They said nothing more than looking at a 5 year extension (largest allowed by CBA, which I thought was 6) - just started preliminary discussions. VELLY that's the truth....
I can hear the sound of thousands of Lakers fans hopes and dreams being simultaneously flushed down the toilet. Enjoy your Kobe-reign Laker fan because your days of winning titles is OVER! LOL!
If this gets done, I hope Phoenix holds off on extending Amare until next summer just for the sake of prolonging the pathetic hope of Laker fans. It will hurt alot more when reality comes crashing down the longer the inevitable is pushed back.
Common and business sense says that he won't get anything less than the max, a 5 year $75 million extension. Probably a trade kicker. And I wouldn't be surprised if he holds off on signing until Deke gets reupped.
This should be done by tomorrow, IMO. What's there to discuss? Give him max years and max money. No negotiations needed.
I know, every time I take a glance at a Laker board there's always some thread about a secret 2007 master plan.
Do you guys think Shaq's new contract will play a role in determining Yao's extension? Even though I'm not totally sure about the details, even T-Mac's extension appears to have been a 20+ mill/yr 3 yr. extension ('07-'09) signed with the Rockets last November. http://www.dfw.net/~patricia/contracts I've no doubt Yao will get the max, but apparently there are varying degrees of "max."
Yes there are varying degrees of max and the varying part is years in the NBA. More year higher max. Yao's max is like 6 years 90M.
When you have a situation like Yao's, where money and contract length are both obviously settled, what else is there to discuss? I remember several players, like Ray Allen, who didn't even bother to get an agent before signing their first max deals. I wonder if the Rockets want some clauses regarding Yao's obligations to the Chinese National team.
Maybe Yao needs to "feel the love" coming from the Rockets and they got Tracy on a flight to China to woo Yao into signing.
His extension will probably have a max of 5 years. With the old CBA you could extend a rookie for 6 additional years after the 4th year option. But it seems like they've lopped off a year from all contract scenarios.
