Question about his contract and the Early Bird Rights. (I may be way off, this is based on something I saw on Reddit)
I've heard that at the end of next season Parker will qualify for an extension under Early Bird Rights. This will allow the Celtics to offer him about $8-10 Million maximum per year and that other teams would not be working under this restriction and could pay him more.
Is this true?
Lets say Jabari Parker is actually a starter level player by the end of next year and is due for a $15-20 Million contract. Are we restricted from giving him a contract like that and are other teams free to offer him more?
That's largely true. It's more likely that for his first year, the Celtics could offer at most in the 10.5-11 Million range, which works out to $45-48 million over four years with raises. If Parker plays so well next year that he earns more than that contract, then the C's will have had a huge bargain.
Yes, kind of a good news, bad news thing. We have him next season at $2.6M I think. So if for the rest of this season and all of next, he plays so well that we can't afford him in 2022-23, well, so be it.
I seem to be more optimistic about him than many here and even I don't see him playing that well. I am hoping for pretty much what he was in ATL last season for 32 games, a fringe starter (he started 23 games on a team with injuries) putting up 15 pts/ 6 Rebs in about 25 min. If we can get that out of him over the next 1.3 seasons off our bench with minutes managed to preserve him, great. And if based on that, someone wants to overpay him in 2022-23, have at it.