Any package involving Battier or Ariza plus not much else (at most, adding a player like Budinger) for Gay is a no brainer.
I think a max contract in any capacity is too much for just a numbers guy like Gay. Maybe he'll "get it", maybe he won't but I really don't think he's a big enough competitor or two-way player to carry a winning team. Right now, he's worth about $10M per year (Gerald Wallace, Luol Deng, Caron Butler type money) -- roughly the amount of the 5 year/$50M extension that his agent wanted and that Memphis supposedly turned down. I'm sure you're much more familiar with the failed contract negotiations than I am, but I read that he and his agent basically said "5 years/$50M will get it done" and Memphis balked. For everybody's sake involved, I hope that's not the case but then again I find nothing out of the question when we're dealing with somebody like Heisley. Your my boy too but i'm gonna have to call you out on this one. I need you to find me the rule that prohibits this. If what I am reading is correct the salary floor for this season is 75% of the salary cap -OR- $43.275M. Going by Heisley's own words, he has stated his plans to operate below the $50M mark.
I agree with you on this one. Its all about negotiations and posturing. He turned it down, but i don't think anyone will offer more than that. If they do, sign and trade. It would also help if they can find a taker for jaric and his 7m on the books.
Next summer I think a team will offer him more than $10MM/yr. What would the Grizzlies want in a sign and trade? IMO, if they won't pay Gay $10MM+/yr, they won't want to sign and trade him for the same amount salary in return.
You can ALWAYS take back less salary in trades. Most likely, if the Griz sign-and-trade Gay, it will be to a team that is under the cap, so salary matching likely won't be an issue.
