I think the Marvin Williams comparison is pretty accurate, and that's the problem:
Marvin: CBA favored Players
Green: CBA adjusted in favor of owners
Marvin: 37 million for FIVE years
Green: 36 million for FOUR years
Marvin: Just over the full MLE at the time.
Green: Almost double (about 175%) of the full MLE at the time
Marvin: No missed seasons
Green: Missed season due to heart surgery.
I agree with your point. I think Green should have been paid 7 mil per year. Not 8.5 or 9. The Celtics are taking a risk here in over paying Green.
Falk kinda had them by the balls. If the Celtics are to beat Miami, they need more than what they had before signing Green. With Green in the fold, the Celtics top 8 is better than their top 8 that played in game 7 last spring. If the C's needed to spend an extra 1.5 million per year to get that much closer to a title, I'm OK with that.
I just don't really see Falk's leverage that ya'll are talking about.
"Hey, you guys really need an SF...for the bench...who didn't play all last year for medical reasons...so 9 million a year for 4 years or...um...Jeff will...um...take the MLE and sign for 5 million a year for...odds are, a worse team..."
Yeah, I call that bluff.
Besides, the dangers to overpaying are definitely real. Yes, we won't have capspace, but:
-You can take back much more in a trade now, but we couldn't if it put us over the tax. What if we had the chance to add a better player, but we were too close to the tax to do so?
-You get only the mini MLE if over the tax. What if we add a couple vet mins that want to play for us, and we end up 1-2 million over the tax and miss out on a full MLE guy next year because Green signed for 9 instead of 7?
-Tax is progressively worse. So what if we do go over the tax, and Jeff's 2-4 extra million per year bumps us from instead of payin a 1 for 1 tax the C's have to pay a 2-3 for 1 tax? That's enough that owners may defer using the MiniMLE or somehing. It always matters, and it's never good to overpay.