gswhoops wrote:ReggiesKnicks wrote:jowglenn wrote:Great deal, he's a steady force on this team. We got him for incredibly cheap on his current deal (people said 3 yrs, 33 mil was an overpay at the time hahahahahaha) and now we extend him for cheap.
Now the interesting thing will be what happens with Mathurin in RFA next year. If he has a huge year - as I suspect he will - is some team going to throw the bag at him? Will the Pacers match? Will some kind of trade be worked up potentially?
RFA is sort of dead. Even if there is money this next off-season...
1) Some of it will dry up through transactions
2) Teams don't often "throw the bag" at an RFA since the team can match and it ties up cap space in the meantime
3) If the player is good enough they will get a contract from their team
I'd very much put Mathurin in the camp of Giddey/Kuminga both in terms of overall level of player and ceiling. I wouldn't be surprised if it's another "wait until September" and a deal gets a done situation.
It feels like something fundamentally needs to change about RFA in the next CBA. It feels like it's gone from a useful right of first refusal to a tool that just allows teams to strong arm players. I'm not sure what the fix is though. One idea I think makes sense is raising the QO tender to something like 150% of the MLE (which would be like ~$22 million this offseason) so teams have to make a real decision about whether to offer it or let a guy become a UFA. A more complicated idea is making teams submit a sealed "max" offer to the league ahead of time when they offer the QO so that there's no "waiting period" - if a team beats the offer they can sign the player immediately; if not, the player is immediately re-signed to their current team
The aprons are hindering the ability of S&Ts which is restricting some of the more creative solutions, but I see the problem with RFA as more of a cap space issue because so many teams are offering extensions now. The majority of teams are already operating well over the cap. This limits the available market before you get to the question of what is a player objectively worth.
If you look at a player like Kuminga, only one team was willing to pay him what he wanted, and that team insisted on sending out a contract the Warriors didn't want. Is that really Kuminga's market value? Do the Kings still make thaf offer if they had to sacrifice all that space?
When was the last RFA signing that was considered a good signing? Even if it was matched?
Thybulle? Ayton? Didn't Miles Bridges play on the Q.O. and end up re-signing with the Hornets anyway? How long did Sexton wait before becoming a part of Mitchell trade at a number well below what his camp was seeking? The biggest thing hurting these players is the fact that the teams they're currently on don't see them as worth the extension they want. There's usually a reason for that, and as we saw with Brandon Ingram, it impacts the player's market regardless of restricted status.
