Yeah, totally makes sense. I don't hate the deal, I just wish he wasn't here at all. I think if Ime will stop trying to play him 48 minutes a night, he'd be a very solid vet presence and could transition to a bench role. We'll see how that goes.
You are right to flame me as I will be the first person (or actually second in this case) to admit that I was wrong. I am shocked that any player who is performing at their career averages and not very old would take a $19M paycut. I said it would be a $4M paycut (based in part on the Rockets desperation at PG) and now have extremely high regard for FVV taking a huge paycut for the team.
Having a foot out is a bad thing for winning and keeping a cohesive locker room. It’s not overtly expensive for what he brings, but market value wise there were likely no options for him outside of 15 mill per year MLEs. We paid 10 mill over and didn’t get a team option or NG, or flat out guaranteed year to ensure that if he plays well we can keep him at a okay price, instead gave up a player option. It’s not horrible, but I don’t like it either.
Good contract. His max elsewhere would've been full MLE at 4yr/$65mil. I was originally thinking 3yr/$60mil would do it, but this is perhaps better. I think this eats into our MLE a bit, but who knows, maybe Tilman will actually pay the luxury tax this year in which case this contract number wouldn't make a difference.
Clearly there was no market for FVV and Stone did him a solid, he probably could have gotten him for 15m or so, but that would have been bad blood, so he went high enough not to insult him.....and low enough to keep flexibility. I don't think FVV is a good starting PG, he is like 25th or so in the league, but he can hit a 3 - it will be our weakest link though unless Reed blows up. DD
Amazing that we were the #2 seed last year, added KD, and still may be able to avoid the tax. This will all change next year once we extend Bari and Tari, but we shouldn’t be anywhere near the aprons going forward. Great cap management all around.
[Smith] “Because Fred VanVleet is knocking somewhere around $20M off his salary for this season, Houston should now have access to the full NTMLE at $14.1M.”
Why do I see so many people referring to this as FVV "taking a paycut" The 44 million was never his to take, it was the Rockets to give, and they were never gonna give it. I guess he could have left the Rockets out of spite and taken the MLE elsewhere for 14 million, but we can assume he's not an idiot. They declined his option, but they also offered him a salary premium he was highly unlikely to get anywhere else.
