Best News Ever - Wizards sign Dray to extension

[nate33]

If there is a lockout, Dray would also lo(o)se half or so of his 2012 salary. He'd ideally want that to be a smaller figure.

The salary difference isn't huge. My "maximize cap space in 2012" pay scale results in Blatche being paid an extra $460K in 2011/12 relative to a standard incrasing-salary contract. If we assume that half the season is missed, Blatche is only out $230K.

I wonder if that issue can be address with some sort of clause. If there's a lockout, the Wizards would agree to increase Blatche's pay over the final 3 years to make up for the money he lost by frontloading his salary during the lockout year. We're talking an pay increase of roughly $80K in each of the last 3 seasons. It's peanuts, really.

[verbal8]

A few other notes by Michael Lee, who has done a great job:

-Blatche fired his agent and hired a lawyer to review the contract.

-He will earn $5.9 million in 2010-2011.

iirc that's what gilbert did. he didn't like the idea of losing out 10% while still having to get a lawyer to proof the contract anyway so he just cut out the middle-man (starting with our 65 mil deal with him?). i'm guessing the current injury, past bullet wounds, and seeing how close gil game to nullifying his 9 figure paycheck, all cumulated in a fear of god into AB and he decided to play it SUPER SAFE and take what he can get right now. OR he just owes the mob a gob of cash and needed a guap in the worst way possible.

either way, steal for us, not too "unfair" for blatche.

In general I think it is a good sign that Blatche did the deal without an agent. I imagine it would help the Wizards with retaining "home-grown" talent if other players follow suit. However if it becomes too popular with the Wizard's players it may create an issue between the team and agents, if the agents feel they will get fired before the player signs a big deal.

[dobrojim]

just back last night from the boonies (incomunicado) of WV.

great news for the Wiz and for AB (and JM, who has been left out to the
discussion for the most part so far)

as AB doing the negotiation - I need look no further than Grant Hill
who did either his first or second deal that way. Very savvy. Grant
assuredly got some very good advice that this was a good strategy
from his former professional athlete AND sports exec father Calvin.

[sfam]

Signing Dray to a contract like this is a risk assessment - one that pays off grandly if Dray continues to play like he did last year. Bottom line, in the age of insane overspending, its really hard to find fault with this deal.

[Hoopalotta]

Nate,

It's true that the alteration wouldn't be that heavy off your 2012 maximization "valley" contract arrangement, but if you compare alternate extreme models of maximum front loading versus maximum back loading you get a fair variance on a lockout.

You've got 10.5% up or down in either case and it looks to me that you could alter the 2012 salary by a bit over $1.4 million in these extreme scenarios. The 2013 valley contract would have been a middle ground with less of a swing.

My spreadhseet is in decided offseason form and needs to take a few laps around the gym, so what did you have as the absolute maximum we could have offered him by way of 2011 salary? I have it as not much more than we did end up giving him, but I need to update my numbers.

[nate33]

My spreadhseet is in decided offseason form and needs to take a few laps around the gym, so what did you have as the absolute maximum we could have offered him by way of 2011 salary? I have it as not much more than we did end up giving him, but I need to update my numbers.

Here are three different iterations of his contract that will result in him getting paid roughly $35.5M over 5 years with the assumption that we can't spend more than $7.8M in Year 1.

Minimum initial salary:
$5,900,000 $6,519,500 $7,139,000 $7,758,500 $8,378,000

"Valley" in 2012
$7,800,000 $6,981,000 $6,162,000 $6,981,000 $7,800,000

Lowest possible salary over last 3 seasons:
$7,800,000 $8,200,000 $7,381,000 $6,562,000 $5,743,000

So $1.7M is the difference in salary between his maximum possible 2011 salary and his minimum possible 2011 salary. Assume that half the year is lost due to lockout and Blatche could be out 850K.

[montestewart]

^
How about $7,800,000 $6,981,000 $7,800,000 $6,981,000 $6,162,000 to get the reduced salary next year (minimizing Blatche's potential loss) while still getting somewhat lower salaries at the end. I realize Blatche's interests and the Wizards aren't identical in structuring this.

[Hoopalotta]

Well, it seems i screwed the math-eo-matics up on that one.....

[hands11]

So two things.

Did I see that correctly in those first practice videos ? Dray isn't practicing yet ?

Two - did he has his teeth braces removed ?

[GhostsOfGil]

bump... lol title of this thread is hilarious now

[closg00]

Andray will get back in our good graces after the rotation gels and his minutes go down (hopefully)

[hands11]

bump... lol title of this thread is hilarious now

Why is that ?

[TGW]

bump... lol title of this thread is hilarious now

Why is that ?

Because he sucks lol.

I never imagined that he would have fell off this quickly.

[MJG]

bump... lol title of this thread is hilarious now

Why is that ?

Wow, hands, it's been awhile, hasn't it? How are you doing? I could have sworn I've seen you posting recently, but judging by your confusion here, you clearly haven't visited the boards in the past couple of months. Good to have you back!

[dobrojim]

nice to finally see the dray that made this thread topic happen

stat stuffer game, dub-dub with 4 blocks and 3 steals

[Illuminaire]

And *excellent* defense paired with decent shot selection.

[nate33]

And *excellent* defense paired with decent shot selection.

His D was excellent last game against Toronto too. He jammed up Calderon on the pick-and-roll just about every time they ran it at him.