Whoever is willing to pay the repeater tax for several seasons if necessary to keep the team together along with keeping Morey and Tad here long term.
LeBron needs to sign for taxpaper exception if he wants to beat GS and build his legacy as GOAT. He will make more in endorsements by winning more titles. Jordan is still making $$ off his GOAT status 20 years later.
I'm no expert on this, but I seem to vaguely recall that once a no-trade clause is waived on a contract, it stays waived for the duration of the contract. Does anyone know for sure?
imo, this isn't certain at all. Fundamentally, all Player Options are mainly for injury protection. In almost all cases, opting out and leveraging your youngest years sooner is the most lucrative decision in Total Sum, unless you're injured....then obviously, that's what the guaranteed, last year PO is for. Even without injury, Superstars often look at their last significant contract as a total sum, not a per year basis. Just because he'll never get $28m in a single year again doesn't mean opting out for a final 3 or 4yr contract earlier, won't give him the most total sum. Math of Opting out Opting out for guaranteed money, earlier, while you still have youngest year to leverage. $18 + $18 + $18 + $18 = $72m $23 + $23 + $23 = $70m (Hell, Dwight got this.) versus Using up your youngest year for highest PerYr salary, but then must negotiate from scratch from position of being one yr older $28 + $15 + $15 + $15 = $73m $28 + ??? = if injured Don't look at that and just say, "Why would he take $15m, when the above examples offer more." He'll be signing earlier in the above examples, and have another year of decline in the $15m example. One has more negotiating power, because you're younger, and everyone is focused on the first year of production. The PO route means that year is already over. Also, since the PO route has that built in injury risk, you want to not just match the safer contract, you want to beat it significantly. bottomline: I truly believe Melo will get a larger pay day in Total Sum accounting than opting in. And he'd be risking a lot to Opt In.
It'll be hard to get Melo to take a haircut. He's already learned that lesson in this *must see* documentary video. He'll go, "Fool me once, you can't fool me again."
Another simple way to explain the primary purpose of the PO is to compare to TO. Teams will always take the TO, if the player is performing as expected when signed, or out-performing. Teams will cut them lose if an injury happened. likewise Players like to Opt Out, if still performing as expected or out-performing, because they have better negotiating power for the next contract the sooner they negotiate it. Players will Opt In if injured or otherwise under-performing (maybe due to faster decline than anticipated, chemistry fit, etc). Think about it: Why even do the PO vs just another guaranteed year. You do that because you want out sooner, and to have your cake too, with an injury protection PO year.
I'm just not going to assume that they are going to take serious paycuts. I won't rule it out, but there's a reason we had to work a sign and trade for Chris Paul instead of an outright signing. He wants that 5 year deal. Is it possible he walks away from that to work some Lebron type deal to Houston? Sure it is. Is it a lock? No. Your posts speculating about the possibility of it are far too sure of themselves. Melo and Paul have never been known to walk away from money.
I'm not sure about that but you damn well better believe there are serious discussions in the front office about whether or not they should trade them because of next years cap situation if they do the Melo deal. I think there is very little likelihood they trade Capela because what they are likely to get from him this year will outweigh what they would likely get for him now in real time basketball output in a contending year. Meaning... he's worth more as a potential one year rental than a first round pick that they could get for him in a trade. I said earlier that because of this, I wouldn't be shocked if EG was actually included in the Melo deal (that might or might not happen), but got flamed for it of course. But they might still be able to keep him this seasons, and if they NEED to move him next Summer (if we are lucky enough to be courting someone like Lebron) I'm sure they can.
Also, the future cap situation is a real concern with new ownership coming in. We have to really hope we hit a homerun in the ownership change, because if the new guy isn't read to take losses we are going to be a one and done type situation.
Melo will Opt-out, if he has no injuries....and still make more Total Money. Every player dollar is huge to owners when paying tax. There is many ways to work the math out where Melo can negotiate a larger total sum for his final years, by giving up his $28m year, and negotiating the final years a yr sooner....and the owner saves a butt-load of money.
Sorry, I'm not saying whether he will opt out or not. I'm saying it's not a lock he'll agree to take a paycut. A lot of people are assuming that Melo and CP3 will agree to like $10 million each in paycuts for next year to help facilitate Lebron or to just keep the team together or something. I don't think it's a given at all.
