Could Horford end up being the worst contract of offseason?

[celticsclay]

Why would Horford get bought out before the last year of his deal. This isn't a toxic player like Waiters, no one wants dead money like that on their cap even if he's out of the rotation.

Stretched? Something like this some time next year if it isn't working?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2800102-knicks-cut-joakim-noah-after-reportedly-failing-to-agree-to-buyout

It does save them money if he accepts a buyout cause he is really miserable right?

[Monkhouse]

Miserable or not, I cannot imagine the up roar if they bought him out... Just don't see it happening, even Parsons got bought out on his last year. Brand is certainly on the hot seat.

[Fafnir]

Why would Horford get bought out before the last year of his deal. This isn't a toxic player like Waiters, no one wants dead money like that on their cap even if he's out of the rotation.

Stretched? Something like this some time next year if it isn't working?

https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2800102-knicks-cut-joakim-noah-after-reportedly-failing-to-agree-to-buyout

It does save them money if he accepts a buyout cause he is really miserable right?

Joakim Noah is dead money on the Knicks cap that they didn't even need to stretch in the end. The premature waive/buyout was a massive mistake by the front office.

Why would the 76ers repeat it?

If they stretched Horford, whatever the total amount paid to him in the end would be stretched over 2X + 1 where x is the number of years remaining. That's money they cannot move/trade/use, just have less salary cap/luxury room to work with than the rest of the league.

After this year: 9.85 over 7 years
After next year: 8.3 over 5 years
Last year: 4.83 over 3 years

Losing 8% of the cap for the rest of your star centers prime isn't viable unless he's Dennis Rodman level disruptive in media and behind the scenes. Not unless they do it to facilitate some other big move involving a lot of other pieces.

He's not getting waived until the last year of his deal. Especially since waiving him does NOT give the 76ers meaningful flexbility going forward. Tobias Harris/Embiid/Simmons contracts alone put them out of salary cap space.

[nickagneta]

Why would Horford accept a buyout so long as his bonus option of being on the roster of an NBA champion guarantees him $15 million extra his last year? Makes zero business sense.

[fairweatherfan]

Lol it rules so hard that the end result of The Process is being stuck in cap hell short of true contention. They wanted to avoid getting stuck on a treadmill so they spent 5 years of misery to accidentally build a nicer, much more expensive one. It's like a Twilight Zone plot.

[Monkhouse]

Instead of giving Covington and Saric around 46 to 69 million, (their original contracts, they might've been paid more,) they turned that into $287 paying Horford and Harris.

Yikes.

[celticsclay]

Why would Horford accept a buyout so long as his bonus option of being on the roster of an NBA champion guarantees him $15 million extra his last year? Makes zero business sense.

Are you saying it makes zero business sense for both Horford and the 76ers? If a player is just miserable somewhere I could see him giving up a lot of money to get out of the situation. Wade actually gave up 8 million of salary in one year to Chicago just a few years back. If this is an absolute disaster again halfway through next season is there a max that Horford can give back just to get out of there? Can he get some of the money back by signing on with a new team? What is the most an NBA player has given up by retiring early? 

[DefenseWinsChamps]

Why would Horford accept a buyout so long as his bonus option of being on the roster of an NBA champion guarantees him $15 million extra his last year? Makes zero business sense.

Are you saying it makes zero business sense for both Horford and the 76ers? If a player is just miserable somewhere I could see him giving up a lot of money to get out of the situation. Wade actually gave up 8 million of salary in one year to Chicago just a few years back. If this is an absolute disaster again halfway through next season is there a max that Horford can give back just to get out of there? Can he get some of the money back by signing on with a new team? What is the most an NBA player has given up by retiring early?

Al Horford is tradeable. At the very least, the Barnes for Horford deal is sitting there.

[celticsclay]

Why would Horford accept a buyout so long as his bonus option of being on the roster of an NBA champion guarantees him $15 million extra his last year? Makes zero business sense.

Are you saying it makes zero business sense for both Horford and the 76ers? If a player is just miserable somewhere I could see him giving up a lot of money to get out of the situation. Wade actually gave up 8 million of salary in one year to Chicago just a few years back. If this is an absolute disaster again halfway through next season is there a max that Horford can give back just to get out of there? Can he get some of the money back by signing on with a new team? What is the most an NBA player has given up by retiring early?

Al Horford is tradeable. At the very least, the Barnes for Horford deal is sitting there.

