Smith Contract Extension Stalled Until Next Year

[Buzzard]

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Somebody tell me when the market sets the price LOWER?

What happens when a team like LA says to Kobe, "Hey we are going to trade some stiff in exchange for expiring contracts and then we will offer Josh Smith 60 million to be your Scottie Pippen.

Lakers....Hawks......I wonder who he'd pick?

Only loser teams play games with their marquee players. A winning organization would not only pay Josh, but they'd convince other players like Childress and Marvin to take less in order to stay on the team.

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As long as the market price is below a max offer, I think we will match. So unless the Lakers do offer Smoove a max to be Kobe's "Pippen" (I have another word in mind but Josh would not appreciate it) we do not have anything to worry about.

As far as getting Chilz and Marvin to take less, you must have Smoove confused with Duncan; and our Hawks confused with the four time champs, San Antonio Spurs...

[Peoriabird]

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then we will offer Josh Smith 60 million to be your Scottie Pippen.

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The hawks would then have to pay him 60 million dollar! What is so complicated about this?

[Buzzard]

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The hawks would then have to pay him 60 million dollar! What is so complicated about this?

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Its not. But patience is not a virtue of the we wanted yesterday crowd...

[Johnnybravo4]

why do that when u could pay him 55 million today

[Buzzard]

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why do that when u could pay him 55 million today

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Well, I do not know Smith would sign for 55; maybe he wants 60. We do not know that any team, including the Lakers, is ready to offer Smith 60. We think we know the Hawks initial offer was 45; but no one has mentioned what Smith's team countered with.

In a perfect world, we offer 45, Smith counters with 60, and then our management team offers 50 to 55; which Smith accepts. Other than the original offer that was supposedly for 45; I have not heard what Smith's team countered with. Have you? And if so, I would really like to see the link.

[MemphisX]

Oh happy day!

[Diesel]

I think what happened is that the agents brought up a high number. Hawks owners gave a lower number... and negotiations ended there. That suggests that Smith's agents are looking for high dollar and are willing to put Smith on the open market. For Smith's sake, I hope he doesn't suck this year. I'm pretty sure that the deal was probably somewhere around 5 year 50 from the owners.

It just makes no sense to not try to sign Smoove to a reasonable contract.

Some may be looking for 5 year 60.

If he has a good season and goes to RFA, he will get 5 year 60. The real question is will it be from the Hawks.

Forget the talk of who can pay... teams generally can make space to get a player they want. It really comes down to how hard will the owners fight to keep Smoove. Therefore, the question must be asked, how needed is Smoove really. I think he's the most essential player on the court.. however, it may turn out that Marvin steps his game up and Horford is a beast. IF that's the case, Smoove may be SNT'd for a good Center.... or PG....

[Peoriabird]

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however, it may turn out that Marvin steps his game up

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Preparing for the worst case scenario huh? If this happens, what would you do with all of that sudden increase in free time?

[AHF]

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Deferring payment on contracts has nothing to do with the Cap. For example, if player X signs a $21 mil contract for 3 years but only receives payment in the following terms yera by year: $5 mil, $5 mil, $5 mil, $2 mil, $2 mil, $2 mil (i.e. defered payment of $6 mil paid over 3 years after the contract). The salary cap hits would still be $7 mil each year. Hopefully that is a simple enough example to explain and hopefully that answered some questions about contracts.

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Was this directed to me? I was talking about either internal or extenal constraints preventing the Hawks from exceeding the salary cap in 2007-08 - not anything dealing with deferred payments.

My point was that if: (a) the Court restricted the Hawks to spending up to and not over the cap or (b) the ASG refused to spend more than the cap, that use of the MLE to exceed the cap would not be available (either legally or in practice) to the team and that the cap holds on the Joshes might be enough to prevent us from making an offer equivalent to the MLE value to Diop.

[Traceman]

All of this speculation is pointless until someone can CONFIRM what Smoove's agents countered the Hawks initial offer with.

Deng, Jefferson and Iguodala all had better seasons than Smoove did last year and none of them have been extended yet either. BK has always been rather cautious in negotiations and I don't blame him a bit for letting the market be set by one of those 3 guys getting paid first.

[WraithSentinel]

Deng,Iggy,Smoove, and whole list of soon to be FAs of players who could opt. Everyone is going to want their piece of the cake. There just might not be the money out there they expect. This is one of the reasons I am not too worried about Smoove testing the market. It is going to be tough for him to find that big deal. What if he gets the max? That is what 5 years and $70 Millions? That is easily matched.

[AHF]

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Sorry if I confused you, I read this part of your post:

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Perhaps he will tune in and share some thoughts on the nuts and bolts of this and whether deferring new contracts for the Joshes could free up enough cap room to sign someone like Diop.

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I read that as you asking about deferring payment on new contracts and how that would affect the cap. I guess that isn't what you were asking, so just a misread on my part.

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Gotcha! Yeah, I was talking about putting off the execution of a new contract until next year rather than deferring payment under that theoretical contract.

[prolific25]

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You typically don't worry about pissing off a player when you hold most of the cards.

Josh's agent sounds just like every other agent in the universe. So what? Piss off Josh? Josh better play ball and not piss off the money.

You clearly have zero grasp of the current climate in the league. Josh will be a Hawk for a long time at a price likely less than he wants.

bump for when Josh signs a max offersheet with a huge signing bonus on top of it.