5 years / $80 mil is a bit more than Dragic is worth, but that's a fair deal for him to stay in Miami. With the cap increasing and guard play becoming increasingly more important, Dragic has a self-inflated sense of worth, but some team is dumb enough to pay him that.
Maybe Pat Riley is finally coming to his senses. Does he wanna rebuild or just keep an aging core together that'll never achieve more than a lower playoff seed and maybe an occasional first round upset?
he's stuck until wade retires. fans will revolt if they lose wade in free agency this year. pat has to pay him. but $20M to play half a season, that's being stuck in mediocrity. bosh, another $20M with potential long term health issues and a history of mediocrity as the #1 guy... whiteside is a keeper, he will help win games since becoming one of the best bigs in the east overnight. deng will most likely opt in for this season and choose to become a FA during the 2016 cap boom. so why not pay dragic? you're stuck with talent at every other position. not enough talent to win anything, but too much to tank. until wade retires and they can get out of bosh's contract, there's no point in tanking.
This 'discount', meaning anything below the max, should free up some cap to extend Wade at a higher salary while keeping them players in 2016 FA. Also, a Wade/Dragic/Deng (I think he's still on the team?)/Bosh/Whiteside is a very good starting lineup. Good defense, good offense. Just no bench.
I agree about there being no point in tanking. Not after they gave up all those future first rounders to get Dragic.
<iframe width="640" height="385" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t71IqHJOqgE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is a total injustice. How can they deny a top 10 player his rightful max salary. He's the future of this league.
I get the feeling Miami aren't even offering the rumored 16M/yr deal Stein is reporting. Agent "leaking" info to try and drive up his price.
And just think. Dragic was an unknown scrub until the Rockets traded for him and gave him an opportunity to play. Now he's going to make 80-100 million.