Going by what Atlanta offered Cassell, ie 13m/2yrs: 6.5M+7.0M+7.5M+8.1M+8.8M=38.1M(8% increase per year)
Yeah, but I dont think Atlanta would offer that many years. 6.5M is fine, for 2 years, but not for 5. I think the "hometown" Houston connection and the chance for a championship will be a big thing in Houston's favor. As long as Houston doesnt lowball James, we have a good chance. I think the marker is set with Dallas offering James FULL MLE for 3 years. We have to do better than that. Dallas is close to Houston and has a great chance at a championship. Dallas would be the toughest opponent we have for James. We have to do better than 3 years at FULL MLE.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&id=2505206 the Mavs -- who also hope to sign Howard and Dirk Nowitzki to contract extensions -- still plan to pursue Toronto's Mike James in a sign-and-trade. Mavs coach Avery Johnson is a fan of James' toughness and confidence and likes the idea of playing James and Terry together. The issues? The Mavs are planning to offer Marquis Daniels in a sign-and-trade for James, having concluded that Daniels' future is elsewhere, but the Raps are cool on the swingman, believing they'll get better sign-and-trade offers. Issue No. 2: James, 31, is seeking a five-year contract, and the Mavs are unlikely to offer more than three years. With James expected to attract plenty of interest in the West alone, Dallas could be forced to look elsewhere in its search for better playmaking and another shooter.
4 yrs at 6 mil a year. (That's meeting him halfway) Get a sign-and-trade done with Luther going to Toronto or a 2nd round pick next year.
Dallas is so smart. Even if they don't get the deal done with Daniels, they are at least make Toronto think about it. It wouldn't surprise me if they were willing to send Toronto a 2nd rounder or whatever we are offering to get Toronto not to agree to the S&T so that we are forced to use our MLE on James instead of the TE.
Your numbers are incorrect because you've compounded the raise and used the incorrect 12.5% which the Chron gave. The correct raise % is 10.5. In addition, everything I have read indicates the MLE will rise to 5.5M. Below are IMO the correct numbers: TE 4 years (10.5%) - 4.2 + 4.6 + 5.1 + 5.5 = 19.45 TE 5 years - Above + 5.96 = 25.4 MLE 4 years (8%) 5.5 + 5.9 + 6.4 + 6.8 = 24.64 MLE 5 years (8%) Above + 7.3 = 31.9 4 year 7M start offer from under the cap team or possible SnT with a team like DAL having a player TOR desires: 7.0 + 7.7 + 8.5 + 9.2 = 32.4 Bottomline... A 5 yr TE deal approx. equals a 4 yr MLE deal. A 5 yr MLE deal aprox. equals a 4 yr $7M deal. Our best case scenario: No team offers James a fifth year MLE and TOR will take 2nd round picks to broker a 5 year TE deal. Our worst case scenario: Interest from an under the cap team (ATL, CHA, CHI) or A team coveting James as a starter because $7M is a lot to pay for an off the bench player. (This team must also have a player or players TOR desires). or The MLE doesn't rise enough to compete with 4yrs / $7M start.
GATER, thanks for the breakdown. So clearly a 5 year MLE deal is more than a 5 year S&T T.E. deal (but nice to see the 5 year TE deal still is more than the 4 year MLE deal). If we can get James for the 5 year S&T T.E. deal then we have to do it. Gives us our best options leaving the MLE to use for a swingman/guard like Fred Jones, Rasual Butler etc.
Deuce - I'm not 100% sure of the legalities. But IMHO sending a re-signed David Wesley along with either a re-signed Bogans or Luther Head works as a regular trade. We agree to "cash considerations" covering them waiving Wesley. IOW (and this plays into the Win-Now theme), if we would be willing to pay TOR for waiving David Wesley and they have any interest in some combination of Bogans, Head, or 2nd rounders, we can do a regular trade and still have both the full MLE and the $4.2M TE.
I think I am a bit confused. So we would do a S&T of Wesley and combination of players for a S&T with James. Except in Toronto's case we pay Wesley's salary AND he gets waived. My take is Wesley probably would want to go to a contending team like Miami or someone. He wouldnt agree to the Raptors deal unless he was going to get waived, and in this case it would be like getting free money. But in this case (unlike the TE scenario) the Raptors take a "cap hit" on their salary cap, correct? Would they want to do that?
