone after Mirotic's rights. Or even all those euro draft rights the Knicks keep getting stripped of like Papa Knick.

If Llull was really good and had a manageable buyout, you'd hear more buzz from other GMs and he'd be in trade scenarios the way Mirotic's rights are.

 

I think the skill level and age is the big difference. I see no reason for Llull to say NBA is still open if it isn't.