MWP - 2013/14 PO, playing around with the LT bill

[Dr Aki]

Here's a question: How long would you like to Metta World Peace in a lakers uniform?

because if it's one year (ie, after the 2012/13 season), then we're going to amnesty him, because he signed for below his market value back in 2009 and his 2010 post-season was worth every penny of his contract and allow him to find him a new club. this would cost roughly ~5.5 mil overall, because MWP would be an absolute bargain off the amnesty wire at a couple mil.

however, if you're like me and think MWP's year was just an anomaly affected by the lockout and he's going to have a great bounce-back year, especially if he returns close to peak fitness. love the wackiness he brings, here's the other option. like the spurs and richard jefferson, who had RJ opt out of his final year 15mil salary and sign a longer contract.

can we feasibly see mitch/jimmy/jerry ask MWP to opt out of his 7.7mil final year in order to stay for longer, ie a 3 year/11 mil contract (3.5mil starting salary, 7.5% raises), that would greatly reduce the impact of MWP's contract on the 2013/14 luxury tax bill.

we'd also save the amnesty for use on steve blake and his 4mil contract. so, 4.2 mil off the bill from MWP, 4 mil off the bill from blake, 2.4 mil off the bill from duhon (waiving him).

bang, thats 10.6 mil off the bill, saving roughly 30 mil or so off the LT. reducing an 85mil LT bill to maybe 55mil.

so the question again: How long do you want MWP to be in a lakers uniform?

[Stebo_SSK]

For as long as he can play at a good enough level to help this team win championships. I think you guys worry about the luxury tax waaaay too much. If the Buss family isn't trippin then why worry about if they have to amnesty anyone. If you want save money so much the first option would be getting rid of Pau Gasol. In the end as long as he can why not? Its not like if they amnesty him they can go out and sign a player that would be better than him after the 12/13 season.

[Dr Aki]

we only have the MMLE, amnestying MWP and keeping blake on the payroll at 4mil?

the MMLE aint going to land us a decent enough FA to replace what MWP brings, especially as we are lacking in perimeter defense and kobe/nash aint going to have a lot of energy to expend on defending night in night out

even with meeks, we're going to need a bigger body to check the premier 3s of the NBA

[LaLa]

Metta is looking in really good shape, from all those reports in the offseason, he looks like the Indiana Ron, Jamison said it from one of those scrimmage videos and in an interview that hes moving really good now. I'm thinking hes going to have a great season, with his defense getting back to a DPOY level.

[Stebo_SSK]

we only have the MMLE, amnestying MWP and keeping blake on the payroll at 4mil?

the MMLE aint going to land us a decent enough FA to replace what MWP brings, especially as we are lacking in perimeter defense and kobe/nash aint going to have a lot of energy to expend on defending night in night out

even with meeks, we're going to need a bigger body to check the premier 3s of the NBA

That was pretty much the point of my post lol

[Dr Aki]

we only have the MMLE, amnestying MWP and keeping blake on the payroll at 4mil?

the MMLE aint going to land us a decent enough FA to replace what MWP brings, especially as we are lacking in perimeter defense and kobe/nash aint going to have a lot of energy to expend on defending night in night out

even with meeks, we're going to need a bigger body to check the premier 3s of the NBA

That was pretty much the point of my post lol

re-reading it, it really didn't look like it

[stunnar0b]

I think you guys worry about the luxury tax waaaay too much.

[Stebo_SSK]

we only have the MMLE, amnestying MWP and keeping blake on the payroll at 4mil?

the MMLE aint going to land us a decent enough FA to replace what MWP brings, especially as we are lacking in perimeter defense and kobe/nash aint going to have a lot of energy to expend on defending night in night out

even with meeks, we're going to need a bigger body to check the premier 3s of the NBA

That was pretty much the point of my post lol

re-reading it, it really didn't look like it

Well point out what you didnt understand. I pretty much stated after saying fans worry about the payroll costs too much that amnestying MWP would be stupid if he can still play due to them not being able to replace him or sign a better player on the market. Isnt that what I said or nah?

[leeprettyp]

As long as Metta is focused and never comes into the season outta shape like last year. When he's focused he's still a top 7 on ball defender IMO

[Dr Aki]

i was talking about asking MWP to waive his PO and sign a longer contract

the luxury tax is here to stay and any grounds we make in reducing it, allows us to go off and make financial commitments like with nash and dwight (remembering we refused to give up pau and not take back too much redundant salary) in the future.

[leeprettyp]

i was talking about asking MWP to waive his PO and sign a longer contract

the luxury tax is here to stay and any grounds we make in reducing it, allows us to go off and make financial commitments like with nash and dwight (remembering we refused to give up pau and not take back too much redundant salary) in the future.

