Hahaha your thoughts are finally leading you to the right place. Can you fool Ime Udoka for 1.5 years and earn a near max extension for an additional 2-3 years? Does that sound like Ime - who Nook says everyone in the organisation knows it's his team? Does Ime seem like he leans towards finesse players who are all about speed and trickery and athleticism? What are the kind of players he roots for? Somethings gotta give right. Just follow that thought process and don't let your ego get in the way.
When did Jalen get a near max? He got 3/106 when the max was 5/224 (269 with full incentives). We're really stretching the definition of near here. That's the reason the poll on this thread leans so heavily yes. It's really not that bad a contract no matter how he ends up.
his potential max salary/yr would've been a little bit above $40m/yr... he's getting close to $36m/yr. that's basically near max salary... if he were to get on the market at the end of this season with his current output... i would think it would be very difficult for him to get anything close to what he actually got. his contract should've been more in line with what moody got from gsw.
I could get on the Herro train IF we had a more dynamic PG to help run the offense with Sengun .... FVV isn't really that guy. Herro camping out beyond the arc needs someone to get him the ball in his spots out of some other action. Sengun alone isn't enough
His max would've been an average of 44.8M/yr and the contract he got was an average of 35.1M/yr. That's only 78%, not even 80%. It would be a stretch to call that near. And that's without mentioning the much shorter guaranteed deal which is a BIG part of what makes it team friendly. Jalen contract: https://www.spotrac.com/nba/player/_/id/74109/jalen-green Max contract: https://www.spotrac.com/nba/player/_/id/74110/evan-mobley
Green is tough to trade until next year because his salary is still rookie, so it's hard to match. One thing to consider, what if Green has Horry Syndrome? Every year he has shot like trash all season except the last month. He usually shoots around 40% on high volume for at least a 1 month stretch towards the end of the season. This year we hopefully will make the playoffs and if Green is hitting his stride, we could be really tough to beat. I know it's wishful thinking, but there has been a pattern.
so in your mind, because it's not even 80% of a potential max, paying someone of jalen's caliber $35-36m/yr is like chump change then? 78%, 80% same thing... and 80% of a max slot is near max. or does it have to be 99% of a max slot to be considered near max for you? let's please not get into semantics lol...
I'm not here to argue anyone's opinions. If you think Jalen sucks, sure. If you think he's great sure. But less than 80% of the yearly average of the max is not a near max especially when it's 2 years shorter. It's less than 40% of the total value. If Jalen Green's leg gets blown off in a motorcycle accident in 3 years that's all he's getting. If it happens to Cade he still gets $225M. You're free to debate if he deserves it or not but let's just please be realistic about what that contract is. It's not a near max. Would I personally give Jalen a near max? No. Would I give him 106/3? Sure.
would be nice if this were to be true, but like you said, would be wishful thinking. sadly, jalen has mostly shown to wilt in big games in the past, so i wouldn't push my luck. i don't think he'd fare well in a playoff atmosphere and with defensive pressure upped to the max.
i get what you're saying, but i think some of us were thinking in terms of his per year salary, not necessarily the length. again, semantics.. near max salary vs near max extension. if it was the full 5 year max, then yea i'd be throwing up in my mouth. problem is, within those 3 years, we still have to extend a number of players.. and jalen's cap number being what it is is going to make some things difficult without some outgoing salary.
I also get what you're saying but I think a lot of the sticker shock is from people who are used to the salaries 10 years ago when the entire scale has gone up dramatically. Yes, Jalen's 33.33M next year isn't pretty but for comparison Steph Curry is making an ungodly 59.7M in the same year. Jalen's 33M is only 21% of next year's projected salary cap of 154M and since we're already operating over the cap anyway, we just have to make sure we don't hit the 2nd apron at 207M meaning we can actually fit 6 whole Jalen contracts before we actually get into any trouble. And among the young core the only one I'd really consider giving a full max to would be Amen anyway so it wouldn't really even be that much of an issue. Also, and the biggest reason I like this contract is that free agency isn't even a real way to get a star anymore. This year the best player was a broken Paul George, last year was our own FVV and both times took massive overpays to get done. The real "free agency" now is when a star on a max contracts demands and trade and so wouldn't having the centerpiece of your trade offer on a large but short contract make it easier to match salaries?
that is true. i also saw jalen's contract as something rafael stone structured so that in the future he could possibly angle it towards a trade. but that's contingent on jalen actually being at least nba avg in terms of efficiency. if not, not sure there is a star trade that can be had..
My point really just is, no matter what happens, even if he completely craps out, it's not a debilitating amount of money. My favorite part of Jalen's contract is that it's broken up as 33.33/36/36. That means that his largest cap hit will just be next year where Jabari, Tari, Amen, Cam, and Reed will all be on their measly rookie contracts. In 2027 he'll just be 19% of the projected cap which is nothing considering you're allowed to go up to 134% of the cap before hitting the second apron. My point is that not only is this contract not a near max, it's actually team friendly enough that even in the worst case scenario where Jalen turns into a completely untradable nothing, it won't severely hurt our team's roster flexibility especially since we barely had any to begin with.
that's still something that could potentially be $30m plus just rotting on the bench when that money could have been used on a veteran or two to help in the playoffs. it's also not so easy to tell a player earning $30m plus to just sit on the bench if he sucks... so then there's the opportunity cost of developing other players like cam, reed, amen, tari.. just because the team can afford to waste all that money doesn't mean that they should... it would have been best if jalen's contract was negotiated after this season - the rockets could have maximized their resources and extract probably even more value from that. sure, one can argue that because he's not performing now, that's all in hindsight. but the signs of inconsistency and lack of efficiency were all there throughout his whole career and even last season after his 8 game march explosion, he fell off the map again in april.
The contract was just a gamble. Stone was gambling that Green would out perform his contract. There was no reason other than that to extend him. The cost of the gamble is reduced flexibility in making a trade for a star before July of next year. I really don’t think anyone believes Booker or Giannis will be available at the trade deadline. If Green doesn’t turn it around, there is still the possibility of a team taking a flyer on his potential at the reduced rate and years of this contract next summer. If it becomes necessary to move Jalen to the bench, we still have enough trade assets to bring in a stop gap SG like Brogdon or Herro to help our playoff odds.
Its fun to root for the underdog. Plus I have a feeling that come playoff time there will be a bunch of glass houses that come crashing down. Cant wait!
He was the 2nd pick in the draft and given a starting spot day 1, he’s the opposite of an underdog. Man i loved him so much as a prospect and after his rookie season but at this point, just gotta admit i missed on him. Not my first miss, won’t be my last.
