Lynn Greer question

Macedonianbull · Post #1 » by **Macedonianbull** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 12:01 pm

He had one guaranteed year left worth $770,610. He left Milwaukee to sign in Greece where he took a 2-yr, $7 million contract offer.

My question is: was there a buyout, or simply Bucks cut him doing him a favor. Maybe he decided to walk out of his contract and the Bucks were able to take it off their payroll this year. Maybe they didn't but the high salary which he is earning at this moment in Greece sets-off his $770,610 cap hold in Milwaukee?

FGump · Post #2 » by **FGump** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 3:55 pm

Macedonianbull wrote:He had one guaranteed year left worth $770,610.

"Guaranteed"?

Macedonianbull · Post #3 » by **Macedonianbull** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:01 pm

Yes, guaranteed.

He has signed a two-year, minimum contract with both years guaranteed. Played out the first one and before this season got an outstanding offer from Greece. He left to take it.

I am trying to figure it out if he's still on the Bucks' payroll and if so - for how much?

FGump · Post #4 » by **FGump** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:08 pm

While it's possible both years were guaranteed, I'm curious why you are so adamant. A more logical reading of the situation would be that the 2nd year was never guaranteed and the Bucks acted accordingly.

And in any event, your concept that one possibility is he could have simply walked away for a better offer ("Maybe he decided to walk out of his contract") is flat wrong. Once he had a contract, he couldn't walk away without the termination of that contract in some fashion.

Macedonianbull · Post #5 » by **Macedonianbull** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:24 pm

I am positive that I have read that both years were guaranteed at the minimum.

When he got that 2-yr, $7 million offer from Greece he and the Bucks worked out something and he left.

I wonder if it's posible that they let him go with his salary still on payroll?

Macedonianbull · Post #6 » by **Macedonianbull** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:31 pm

The question is .. the Bucks had the right to a set-off I guess.

They let him go, didn't do a buyout nor cut him. His salary stayed on payroll for that moment. However, when he signed that $3.5 million a year deal in Greece, the Bucks were eligible to set-off the amount that is equal to half of his new salary and the minimum salary for a player with his expirience. My math says, they were eligible to set off around $1.35 million. Since his salary was supposed to be $770,610 the Bucks managed to erase it from payroll.

Is it posible that this happened? With this logic, he received those $770,610 as well. The Bucks did him a favor I guess.

bgwizarfan · Post #7 » by **bgwizarfan** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:35 pm

^ he's not making a single cent via the bucks this year , so to answer your question, he's not on payroll

Post #8 » by **Three34** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 4:49 pm

It was in the Milwaukee press that both years were guaranteed, but that's no guarantee. (Ho ho ho, see what I did there.)

At any rate, as said, whether it was an agreed buyout for $0 or just a helluva lot of seet off, he's not getting anything from Milwaukee this year.

Greer came over to the NBA last year trying to re-ignite his NBA dream. He then didn't play a lick for half the season, then had his fiancee die, and then he got a few token minutes on a bad team (sorry Gad). It wasn't the dream he hoped for. So he asked out, got more money and more minutes in Europe, and with it the chance to rebuild his life. He did the right thing.

Dunkenstein · Post #9 » by **Dunkenstein** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 5:40 pm

The Bull is correct. The two years of Greer's contract were fully guaranteed, contrary to the skepticism of a previous poster.

I suspect what Sham says is correct. He wanted to return to Europe and the Bucks let him out of his contract, waiving him on September 24.

Contractually, because his salary was guaranteed for this season, he would have had to agree to a buyout amendment to his contract when he was waived. That could either be in the form of an agreement to forgo all salary owed him by the Bucks for this season or an agreement that moneys earned from any other profession basketball team in the world would be used to set off the moneys owed him under his Bucks contract.

He is getting no money from the Bucks this season.

