I believe if a player is going to turn 36 during a contract over 4 years any compensation after the 4th year is considered deferred compensation and must be spread upon the previous years. In effect the limit of the 5 year MLE becomes around 25 million, the same in a 4 year MLE. Mike James might as well take his 25 mil over 4 years and then look to sign the next contract. Its seems Dallas, Houston and Minny all have these 4 year deals on the table with the maximum difference between possibly player options on the last year and slight restructuring of front loaded money. Bascially James agent has confirmed the money part of each deal are basically the same. see item 49 on Larry Coon's info: http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm 49. What is the "Over-36" rule?
Thanks Desert Scar that was informative. If the amount of money and the length of the contract that all of the teams are offering is the same then other factors will possibly make a difference in his decision it seems.
NBA Transaction History: http://n-c-systems.com/hoops/ Here's a partial list of players who were "discharged" from the Mavs since 1995: Doug Christie Shawn Bradley Alan Henderson Mike Finley Dan Dickau Jason Sasser Felipe Lopez Greg Buckner Nick Van Exel Adrian Griffin Raja Bell Antawn Jamison Danny Fortson Antoine Walker Tony Delk Christian Laettner Eduardo Najera Raef LaFrenz Jiri Welsch What's interesting about this list (when you compare it to a similiar list of ex-Rockets is what a HIGH PERCENTAGE of the ex-Mavericks are still in the NBA as compared to the ex-Rockets. We've had very few tradable assets for years now.... Who is churning players? Somehow we need to make the case that wanting Mike James back is bigger than wanting him in the first place.
I love how Mike James "just wants to feel wanted" and "wants teams to sincerely show him he's the missing piece to a championship" meanwhile the Mavs are trying to trade for freaking K-Mart and all this other nonsense. By all accounts it seems as if we're taking things pretty slow and making him our clear-cut top priority, which seemed to work for us last offseason when we signed Swift. Let's hope he recognizes the effort and makes the right decision.
Who are you, Desert Scar? You speak like an insider. How do you know no team has outbid us? Do you work for Rockets?
No insider. However lots of common sense... 1) His agent says the deals are similar. 2) The over36 rule limits the amount of money allowed to offer James through an MLE to about 25mil, and the most efficient ways to squeeze this in is a 4 year max deal. 3) the 4 year 25 mil range for all offers is what Feigan is reporting. Thus it is pretty safe to assume the Rockets, Mavs and Wolves have all offered 4 year 25 mil range deals and other factors will determine who wins. I think it is also safe to assume it is between the Mavs and Rockets UNLESS another team comes in with a sign and trade, where the 25 mil limit can be eclipsed.
Actually the ROckets can offer the TE for 5 years because it is not governed by the 36 year rule. And thus the Rockets are offering the biggest cash purse on the table and depending on what the MLE is can be as much as 3 million or more over anyone else. That is the biggest reason for James' delay. If the MLE come in at 5.5 then the money difference is not that significant and Houston better hope he loves home. But if the MLE comes in on the low side we will be offering a significant amount more and thus we would be the frontrunners IMO.
he is trying to get the most of it...it's like "I wanna let them feel dumb and play a little bit" I think everything will be clear by tomorrow noon, the deal with battier, james and all that crap this is way too much pressure for me, hopefully the rockets don't mess it up as much as they did the past few weeks...
Signing qualifying free agents IS also governed by the over 36 rule. I think it restricts what we can do with the TE for Mike James (can't start at 4.3 and go 10% raises through 5 or 6 years because the deferred comp effectively raises the starting salary above our 4.3 mil allowed). http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm (see item 49)
Yeah a read item 49, you may be right... Man that stuff is really confusing. There is actually an asterisk by 5 year deals for qualifying free agents... which states there are some exceptions. I don't know what it all means to be perfectly honest. Where is a capologists when you need one.
James said he was waiting for clarification from the league on something. I bet this was it. That and the exact amount of the MLE was supposed to be released today.
Well he was in IAH at around 8:30-9pm last night. I was just getting back from Hong Kong and waiting on my luggage in baggage claim and there was a group of reporters waiting for him there. He came down and did an interview with them. I was to far away to hear what he as saying but it was quite a long interview.
