Texas Chuck wrote:You guys are framing this incorrectly and then getting mad about it. If OKC buys him out then he is a free agent. He is in no way obligated to sign with the Lakers for less than his market value. He could easily go take $20M to play for the Knicks, right? But if David West wants to opt out of an 8 figure contract with the Pacers to sign for the min with the Spurs that was his choice. And while it sucks for the Pacers nothing should have prevented him from that choice.
And how much money he is making from outside revenue(the Thunder in this case) is irrelevant. Sure guys who have made a ton of money already are more likely to go play for winners for cheap, but again that should be their choice.
If OKC does not want to pay him all that money to not play for them but to play for someone else they simply won't buy him out. They will only buy him out if they think it is in the best interest of the OKC Thunder.
I continue to just be gobsmacked about the amount of angst free agents choosing their team causes you guys. Especially in situations that aren't happening. We somehow turning freaking suck-ass Andre Drummond signing with the Lakers into an avalanche of every star player forcing buyouts to sign there too. This is not a real thing that we need to worry about.
Not to derail this thread, but I think you always frame it incorrectly as well. You act as if players should always have the right to go anywhere they want whenever they want, but already have rules in place that limit this to try to keep from teams getting unfair advantages (waivers, cutoff date for playoff rosters etc.).
Now under the current rules he absolutely should be able to go play for anyone at any price he likes because there isn't anything there stopping it currently, but it absolutely benefits a smaller group of teams unfairly. But it's not ridiculous to want to change that at the expense of the player getting the buyout. Why should the league dynamics be shifted because a player decides he wants out on his current team? Just because he's willing to give back money? Doesn't make sense to me at all. It's not like it'd be preventing guys signing mutli-year deals, it's stopping 25 regular season games of mercenary work followed by a playoff run. Don't see how stopping that is overly infringing on player's mobility.
And you bandy about Andre Drummond as if Blake Griffin isn't having a significant impact on a series about to go 7 for the team favored to win it all.