Depends on how Ebanks may develop also. But this new TWC deal allows the Lakers to pay this luxury tax and field the type of team we need to win ships. If Metta has a strong season then I can see the Lakers not using the amnesty on on him and keeping him around for a longer period of time. But I read awhile back Metta wants to retire after this last contract with the Lakers expires

[Stebo_SSK]

i was talking about asking MWP to waive his PO and sign a longer contract

the luxury tax is here to stay and any grounds we make in reducing it, allows us to go off and make financial commitments like with nash and dwight (remembering we refused to give up pau and not take back too much redundant salary) in the future.

I highly doubt LA is going to be looking to resign MWP long term at what put him at age 35 at that point. After the 13-14 season, Dwight and Nash will be the only 2 on contract and I sincerely hope that Nash retires after that year lol. I dont see him being effective 2 years from now at 41 years of age. After the 13-14 Im hoping LA can swing another big time player to pair with Dwight.

[Desiderium]

amnestying ron won't help the lakers much anyways. at some point kobe and pau are both gonna retire...that gives you more than enough cap flexibility to sign a big name to compliment dwight.

[DEEP3CL]

For as long as he can play at a good enough level to help this team win championships. I think you guys worry about the luxury tax waaaay too much. If the Buss family isn't trippin then why worry about if they have to amnesty anyone. If you want save money so much the first option would be getting rid of Pau Gasol. In the end as long as he can why not? Its not like if they amnesty him they can go out and sign a player that would be better than him after the 12/13 season.

Stebo you are 100% correct, too many guys here worry about the finances way too damn much. If it was such a burden Dr.Buss could've busted this team up after the Dallas series in 2011. And you're right about the amnesty clause some guys here love to throw it around way too damn much also. The Lakers would still have to pay the money......hell if I'm a player amnesty my ass all day I'M STILL GET'IN PAID. For the last time the amnesty clause was for dumb ass franchises with stupid ass GM's and owners just handing out dumb ass deals like the Bucks did with Drew Gooden and others like him. Knowing full well they'll have to escape the damn thing anyway. Do guys seriously think NBA players care about the amnesty clause ? Hell no they don't.

Besides Dr.Buss rarely gets burned on deals and Mitch while making a few contractual mistakes, didn't wreck our team like Isiah Thomas did the Knicks.

Getting back to Metta, the Lakers aren't going to amnesty him makes no sense structurally anyway. He has a 15% trade kicker in his deal even if he were to be traded this season.....again something that works in his favor. So if a team wants him they have to pay more to that 7.2 mil he's getting.

So tell me this, if using the amnesty clause on Metta is so damn life saving.......who the hell is our 3 man defender who brings physicality to the spot ?

When you can answer that with a decent player in mind then this topic is moot, the tax situation will handle itself just fine. And lastly ownership can't ask a player to take a pay cut to in order to make cap space.

Aki needs to read this......http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q59

[Dr Aki]

its easy to talk about spending money when its not your money. the lakers are looking at a payroll of 185 million dollars

is metta going to be worth the 30 mil outlay that it costs to keep him on the books next season?

and mentioning the trade kicker doesnt make any sense, noones trading for MWP. amnestying him for 7.7 mil to save 22 mil in LT, its an easy easy easy decision to make, same as waiving duhon

we're not going to win or not lose next season because we let a 33yr MWP go, that's 30 million dollars down the drain.

by the way deep, i'm banking on earl clark getting sufficient burn to knock ebanks out of the lineup.

Aki needs to read this......http://www.cbafaq.com/salarycap.htm#Q59

i have read it, i've read it in its pre-2011 CBA and 2011 CBA faqs like 5 times over

i'm not talking about re-negotiating metta's deal. metta's deal, signed in summer 2009 included a player option for the 2013/14 season for 7.7mil.

he exercises the option and becomes a FA, we give him a longer deal at a lower yearly salary

here's the exact same thing happening with the spurs and RJ

[DEEP3CL]

I get all that you're saying Aki, but like Stebo said if saving money is the MO then Pau would be a better candidate than Metta. He makes more. But answer me this.....why in the world would Metta use his PO/ETO to lower his salary ? I mean if he wants to really be here then I could see him doing it, don't make sense player wise and the union would explode on him for doing such a thing. Using Richard Jefferson is a bad example anyway....he's not an impact player anymore. It was smart for him to do it, it was that or he was out the league because the writing was all over the wall on that one.

It's more than just Metta's deal that's blowing up the tax, Metta has already played to his contract value anyway. Doing Pau and Blake in 2013-14 is more believable since it's 23 mil in combined salary that would be slashed.