It is unclear to me why Sacramento would do that. Barnes is 6 years younger than Horford. Obviously the trade deadline has passed so they are getting Horford next year and the year after when he is in steep decline for his age 34 and age 35 seasons (than partial guarantee when he is 36). Horford is shooting 43% from the field and 32-33% from 3. His defense has looked awful. Barnes is also making 12 million less over the next two years than him.

[Surferdad]

If PHI is merciful they'll offload Al once their season comes to an end in late April and let him go to a better team

Which team would want his contract?

No one.

This is likely his best year physically, and its not looking great. Plus the 76ers do not have great assets to sweeten the deal. Their future picks and young player pool has been mostly spent.

I agree. I think its going to be real tough to move him given age, contract, & what it would take from an asset standpoint to attach to a deal that someone would actually take.

Not impossible but not easy.

I honestly think he could be bought out/waived before the end of that deal. He also strikes me as someone with a decent amount of pride. Could very well retire before the end of that deal.

That doesn't square with him leaving Boston to chase the money.

Yeah I don't see him giving up that much money.

I don't think he thought it would go down hill this quickly for himself. He does not look like he is having fun out there. I also don't think it is just an Embid/Simmons think cause he looks really miserable and listless even when those two are both out. Maybe he didn't realize how bad a coach Brett Brown was? People's thinking and motivations change over time and we can all agree that the situation there has not worked out even close to how he would have hoped. At least half the reason he went there (the other half being money) is I think he wanted to play power forward full time and didn't think that would happen in Boston ever with Baynes going out the door. He now realizes he can't really play Power Forward.

Perhaps. 

Look, I like my job in general, but there are many days that I'm not having fun, downright miserable, and I think to myself: What do I need this for?  The answer comes back: It's the money, stupid.  Hang in there and your stock options may actually be worth something.  Leave and you have to start over again on the options vesting.

The difference is though, Horford has made a few hundred million dollars and could live very comfortably without another day of work. I am assuming you don't have hundreds of millions in the bank and that has an impact on whether you would quit on a really bad day/stretch right?

I was only making the point that if you are not sure (which likely is the case for what an average fan knows about Horford), then "follow the money".  By that logic, I can't see Horford outright retiring and leave cash on the table just because he is "unhappy".

Besides that, I have heard that players don't think about hundreds of millions of dollars the same way most of us do. Their careers are relatively short and many of them want to make as much as possible while they can.

[Fafnir]

Lol it rules so hard that the end result of The Process is being stuck in cap hell short of true contention. They wanted to avoid getting stuck on a treadmill so they spent 5 years of misery to accidentally build a nicer, much more expensive one. It's like a Twilight Zone plot.

Not to mention their martyred saint, private equity owner, GM burner scandal, and now they're praying that Josh Harris sells like they are Knicks fans.

 

[Fafnir]

Why would Horford accept a buyout so long as his bonus option of being on the roster of an NBA champion guarantees him $15 million extra his last year? Makes zero business sense.

Are you saying it makes zero business sense for both Horford and the 76ers? If a player is just miserable somewhere I could see him giving up a lot of money to get out of the situation. Wade actually gave up 8 million of salary in one year to Chicago just a few years back. If this is an absolute disaster again halfway through next season is there a max that Horford can give back just to get out of there? Can he get some of the money back by signing on with a new team? What is the most an NBA player has given up by retiring early?

Al Horford is tradeable. At the very least, the Barnes for Horford deal is sitting there.

Because what the Kings really want to do is block Bagley even more?

[Phantom255x]

Tobias Harris even at his best AND with Embiid + Simmons out is like a #2 option. He's getting 180M. I actually think Harris and his contract will hurt PHI more in the long run. If he hits shots, great! Otherwise, he's a complete liability out there.

At least Middleton (5/178M) actually guides his team to wins even when Giannis is out. Harris can't do that.

[Monkhouse]

Tobias Harris even at his best AND with Embiid + Simmons out is like a #2 option. He's getting 180M. I actually think Harris and his contract will hurt PHI more in the long run. If he hits shots, great! Otherwise, he's a complete liability out there.

At least Middleton (5/178M) actually guides his team to wins even when Giannis is out. Harris can't do that.

$287 for Horford and Harris for the next 5 years.

Lol, I have no idea how Brand was allowed to make that decision.

[BMark]

Lol it rules so hard that the end result of The Process is being stuck in cap hell short of true contention. They wanted to avoid getting stuck on a treadmill so they spent 5 years of misery to accidentally build a nicer, much more expensive one. It's like a Twilight Zone plot.

Embiid won't put up with this. He'll force his way to Miami in the offseason