If all else fails, do we want Daniels? TOR send James to MAVS MAVS send Daniels to TOR TOR send Daniels to HOU HOU sends Head+Sura+Rybo to TOR
Deuce - Yes..DWes SnT to TOR...James SnT to HOU. Someone on CF met David Wesley and his wife at a spa and posted it. The word from Wesley is that he is out of gas and wants to retire. If true, he can collect a cool $3M for his help. And that $3M is about triple what he can get as a Vet Min player. However, if Wesley still wants to play and thinks he can ride coattails somewhere, it is surely his prerogative. But the Rox have his full Bird Rights and can still be in the picture. One last thing to remember about MIA. Shaq makes $20M and so the Heat are slightly above the LTax right now with 4 roster spots to fill. That doesn't include Payton. Bringing in Wesley for the vet minimum will cost MIA twice what they pay DWes because of the LT. They may have better options.
Interesting scenario you laid out which would allow us to get James and still have "assets" of the MLE and 4.2 TE available to us. The question is, do we have confidence that management can get it done and that Les will flip the bill?.......don't answer that. EDIT: One thing though, why would Toronto want to take the extra cap hit of Wesley's contract (even for one year)? Clearly we would have to throw them some sort of compensation for that beyond just cash considerations to cancel out the actual Wesley contract payment.
I heard the new MLE would start at $5,443,200 so take that and the 8 percent raises and the $4.2 million and the 10.5 percent raises and you know James would want the MLE because it is just more money.
The way I read the chronicle report seems to indicate that we can ship the TE to Toronto- and since a trade can be facilated at 125% + 100K (???) That would equate to the 12.5% increase ( and Toronto does not have to take any contract back). I just hope we can get this done quickly before Cuban does some silly stuff just to get back at us. So if we are still trying to talk about the TE, then would not Bill Duffy ask us to Ship the MLE to Toronto instead and up the ante!!!!!!! IT makes me wonder, what are the targetting with the MLE then?
Per hooroo, the 125% only works in trades with multiple players. With just James, it would be 100% plus/minus $100k. Which technically means the TE scenario could start at $4.3 million. If this is true (Gater?), salary would now be: $4.3 + $4.75+ $5.2 + $5.65 = $19.91 plus, 5th year +$6.11 = $26.02 ...so about an extra $500,000 more.
Another possibility is a 6 year TE deal. This would come out to very close to a 5 year MLE deal. Also, would Toronto bite on a SnT of Deke, Head and Bowen. Deke: 2,210,000 Head: 1,048,000 Bowen: 998,967 + _________ 4,256,967 X 125% + 100,000 = 5,421,208.75 (very close to MLE and would be subject to 10.5% raises) Head is a good prospect and Deke and Bowen are both expirings and would help them fill out the roster. Deke is still a capable backup C. It would hurt to lose Head, but the Rockets brass have clearly shown that they are in win now mode. This would also leave the MLE and both TE's intact. We could go pick up a starting 4 and a backup 2 with those.
No, the 125% rule only works when we're talking about matching player salaries (there's no limit on how many or how few players). It's the TE that isn't allowed to use 125%. Per someone in another thread (probably Gater) James isn't eligible for a 6th year because Toronto doesn't have his full Bird Rights. So he can't get 6 years from anybody.
Well I do know that a second trade could be made. For example you could send Luther, a first round pick, and cash for say Peterson perhaps. In addition to then sending the TE after James is resigned by Toronto first, giving him the higher raise amount. This is not only possible it is usually how these deals happen. The question is would Toronto move Mo Pete worrying about resigning him and would Rockets think they could re-sign him and would James accept the contract amount. Because you have to use seperate trades to really push a team to make this move, otherwise the Raptors have no need to do it. They would not take Juwan and they would have no reason to do it unless they were facilitated. If they thought they might lose Mo Pete and got a draft pick, plus Luther for James, probably consider it done, provided James wants to play for Houston rather than Dallas or Atlanta, which to me is what he emans by meeting him half way. Simply give him the starter spot and he would want Houston over Dallas and Atlanta BUT if Toronto does not want to deal, then you would have to use the full MLE, because Toronto is under the cap and has no reason to just sign and trade James to Houston unless they get something back, reason being they hold the leverage, so does James, while Rockets only leverage is James wants to play in Houston.
How quickly does the dialogue changes form " I belong in Houston, money is not an issue etc etc " to "I will hear from others and see what they have to say"!!!!!!!!!!!
I agree to a certain extent. Players also have to look out for themselves -- just look at what happened to Stromile.