You act as if we haven't gotten a return on Metta, winning in 2010 was the payoff, and Metta was brought here for his defense on the elite wings. Too many guys judge him only on his offensive output way too much, he wasn't brought here for that. So as far as I'm concerned we've milked him and it looks like we will again this season seeing as he's in excellent shape coming in to camp.

And I mentioned the TK for a reason......just to show the actual difficulty we'd have dumping him. Same reason goes in hand on why we're not going to amnesty him........makes no sense with him when cuts can come from elsewhere on the roster. Why are we worried about a guy who's in the last year of his deal technically ?

Like I said I could buy your theory on him accepting less to stay if he wants to retire here like he's mentioned already. If I saw a guy on this roster in his spot ready to assume the position and was ready for it, then I could care less if they amnestied him. But no one is ready as far as I see.

Also it remains to be seen in the Ebanks/ Clark battle....I'll definitely be watching that the most during camp, because we need somebody to take that back up role and help out.

[Dr Aki]

imma address each of your points.

amnestying pau vs amnestying metta. pau is infinitely more important for laker success than metta, thats why hes a part of the big 4 and you only have 1 amnesty, can't amnesty pau and blake.

and if you've read the OP, i explicitly mention i appreciate MWP and his contract

because if it's one year (ie, after the 2012/13 season), then we're going to amnesty him, because he signed for below his market value back in 2009 and his 2010 post-season was worth every penny of his contract and allow him to find him a new club. this would cost roughly ~5.5 mil overall, because MWP would be an absolute bargain off the amnesty wire at a couple mil.

re: the TK, its harder to trade MWP than blake, because he earns more. hence its easier to amnesty MWP than blake.

kobe, pau, MWP, blake, duhon, hill are all on their expiring seasons. we can only use the amnesty on contracts signed before the new CBA. if we let them expire, we lose the use of our amnesty.

use it, save money.

[Stebo_SSK]

Amnesty doesnt save anything in reality. Another issue with your point is that even if they amnesty MWP they are still going to be deep in the luxury tax. So unless MWP gets so garbage going into the 13-14 season that he needs to be axed it would be completely pointless. Blake is probably the only worthy candidate, especially if Duhon takes his spot.

[DEEP3CL]

Amnesty doesnt save anything in reality. Another issue with your point is that even if they amnesty MWP they are still going to be deep in the luxury tax. So unless MWP gets so garbage going into the 13-14 season that he needs to be axed it would be completely pointless. Blake is probably the only worthy candidate, especially if Duhon takes his spot.

Completely agree, I don't know how Aki is getting his formulations to figure that we'll save 22 mil but we're still in tax hell even using it. Pointless like you said Stebo. Also to Aki I fully understand what Pau means to the team, I also know you can't amnesty both.

To me the only use of the amnesty clause is to cut dead weight players who can't help and the GM and coaching staff knows this. Overall if you look at the guys getting amnestied are they impact players ?

Let me answer that........NO.

But I do know this, myself and Stebo have been MWP supporters and seem to understand better than most here is real value in terms of what doesn't show up on stat sheets. Guys gotta stop living by the law of the stat sheet and look at the game internally and use some IQ on what the hell is going on.

Like I've said stop fantasizing about this amnesty stuff until you can name a more than capable replacement that can check the elite 3's like MWP. Yet and still no one has come up with one guy yet.

[leeprettyp]

Amnesty doesnt save anything in reality. Another issue with your point is that even if they amnesty MWP they are still going to be deep in the luxury tax. So unless MWP gets so garbage going into the 13-14 season that he needs to be axed it would be completely pointless. Blake is probably the only worthy candidate, especially if Duhon takes his spot.

Completely agree, I don't know how Aki is getting his formulations to figure that we'll save 22 mil but we're still in tax hell even using it. Pointless like you said Stebo. Also to Aki I fully understand what Pau means to the team, I also know you can't amnesty both.

To me the only use of the amnesty clause is to cut dead weight players who can't help and the GM and coaching staff knows this. Overall if you look at the guys getting amnestied are they impact players ?

Let me answer that........NO.

But I do know this, myself and Stebo have been MWP supporters and seem to understand better than most here is real value in terms of what doesn't show up on stat sheets. Guys gotta stop living by the law of the stat sheet and look at the game internally and use some IQ on what the hell is going on.

Like I've said stop fantasizing about this amnesty stuff until you can name a more than capable replacement that can check the elite 3's like MWP. Yet and still no one has come up with one guy yet.

There's the biggest issue I have with fans in sports now. They dont want to adhere to the obvious eye test and respect whats in front of them. Now I'll admit Metta coming in outta shape last season was unacceptable (even if it wa a lockout) but that guy is very important to our team and people hate to admit that.