It's been at least a few days since the last Stromile Swift thread. After thinking about it, I can't help but feel that Logo is bluffing when he says he'll match any offer for Stromile Swift. The Grizzlies just signed Battier to a 6-year extension They gave Brian Cardinal a $39mil contract. Gasol is entering the final year of his rookie contract. Miller will be making $8mil a year with his new deal and Wells is making $7mil/year I don't think the Grizz will match an offer if it's for the full MLE. In fact, if the deal is frontloaded and starts at around $7-8mil, I'm almost sure they won't match it. Given all that, should the Rockets take a gamble and try to sign Swift to an offer sheet? If we could land him, it would make Howard expendable, allowing us to run a tight, 8-man rotation and eliminating the need for a traditional backup C (I would love to deal Howard to Milwaukee, who's already paying Keith Van Horn max dollars, for D.Mase). Thoughts? Flames? Roll eyes?
The Rockets don't have anything but the MLE to offer. We can't get to 7-8mil. If you want to attack Swift, you have to do it by trade.
I misunderstood then. I thought you could give him the full MLE, only decreasing instead of increasing. Didn't know if had to start at 4.9 (or 5.-whatever). My bad. Still, don't think he'll match the full MLE.
Ya know, you could offer Swift the FULL MLE but guess what? He doesnt have to take it. He COULD sit another year and become an UFA and then shop for the best deal he could get which chances are would be ABOVE FULL MLE money. Just wanted to mention that scenario.
I'm aware of that. But what do you lose if he does that? If that's the worst case scenario (though it obviously isn't), shouldn't you at least make the offer?
No. (1) Our MLE would be tied up for the 2 weeks, and we wouldn't be able to offer anything to anyone else. (2) West generally does do what he says. He's sly, but if he says he'll match, he probably will. (3) If West doesn't, its because he doesn't think Swift is worth it, and West is the BEST talent evaluator in the NBA. I wouldn't bet against his evaluation, or we'll probably end up with another Cato contract. (4) Swift is athletic, but not basketball smart. We need players with higher BB IQ's on this team. From what I've heard, his work habits are pretty bad, and he doesn't learn quick. For awhile, they were nicknaming him "Slomile" ... Bigs are valued highly this year, so West will probably hang onto him, since his value in trade will continue to increase. He may have trade value, but that doesn't make him a good fit here.
The first year of the new deal has to fit under the MLE (~$5.2M). Also, the NBA CBA does not allow you to front load a contract salary wise. There is a clause that says that subsequent years of a contract must be for at least as much as the first season of the deal. So, if the initial year of a deal is $7M, then every year of the contract must be for at least $7M. The front loading that people are refering to is the little trick that Miami used to get Odom and that Denver was threatening to do with Kenyon Martin. All they are doing is paying really large signing bonuses upfront. You are allowed to pay up to 25% of the total contract as a signing bonus. Salary, wise the money just gets distributed across the life of a contract. So, salary cap wise it has absolutely no effect. The issue is that you have to pay our a large sum of money right now. In the case of Lamar Odom, he was signed to a deal of almost $70M. As far as the cap was concerned his salary is the same regardless of the signing bonus. Miami added the 25% signing bonus just because they didn't believe that Donald Sterling would be willing to shell out $17M immediately in order to sign Odom. Even though Miami paid Odom $17M upfront, that is spread out over the six year term of his contract for the purpose of the salary cap. Does that make sense?
I think West would love it if we signed Swift to a 6 year MLE. We would tie up our MLE for 2 years. AND He could get Swift locked away for 6 years for a lot lower than the going rate for FA big men. Worst case--lets say he does not envision Swift in their LT plans for whatever reason, he signs him to trade for a prospect or probable lotto pick to an under the cap team after 3 months (if Swift agrees) to 1 year. He isn't going to give away a trade commodity or prospect for only an MLE level salary unless the owner hamstrings him. Memphis is not going to make the same mistake we did with Posey. I more likely candidate to have tried this was Etan Thomas--and we will have to see what happens there, probably Washington will match.