FGump · Post #10 » by **FGump** » Sun Mar 2, 2008 6:11 pm

With a guaranteed contract, there didn't need to be any buyout to erase any obligation and cap charge for the Bucks. The standard right of set-off would have more than erased it all, using the reported amount he got in Europe.

Any applicable right of set-off applies even to non-NBA contracts. And if the set-off was big enough (and if the reported $7M is accurate, it was), then the Bucks would have paid $0 to waive him.

GrandAdmiralDan · Post #11 » by **GrandAdmiralDan** » Mon Mar 3, 2008 8:30 am

Macedonianbull wrote:The question is .. the Bucks had the right to a set-off I guess.

They let him go, didn't do a buyout nor cut him. His salary stayed on payroll for that moment. However, when he signed that $3.5 million a year deal in Greece, the Bucks were eligible to set-off the amount that is equal to half of his new salary and the minimum salary for a player with his expirience. My math says, they were eligible to set off around $1.35 million. Since his salary was supposed to be $770,610 the Bucks managed to erase it from payroll.

Is it posible that this happened? With this logic, he received those $770,610 as well. The Bucks did him a favor I guess.

He did NOT receive that $770,610 from the Bucks. He got his Olympiakos salary and nothing from us as a result of set-off.

The chronology here is tied directly into my Bucks comically absurd situation with Charlie Bell.

Bell was posturing about signing with Olympiakos in Greece to try and get a better deal from the Bucks (Bell was an RFA in case anyone was unaware). Despite having played overseas before (which is where he was when we signed him the 2005 offseason to come back to the NBA), this was almost a total bluff on his part because his wife really didn't want to move back overseas with their children and be away from the rest of her family who she was close to. That was a big reason why Bell took less money from the Bucks to return to the NBA than he could have got from an overseas team in the summer of 2005.

We had already signed Mo Williams and had Lynn Greer under contract still, but there was some slight concern that Bell might go overseas. So we signed Royal Ivey to be our 3rd PG in case Bell left. If Bell ended up back on the roster, we were going to go with Mo, Bell, and Ivey instead of Greer, since we preferred Ivey's defense and size to Greer's offensive ability. So we talked to Greer about that idea and if he'd be interested in playing elsewhere. He knew teams like Olympiakos were looking for a scoring guard (based on their interest in Bell) so he was totally on board with the idea.

Anyway, Bell finally found an NBA team, Miami, willing to write him an offer sheet, the Bucks matched it, and we waived Greer so that he could take the contract from Olympiakos that was previously offered to Charlie Bell. There was no buyout, and no buyout was even necessary, as FGump points out.

Being the resident Bucks fan here who is intimately familiar with everything they do (some people say I'm obsessed, heh) I figured I'd try and clarify a few things on this topic

Macedonianbull · Post #12 » by **Macedonianbull** » Mon Mar 3, 2008 11:14 am

Alright.

Thanks.

I am trying to figure it out which players still count on Bucks' cap this season that aren't with the Bucks anymore.

I took the total salaries from ESPN and when I got all the salaries of current players on the roster I was about $1 million short of that amount.

I know I have read somewhere on this boards that Markota was bought out and he received $385,000. I am another $600,000 short.

I know that ESPN number could be wrong ... however, I thought Greer could be still on the payroll for some reason.

GAD?

Dunkenstein · Post #13 » by **Dunkenstein** » Mon Mar 3, 2008 6:27 pm

Markota is the only waived player on the Bucks payroll.

Go to Shamsports.com. His numbers for the Bucks are accurate.

GrandAdmiralDan · Post #14 » by **GrandAdmiralDan** » Tue Mar 4, 2008 12:59 pm

Dunkenstein wrote:Markota is the only waived player on the Bucks payroll.

Go to Shamsports.com. His numbers for the Bucks are accurate.

I lost track of him a bit, but Markota's overseas salaries may have resulted in a complete set-off for the Bucks as well.
He is currently signed with Zalgiris Kaunas. I'd have to double check to see what he has earned this season overseas.