Worth noting, the C's have the ability to give Jaylen a 2/142M extension to go along with his remaining 3 years currently. I think what they do there will tell us a lot obviously. If they give it to him, he and Tatum are together next year. Now if they don't give it, he still could be, but then there could be some more drama or behind-the-scenes about Jaylen feeling disrespected, the C's front office not trusting him, etc.
I personally would prefer to keep Jaylen + Tatum and trade White, Hauser + picks in 1-2 different transactions to try and fill out the roster with another center at least and another backup guard/wing. And then Baylor + Hugo get more playing time and experience next year as well.
And yeah, 71M AAV is insane. But most NBA contracts nowadays are bonkers. Hell, guys like Duren and Reaves are about to sign 5/250M deals probably this summer. And the 71M doesn't kick in for 4 years from now. Tatum and Jaylen are still getting 60M+ AAV in their current deals.
Honestly, I think a lot of this is just maneuvering for that extension. The way I look at things, the AAV always increases with new contracts signed because the salary cap always increases. The supermax (Designated Veteran Player Extension) allows a player to get up to 35% of the cap:
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Here is the salary cap for the past 15 seasons and what 35% of that is each season:
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For ordinary human beings like us, making a five or six-figure annual salary, these numbers are incomprehensible, which is why when someone says a guy you think is trash is going to make $70m a season our brains can't process it.
So rather than looking at the annual number, how I've ended up looking at this is by percentages of a whole, and based on supply and demand, because ultimately supply and demand is what is driving these numbers. So when someone is up for the supermax, the questions I ask are:
- does his market value put him in the 35% of the salary cap category? How would he and his representatives take it if a lower offer (standard max of 30%) was given? Would it damage the relationship? Would he take the lower offer or walk away and sign that 30% standard max elsewhere?
- What will be the impact to our cap if we do not give him the supermax and he ends up entering free agency? E.g. if we are already over the salary cap by $50m, and we decline giving someone a supermax for $60m and they walk away at the end of their current contract, we can only use $10m to sign someone else to replace him because that's all the cap space his departure gives us. Is this a good deal for us?
- If we do decide to give him the contract, is it fungible (tradeable) if we decide to part ways with him? E.g. the Paul George contract is a good example of one that was signed where there were question marks over it to begin with due to his age, and then his form in the 2 years since it was signed made it even less fungible).
Rather than "zomg we're giving this clown $70m when he's failed every single time and I personally hate him because of his stupid podcast and his passive agressive attitude and I don't like his stupid face either" I think those are the questions that Brad and his team will be asking. These all came up when Jaylen first signed his supermax, and the disapproval around the forum was the same - too expensive, no way he was worth $50m, let him walk to hell with him, etc...but a lot of those folks, speaking from emotion, might not have been fully aware of salary cap implications.
Topic: Jaylen refutes reports he is unhappy, wants to play 10 more years in Boston (Read 25500 times)