bigfoot wrote:lilfishi22 wrote:bigfoot wrote:
Redick's top salary was $7M and he was a role player at best. Certainly under the radar last year as a free agent. No one expected him to get $23M. Why would the sixers waste money doing this?? What is their logic? Throwing away money?
KCP's top salary was $3.6M and starter averaging 13pts on a losing team. Another under the radar free agent last year. Instead he got $18M from the Lakers. Why??
Two teams with young, promising players (Lakes and Sixers) needed a few things.
1) Short term contracts to preserve cap space for the following season. - fair enough but why $22m to one player?
2) A veteran presence to help the young guys win - I'm sure you can get that for less than $22m
3) Big contracts to move in a trade for a legit star. Otherwise they would have to include too many of their young players to get salaries to match. - Sounds reasonable but I haven't seen much evidence of this. If a star is traded, very rarely is a $20m expiring contract moved. Also spending $22m on the off chance a legit star becomes available isn't really a good reason to spend $22m
4) No body has a lot of dead space anymore. The cap floor is about $90M and the cap is $99M so about $9M million max of dead space. Suns don't have that much ... only $6M this year. No team would ever have enough dead space to absorb a max contract of a superstar. You have to have big contracts to keep from moving too many players. - This doesn't make sense. If we're going to spend $22m of our cap space (I don't even know if we have that) on player, why wouldn't we just use that cap space to absorb players? Spending $22m on one player means you HAVE to move at least $22m in a trade. What if the team doesn't want to move $22m+ because it means they need to throw in players they still need? I think they'd rather have cap space than a $22m expiring.
I doubt anyone thinks that Redick or KCP are super elite players and deserving of max or near max money. Those two were being knowingly used by GMs to make possible deals in return for big paydays.
I never said Dedmon is an elite player just that he has some skills at the position that might fit in our team and actually could help us next year. Certainly better than stone-hand Len and old-man Chandler and probably better than a rookie prospect big man that takes a year or two to develop.
Those are two extreme examples, neither of which gives a good or logical reason to give Dedmon, of all players $22 million dollars. LA did it to gain favor with Rich Paul/Lebron while Philly did it to reach the salary cap floor.
This isn't about whether Dedmon is elite or not, it's the merit and sense in spending $22m on one guy.
Dedmon is stretch 5. Contrary to what other people think they are not a dime a dozen in the NBA. In fact there are probably less than 10 centers who take a decent number of three pointers and hit better than a third of them (.333). Dedmon hits .380 this year which is number three in the league behind Horford and KAT. Look if the Suns can get him for $15M on a one year contract sure. But we have to replace Bledsoe's(Monroe's) and Len's salary with someone this summer to meet the cap floor and do it within the constraints of our roster size which is at 15 already this summer including the 2 rookie contracts being added. And then we have to be realistic that Gordon and Capela are gonna be matched and that Lebron/George/Cousins are staying put or going to the Lakers/Sixers.
If your building a big board for free agents it shouldn't include any of the legit stars or the two RFAs.
I get the appeal of Dedmon, I really do. But spending $22m on the off chance a superstar becomes available and said team actually wants to move $22m or more worth of assets is not a good way to spend money.
The cap floor for 2019 should be around $97m (based on $108m salary cap), with Len renounced, our 1st round picks (around $8m combined) and Payton resigned for $8m, that leaves us with less than $5m to hit the cap floor. Certainly don't need a $15-22m player to reach it.
Guys on contract next season:
Knight, Chandler, TJ, Dudley, Jackson, Williams (non-guaranteed), Bender, Booker, Daniels, Chriss, Ulis (non-guaranteed), Reed (non-guaranteed) and 2 first rounders. That's 14, leaving us with one spot. Ulis, Reed and Williams are all non-guaranteed roster spots which can be cut fairly easily to create space should we want to sign players in FA.
In my view, If you must have Dedmon, I'd go $10m for Dedmon for 2 years giving us his Early Bird Rights and his services for two years so we have some continuity and a $10m expiring the season after. If it doesn't get it done, then whatever. Onto the next.
