Matthews signs a 5 year $34 million offer sheet (Portland)

[DWill#8]

Wesley Matthews has signed a 5-year, $34 million offer sheet with Portland, his agent, Lance Young, tells Y!

http://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/18227897271

[The59Sound]

Good lord. Is it true that we can still just match with our full MLE?

[stevebozell]

See ya Wes!!

[DWill#8]

I would personally prefer to have Brewer back for less than half that price, that is if he is willing to return.

[Manuel Calavera]

Good lord. Is it true that we can still just match with our full MLE?

Since he's an RFA (I believe?) you don't need to use your MLE, you can just match the contract.

[seejaydeja]

Siler says contract is front loaded. 9 mil first year. **** the blazers. That's too much

[The59Sound]

Good lord. Is it true that we can still just match with our full MLE?

Since he's an RFA (I believe?) you don't need to use your MLE, you can just match the contract.

Ordinarily, that would be true, but Matthews is a special case, I think because he was undrafted.

[Charlie_S]

Good lord. Is it true that we can still just match with our full MLE?

Since he's an RFA (I believe?) you don't need to use your MLE, you can just match the contract.

He's a RFA so the Jazz can match the contract, but they have no Bird rights on him so they need to use the MLE to do so.

[Manuel Calavera]

Ah okay, has this ever even happened with an undrafted 1 year player?

[edfmx86]

gotta say congrats to Wesley, dude worked his ass off and it paid off big time. Not sure if it was enough to earn him this kind of a contract but the guy was in the right place at the right time. **** Portland.

[hoops4life]

That is an odd move by Portland.

I thought that the Arenas rule was applicable here. I thought he couldn't be offered more than the MLE the first year of the contract.

[dosborn_11]

This offseason just keeps getting better.

[Bradford]

It sucks for him to go, but they better not match that...They just need to clear out that cap space and make some moves in the next couple years to get back to contenders.

[babyjax13]

I hate Portland. Here is what the contract would look like if reports are true:

1 $8,095,238 $8,095,238
2 $7,447,619 $15,542,857
3 $6,800,000 $22,342,857
4 $6,152,381 $28,495,238
5 $5,504,762 $34,000,000


From DraftExpress.com http://www.draftexpress.com/nba-contrac ... z0tKGXeSn9
http://www.draftexpress.com

[farzi]

Someone cap savy know how we're able to offer that much with only the MLE?

[outerspacefella]

It's a full MLE contract (the max Matthews could have been offered); starts at the MLE number and have 10% raises. Jazz has the right to match using their own MLE, which I think they will do.

[farzi]

Right, but how are we offering 8-9 mil the first year then?

[Krapinsky]

Right, but how are we offering 8-9 mil the first year then?

The effect on the cap will be just about the same. A team can offer a signing bonus of 20% of the total contract. However, that signing bonus is spread out during the life of the contract.

So, if you have a 5 year deal at $25M, you could structure it like this.

$4M + $5M bonus up front (9M paid, but $5M cap hit)
$4M ($4M paid, but $5M cap hit)
$4M (etc.)
$4M (etc.)
$4M (etcc.)

[dr0welf]

This has to be wrong. The first year max can only be the average salary with is the MLE. Second year can only be an 8% increase not 10%. The third year can be a jump according to how far Portland is below the cap, which I haven't looked up.

http://members.cox.net/lmcoon/salarycap.htm#Q38

Question #38 explains the "Gilbert Arenas" provision pretty well.

[CAE15]

if its still only a 5 million cap hit I say do it. We swallowed the pill with Paul now he has one of the most attractive contracts in the league. I expected about 5 million for wesley.