Dlo Opts In......Now What?

[Karmaloop]

I’m no cap expert but wouldn’t this mean Lebron would have to take a new deal starting at below $40m for the Lakers to have access to the full MLE? Seems like a big-ish paycut.

EDIT: Apparently I can't math today.

Read on Twitter

[AaronB]

Clearly, ORL didn’t want DLo or they would have simply signed him…certainly not sending WCJ (or anything) for a guy that wanted to test the FA waters and didn’t get any callbacks from cap teams….super talented guy who’d be a perfect fit in ORL on paper, but just too many boneheaded decisions and weak playoff performances in his career. He’s actually best in LAL with a strong vet leader in LBJ - who at least has a chance of keeping him on the straight and narrow (or threatening to give his starting spot to Bronny )

It would have been prior to contact D'Angelo prior to his opt out, so if you want the Magic (or any other team) tampering that's certainly a decision. Secondly, remember when D'Angelo Russell wouldn't settle for less than $30M/year last offseason because that's what he got paid on his previous deal? He ended up settling for just over that on a 2 year deal. FA contracts don't always end up being what you think they were. Absolutely ZERO guarantees his AAV would have been anywhere near what it is in the last year of the contract. You could probably stand to argue that the MLE ($12.9M) was his floor so max a 4 year, ~$52M was probably the most amount of money he would get.

As rarely as I agree with Skybox, I think he/she/they/them/etc is exactly correct. Plus, any agent that is not using backchannels to find possible landing spots for their client should be fired immediately. DRuss's agent knows very close to how much the Magic were willing to pay and they did not like the deal.

[Karmaloop]

As rarely as I agree with Skybox, I think he/she/they/them/etc is exactly correct. Plus, any agent that is not using backchannels to find possible landing spots for their client should be fired immediately. DRuss's agent knows very close to how much the Magic were willing to pay and they did not like the deal.

Again, there's a very fine line between knowing your players' market and negotiating deals. Odds are his agent figured that he was at BEST the 3rd option in Orlando (behind PG13 and Klay Thompson) and figured that if he wasn't going to close to the AAV it made more sense for him to opt into his deal.

[jayjaysee]

If LAL trades Dalton this week, his salary doesn’t count towards all the matching rules right?

[Karmaloop]

If LAL trades Dalton this week, his salary doesn’t count towards all the matching rules right?

Correct.

[AaronB]

As rarely as I agree with Skybox, I think he/she/they/them/etc is exactly correct. Plus, any agent that is not using backchannels to find possible landing spots for their client should be fired immediately. DRuss's agent knows very close to how much the Magic were willing to pay and they did not like the deal.

Again, there's a very fine line between knowing your players' market and negotiating deals. Odds are his agent figured that he was at BEST the 3rd option in Orlando (behind PG13 and Klay Thompson) and figured that if he wasn't going to close to the AAV it made more sense for him to opt into his deal.

You are very much mistaken here.

The agents use back channels with the teams. This goes on all of the time. They knew exactly where Orlando was going with an offer. Now you are right and that they cannot begin a bidding war while a player is still under contract, but I am absolutely positive that there were backchannel conversations with the Magic and before DLo opted in, he knew exactly where his market was.