Clippers have told Odom they won't match any offer -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Marc Stein ESPN.com Lamar Odom's quest for a long-term contract has taken the free-agent market's biggest remaining name back to Miami, for a second visit with Heat officials. Odom With Heat coach/president Pat Riley back in town, Odom arrived in Miami on Monday, according to league sources. Odom's hope is to secure an offer sheet from the Heat before he leaves this time, after which the Los Angeles Clippers would have 15 days to match the offer, as they did when Miami signed Elton Brand to an $82 million offer sheet. Because Odom is a restricted free agent, Miami has withheld an offer sheet until now largely on the assumption that the Clippers would match. Clippers general manager Elgin Baylor has informed Odom that L.A. does intend to match any offer. It remains to be seen if the Heat can construct an offer sufficiently rich and front-loaded -- perhaps averaging more than $10 million per season -- to make the Clippers change their mind. Clippers owner Donald Sterling has already invested an unprecedented $124 million in Brand and Corey Maggette. If Odom does not land an offer sheet from the Heat, and if the Clippers refuse to increase their recent three-year offer to Odom worth $24 million, the 23-year-old can still elect to sign a one-year tender with L.A. that would make him an unrestricted free agent next summer. Miami is expected to have ample salary-cap space in the summer of 2004 to make another run at Odom if necessary.
Yeah, that sort of typo does jump out. Does not jump out. Does jump out. Big difference between yes and no. But the title and the rest of the story indicate that Odom should be home free if he goes to the Heat. Now's our chance. Cuttino/Cato/whomever else for Grant/Stepania? Reunite Odom and Cat, get us a power forward.
Ok, I went and found the article (or a similar one) to find out if it says they will match or will not. The answer? They will match. http://espn.go.com/nba/columns/stein_marc/1589327.html
Geez. Which is it? It seems silly for them to say they won't match any offer. If he signs a 6-year deal for the minimum, the Clips won't match? I doubt that. If they didn't want him back at any price, they could rescind their qualifying offer and make him unrestricted. So, I'm thinking between the 2 options, they will match any offer. If so, Riles, sign him to the same contract you gave Brand. Make Sterling pay top dollar. Or is this Sterling's way of getting back at Riley for maxing out Brand: baiting Riley into signing a max deal and then letting him have Odom after all?
I don't know. Brand gets the max, Maggette gets, well, a lot...more than we've ever seen Sterling shill out. I don't know if he'll want two max salaries three, four, five years down the road. So will Odom sign a one-year tender offer and go to the Heat next year? You know Riley's showing him some love; Riles has coveted Odom from the beginning, having tried to move up in that draft to nab the guy. Or is it true that the Clips will not match anyway and Lamar will be free to go?
I thought Miami's contract offer to Brand saved Sterling money, since players can get more with their current team's max offer?
You're right, it saved Sterling millions. I can't remember the figures right now, but I bet it's at least 10-15 million.
Well, it would have had Sterling had any intention of making an offer. That is another example for Heypee that Sterling is a cheap b*stard. The Rockets extended Francis for the max money we could give him. The Clippers refused to extend Brand and never offered him an acceptable contract, much less the max, forcing him to find his market value, which was obviously above the max. Besides, the revenge wouldn't be so much for the max salary, which could have been expected from Utah or another team with space, but for the signing bonuses, the front-loading, and everything else Riley could throw in there to make the contract onerous for Sterling.
I'm confused too. If they really did say that they wouldn't match, could it be that it's a game they play to lowball Odom by encouraging Miami into negotiating a cheap contract?
More like 2 million on a comparable 6 year deal. The difference was 10% raises vs. 12.5% raises. Raises are not compounded, so he's getting a 1.096 mill raise a year instead of a 1.37 mill raise the Clips could have offered; in other words, 250K less per year after this one. Other than that, the Clippers could have also offered a 7th year to a deal, so I suppose you could argue that Sterling was able to cheap out of paying Brand 17.5 mill or so 7 years from now. At the same time, the huge sum he'll get up front with this contract, along with the fact that barring injuries, he'll still probably have a few more good years at the end of this contract, make that pretty negligible. Odom is just such an enigma, and he always has been, dating back to "disappearing" before the draft (there were rumors Krause would've picked him #1 if it weren't for that). The guy was probably the biggest name out there after Kidd, Brand, Zo, and Jermaine, yet it seems like he's practically been in hiding.
The Clipps are being very smart, they are letting other teams set the market for their players and saving themselves millions by doing it. Brand would have been paid more had the Clippers signed him to the max they could have as would have Maggette. The Clips are actually doing it the right way...SHOCKER !! DD
I'd disagree. It may be the smart thing in the short term, but it is a detriment in the long-term. By not stepping up, they develop a reputation as a team that doesn't take care for its players and a team that cares more about profit than winning a championship. That makes the team a less desirable destination for free agents. It also keeps the Clips from doing any wink-wink deals (who would trust them?). So, in the end they don't have nearly the goodwill that more free-spending teams have built up. That goodwill, if taken care of and properly used, can be translated into talent later.
That's how I was looking at it, NIKEstrad. I'll be surprised if Brand is a Clip after 2 years... especially if he continues his high level of play. Sterling will trade him for a combination of cheaper players and picks, imo. I just don't buy this "new" Sterling. He made a crafty move, I'll give him that.
NIKEstrad, the 7th year placing it at $15m+ more. JuanValdez, No matter how you slice it, a 6yr max is a lot of money. Most owners wish they could pull that off, but most owners would never have the rep to get the offer sheet to begin with. Had Les tried to pull that on Francis, he might never would have got an offer. And as the summer lingers, Francis gets pissed and just doesn't sign. Rashard never got an offer. I don't see why you think $80m+ is "cheap b*stard" when he was just doing using his power of negotiation to coax Miami into believing he wouldn't match. bottomline: If players are selfish bastards for get $10m for an extra yr or two, reason dictates that owners are not cheap bastards for preventing it. Right?!
Are you saying if we let Francis test the market, no one would have signed him to a contract because with his restricted status, teams would know the Rockets would match? If so, Francis would have remained one more year and left as an FA, or forced a trade. So, is Sterling smart for paying a max player less than the max and getting him in a long-term deal? No. Loyalty begets loyalty. If you look out for your players, they likely will look out for you. The Rockets generosity when they could be generous has resulted in players showing a lot of loyalty to the organization. Francis did not even consider other teams in signing his extension. Mobley signed for below market to a long-term deal. We've had several free agents come here for less than market value. They do these things because they know the Rockets take care of their people. Sterling may have saved $2 million on Brand, but he showed all the other players in the league they shouldn't bother doing any favors for the Clips because the Clips won't do any favors for them. It is a near-sighted policy that Sterling follows.
HP, that's the point. Sterling does have the rep of being cheap. That's why he could pull that off, but no one else could. So did he deliberately project such cheap image over the years in order to setup the ability to bluff about not matching expensive contract for his star players?
