RealGM

Okay Jazz fan here (But Portlands my 2nd favorite on account of growing up in Portland during the Drexler era).

Long story short: Jazz fans over the last couple years have been frustrated and our team has been financially hurt by Portlands back to back offers to two of our young studs: Millsap & Matthews. Millsap got a 4/$32M offer w/$10M up front signing bonus (a bonus that pushed our franchise heavily into the luxury tax for the first time and hurt our team.) Then Wesley Matthews the next summer got 5/$35M and we simply couldn't match for financial reasons.

Jazz Brass for the record thought they could sign Millsap for 4/$20-$24M with no signing bonus, and thought Wesley should be offered 4/$16M at the time. I think Millsap has actually over performed his contract ironically although he was overpaid for where he was at the time. His huge raise ended up being able to be justified because he was given the reigns after one year when Boozer left. The jury is still out on Wes, and while I miss him I think we made the right decision.

That all said: I like Batum and would love to offer him something that would get him to Utah, and if we can't get him to Utah I would love to offer him a contract that inflicts the most amount of pain. Pain to a franchise is not so much about having to overpay to keep your own free agent, the pain comes when you can't match your next restricted FA (i.e. Matthews) or pick up the right FA in free agency. The Jazz are in an enviable position for the next 3/4 years because we have a ton of cheap rookie deals and this summer we can easily get $15-$20M in cap space by dumping Harris and Bell for future picks.

So the questions are these:

How worried are you that someone will swoop in and offer Batum a big or ridiculous contract?
-I think you should be very concerned.
What would you consider ridiculous and at what point do you agree you don't match?
-I think $12M per is ridiculous, and you match until it hits $14M per.
How much do you want to sign him for, or rather what do you think he is worth?
All fans hope for $8M per or $9M, but if Afflalo can get $9, Batum will get at least $10.

Personally, I don't think the Jazz will do such a thing... they are too conservative and probably wouldn't risk dumping a PG like Harris just to try to go get a RFA. That said I would love to see it... For me I want to pursue Batum or E Gordon.

Please understand that I am not trying to create any animosity here by this thread, I just find this topic and this entire off season very intriguing for the entire league and especially for our two teams. We both want to win now while simultaneously developing our young players and picks. I also think Free Agency is going to be interesting as teams may make available players on their roster to avoid a second luxury year ahead the 3rd year of the CBA when the more stringent tax penalties happen. I think contract sizes/lengths will be very interesting to see as well. Which teams will be smart and which will continue to overpay for mediocrity? And then you have amnesty candidates.

I look forward to the discussion and your thoughts.

I'm so sick about the Batum talk on here. He is one of the most overrated players in the NBA right now.

Not interested because:
A- He is going to get waaaaay overpaid.
B- We already have Hayward who is just as good, if not better.
C- He is going to get waaaaay overpaid.
D- Offering him a big contract just to put Portland in a bad spot or as retaliation would be STUPID AS HELL
E- We already have Hayward.

I seriously do not understand why some of you guys are so obsessed with signing him...

No way to giving Batum a contract for more than $5M.........we will never be able to sign Favors, Kanter, Hayward, etc., in a few years.

interesting player, but no way Utah will spend 10+ millions for such a player. We are not the trail blazers, who overpay players just to throw poison to better opponents.

Well first off, batum is much better than hayward in every possible way except maybe playmaking. Forget the eye test, you can look at it stat wise. Batum first two seasons crushes Haywards no matter how you look at it.

Even with that said, overpaying for "role" players is not how you win championships. Now eric gordon is a different story, well that is if you can take the leap of faith in his health.

And how in the world does a person become a fan of Utah and Portland? Isn't that a conflict of interest?

I don't understand why we should overpay for Batum. If we're going to overpay, overpay for Nash, Eric Gordon, or James Harden.

We aren't getting any bonafide all-stars in free agency. We just have to accept that. We can get a third option or solid starter, the rest needs to happen via trades and the draft.

Sorry guys, I meant to post this over on the Blazers site. As far as how does someone become a fan of both teams: I grew up in Portland Oregon until 14, then moved to Utah and have been a fan ever since. Also I was a fan of Drexler and by extension the Blazers... until he left.

That said... I think it makes perfect sense to mess with them and I would like to know if anyone knows if we can front load the contract the first two years of any deal so that we don't lose any cap flexibility in two years when we need it to reup Favs and Hayward?

If we offer 4/$40M but pay $14 each of the first two years, then we would only be paying $6M per the last two years. Portland prabably matches that but then that takes them off the market the next two years... and that is a good thing. Seriously... we would have matched on Wesley had we had the space to do so...

Overall I would much rather go after Gordon.

I would over-pay for either Gordon or Batum bc they are a perfect fit for our team. It onlys works if you trade away Big Als large contract maybe in a sign and trade.