Seriously, thank you.
You signed Rashard Lewis to an insane contract ($127 million!). It's a terrible deal. The Sports Guy is calling him the worst max player in NBA history. And because you signed Lewis (to a terrible deal), you had to let Darko Milicic walk away.
Thank you. You not only tied up your cap space for years to come, but you let a promising big man walk away in the process.
Now, to Darko. He just signed with the Memphis Grizzlies. There was talk of Milicic getting a $10 million deal. But alas, he signed a very reasonable 3-year, $21 million deal with the Grizzlies. This means that Memphis is no longer looking at Anderson Varejao.
The Grizzlies, the Bobcats and the Bucks were the only teams with the cap space available to make Varejao a big offer. But now Memphis is out due to Darko, Charlotte spent their cash keeping Matt Carroll and Gerald Wallace and Milwaukee isn't interested (plus, they have more pressing issues to deal with).
With Memphis out of the running, Danny Ferry can pull a Drew Gooden and simply wait Varejao and his agent out. There's no need to rush things now, there is no market for Andy any more. Plus, because Orlando signed Lewis to a crazy deal and Memphis signed Darko to a reasonable one, the Cavs will save a few million bucks a season on Varejao.
If Darko is getting $7 million per and Gooden is getting between $6-7 million per, there is no way Andy is going to convince the Cavs to give him $8 million plus. This works for everybody.
So thank you, Orlando. Thanks for signing Rashard Lewis. Thanks for letting Darko go. Because of this, you saved the Danny Ferry a lot of trouble and the Cavs a lot of money.
4 comments:
I want to thank Darko. He's the gift that keeps on giving to the Cavs.
First, Detroit passed up Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade -- two players that might have cemented the Pistons as a mid-2000s dynasty -- to take Darko.
Now Darko cuts in while Andy and the Grizzlies were dancing, signs a three-year deal for the type of money Andy was looking at, and essentially snuffs out any major interest Memphis had in Andy.
Of course, as you said, major props to Orlando for being greedy enough to treat Rashard Lewis like a perennial all-star and cutting bait with Darko in the process.
If the Cavs can be patient, I now think they can do what they did with Gooden last year and get Andy signed to a reasonable contract.
having Drew and Andy locked up with team friendly deals really helps the team out, especially considering the Hughes/Marshall/Jones debacles.
Darko is the gift that keeps on giving
I have this weird feeling AV is really pissed off (I guess that might not be a weird notion) and if he doesn't get a pretty fair deal from the Cavs, he will seriously consider taking the qualifying offer and become an unrestricted FA next year.
Maybe he'll end up signing but I wouldn't be that surprised if take the QO. I guess it depends on what the Cavs offer, and they could conceivably offer the MLE, at about 5.3 mil. Honestly, If I were Ferry I wouldn't offer more than 6.
Graham:
That's why Ferry needs to be patient. Andy probably is frustrated right now, so talking to him right now probably isn't going to lead anywhere.
Ferry needs to bide his time until Andy's frustration turns to acceptance of his situation, until his desire to cash in turns into a realization that the situation he has in Cleveland is pretty good, even if it isn't worth $8 million a year.
Basically, Ferry has to let Andy discover all the dead ends on his own, then come back to Cleveland, just like Drew Gooden did last year. I think it will happen, but it's going to take time.
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