Elgin is about as half assed as it gets when it comes to GM's. Ask any Clip fan, I know you won't though. MD is really the brains behind their whole season.
Good grief TKF it wasn't $20mil and it wasn't $12mil. You have to go off of what he accepted vs what the Clips had room to offer, did offer. GSW had more cap space than the Clips after the Clips already shelled out cash to BD. Matter of fact Brand tried negotiate his deal in advanced and without his Agent's knowledge, which pissed off Faulk because he felt MD was the mastermind, going behind his back to broker a deal with his client. But really Faulk and Brand were waiting for Philly all along. They could have signed Brand to the contract GSW offered him but they wouldn't have been able to sign Baron, not in case BD takes an even greater paycut than he already did. You're calling a team cheap when they attempted to sign 2 players to near max deals? MD said he had an open checkbook this summer. Sterling was on board for whatever MD felt necessary to improve the team . But I'm going to break this down because I followed this more closely than you did.
Brand did an interview on ESPN after he signed with Philly. I forgot the woman's name who was interviewing him but she asked him a pinpointed question and it was...."When did Philly enter the picture?" Brand's response was "On July 1." July 1 is the first day FA can talk to teams so when did Brand get pissed off? The very first day? No one had given him a real offer except the Clips. It's called negotiating, every team deserves the right to negotiate, doesn't mean it has to be granted but obviously Brand allowed the Clips to do so but not on very equal terms. On July 1, Philly only had $11.5mil in cap space please pay attention to this point. Clips offer is currently better than anyone else's. On July 2, Clips agree verbally to sign Baron. Baron and Brand opted out of their contracts on June 30. How is it that a team who is so cheap gave 2 offers to FA in a span of 2 days? What is the likely hood they both opt out and BD agrees to come to the Clips, without Brand knowing or being on board? Not likely. Once BD commits to the Clips, the Warriors then swoop in and offer Brand $90mil on the same day, which was $20mil more than his initial negotiated deal with the Clips. Only because Baron ate up a lot of the cap space the Clips had available with the verbal agreement, while he came off the Warriors cap and the Warriors knew this.
So obviously Kos is ignoring the Clips offer to BD and I guess writing it off as them being cheap. Warriors went after Arenas first and gave him an offer of $100mil. The Warriors always had more money to offer than the Clips once BD came on board. It wasn't like the Warriors offered Brand $90mil first and then the Clips offered $70mil. So far in 2 days Clips have offered $135MIL total contract value to 2 players. Cheap? I think not. The Clippers let it be known they were going to renounce players to give Brand more money, this is when the second offer came of $75mil a couple days before the Philly offer. Now if Philly was in play on July 1, yet they only had $11.5ml in cap space, how is it Brand allowed Philly,(a team who never footed his bill from his previous salary in the league for several yrs and a franchise(Clippers) who were extremely interested in putting pieces around him) several days to clear cap to give him a richer deal(if we're going off of the GSW offer which we shouldn't be) letting them commence a trade with the Wolves by trading Carney and Booth to Minny for A 2nd round pick and cash? This trade didn't happen until July 8, which resulted in him signing for $79mil? $79mil is $11mil less than the Warrior offer. But IMO the Warrior offer is irrelevant, he never accepted it. He let 6 days go by refusing to accept the Warrior offer and allowed the Sixers to do all they could to sign him but wouldn't allow the Clips to do the same, after they agreed to get a deal done with BD?
LA Times is a Laker and Clipper paper
Here's Brand's interview with ESPN, listen if you really want to hear facts from each party involved, instead of a paper that may have an agenda behind the matter.
So many holes in this very interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bXG6Y9-nkw&feature=related LOL!
He said he would take a paycut-Indictment
He said that's why he opted out to give the Clips a chance to sign a FA-Indictment
He said he was talking to Baron the whole time-Indictment
He said Philly entered the picture July 1rst which is the first day teams can begin negotiating-Indictment
He said things went awry with the Clips July 1rst-Indictment
He said he'd allowed Philly to do all they could to get him his money....(but not the Clips his own team?) after July 1rst-Indictment
He tried to negotiate a deal prior to July 1-Indictment
Reports said the deal with Philly was for $82mil but after the smoke cleared he signed for $79mil, check the numbers for yourself
http://www.shamsports.com/content/pages/data/salaries/sixers.jspSimply put from that interview it's clear Faulk was on a mission. So really the Clips had two offers out there before Philly gave theirs, one of $70mil and the other of $75mil.
Now listen to Dunleavy's interview and you tell me what really went down? Listen to it from start to finish, if you do you'd think a lot different about the whole situation and if they were being cheap.
Dunleavy Tells The StoryReally it's not about comparing the GSW's offer but if so it's $81mil to $90mil which would be $9mil difference not $20mil. It's for what he accepted from Philly $79mil to $81mil Clips last offer. If you want to use $82mil as a concrete accepted deal from Philly, then the difference is either $7mil($75mil Their offer before last ditch counter offer) or $1mil(Their last ditch offer) depending how you're looking at it.
I'm leaving out the fact they were prepared to give Smith an offer sheet after all of this.
Faulk and Brand are A-s-s-h-o-e-s!
