Post#1054 » by HornetJail » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:55 am
Us, Atlanta, and Phoenix are the only teams worth a crap, with $11M or more that can be used on Lance. Houston is close, but they spent a ton on Ariza and still have several holes in their roster. As it stands right now, the only destinations are Indiana, Charlotte, Atlanta, Phoenix, potentially Houston, and Philadelphia. Utah has enough if they deplete their UNG contract-laden bench. Miami is only in the running if Wade leaves or takes a ridiculous pay cut. Haven't heard a word about Atlanta all summer other than the fact they were kinda interested in Deng. Indiana would have to deplete their bench to keep him and they'd still be riding the luxury tax line with a roster of 11 or 12. Phoenix may not have enough if they match a max contract on Bledsoe (and in that scenario, their backcourt is crowded enough with Dragic, Thomas, and Bledsoe). Philly is roster-tanking like I've never seen before, and I don't know if Stephenson and Utah are a match. Houston kind of scares me a bit. I feel like Morey's going to pull something off to replace Parsons with another young stud, but if they decide they'd rather have depth, it's likely a two-horse race with us and the Pacers as front-runners. ATL probably jumps in, but the way things are going, I think we'll get Lance for under $13M.
What I would do to dissuade the Pacers from out-bidding us is to front-load the contract as much as we're allowed (4.5% per year). Lance LOL'ed at their offer because it paid like 7.5M in the first year or something. Lance has been getting paid less than a million a year for the last four, he's probably looking for an immediate payday. Offer him 4/45 and make it break down like this: 12 / 11.5 / 11 / 10.5. The Pacers would have to clear way too much salary to avoid the tax and we get a bargain contract for the future while still paying Lance an average of over $11M per year.
investigate Adam Silver