The Bobcats might be better off withdrawing Raymond Felton’s qualifying offer and instead signing Andre Miller to a 2-3 year deal.
Raymond Felton and the Bobcats are “far apart” in contract negotiations. The team is hoping to use Felton’s Restricted status, the weak economy and lowering cap as leverage in negotiations. They would love to get him at or around the full mid-level exception (~$6.5 million per). Raymond is apparently expecting something more than the full mid-level and a length of at least 4 to 5 years; potentially a 5-year $40+ million dollar deal.
So the obvious question is, “Is he worth it?“
The answer is that Raymond could probably command around $7 million plus per season if he was an unrestricted FA. $8 million if a team was desperate for a young point guard and willing to overpay. The better question is, “Is he worth it to the Charlotte Bobcats?”
Although there’s no reason to go over the organization’s financial nightmare again in this post, let’s just say that it’s not pretty. Add to that the fact that the team already has it’s point guard of the future, DJ Augustin, on the roster on a rookie scale contract for the next three seasons. If the team re-signs Raymond, they’ll more than likely be paying two PGs big money contracts in 2012 and 2013. This just doesn’t make any fiscal sense.
Andre Miller is floating around out there looking for (maybe even begging) a team to sign him to a 2-3 year deal at the full mid-level. Miller is a proven playoff point guard. We all saw what happened when he took over the Sixers in the Iverson trade. He’s crafty, a surprisingly adept open-court player, durable and a decent defender. He’s also a “big” PG at 6’3″ | 200 lbs; which would be a nice complement to DJ and playing the two together would be a viable option in a pinch.
What’s even better is the fact that Andre’s contract would come off of the books at the exact time DJ would be up for a contract extension in ’12-’13.
All the Bobcats would have to do is agree with Miller on a deal and withdraw the qualifying off it made to Felton earlier in the summer. The “trade” of Miller for Felton makes the team more experienced and more playoff ready while weakening a conference rival. Makes perfect sense.
Leroy no…once a contract is signed those are the terms.
Adam…the MLE has been pretty much the same for the last few years and a 3 year deal would NOT have got up to 20 million.
Remember when we signed Varejao to that full MLE 3 year deal with a player option? The total worth of the contract if Varejao had opted in was 17.4 million.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=31410…
Did you see the latest article about Felton and his contract? Sounds to me like he's determined to get a deal regardless:
http://www.wmbfnews.com/Global/story.asp?S=107883…
5 million? IMO that's underpaying him (his QO is 5.5…pretty lame to make him take a cut this year don't you think?). Guys like Ariza have pulled a full MLE deal and Felton is worth more than guys like him. A deal similar to the full MLE starting at about 5.8 with raises would be fair in this economy for a starting PG…ESPECIALLY one who survived Larry Brown enough where he wanst him back.
Leroy: I looked around and found one on Ebay (2x) for 80 bucks but couldn't find one anywhere else which I thought was interesting. I got a blue alternate right after the season ended 2 years ago for 35 bucks (and no…you can't have it!).
BTW…any way you guys could get an edit button?
i have one question, if a player sign under a mid-level deal, does his salary changes according to the mid-level changes by the NBA????
*side question….
anyone have a gerald wallace jersey for sale?? since im living in LA and i had been waiting for one appear on ebay for like…..3/4 of a year. contact me by e-mail if anyone is willing to sell his!!! (i dont know if i can ask this question here or not, if not, please delete this post SORRY)
spectre-
We should also note that the mid-level limits the annual raise at 8% of the contract's first year. Thus a full mid-level deal this season would increase around $500k/year of a (maximum) 5-year contract:
'09-'10: $5.85
'10-'11: $6.32
'11-'12: $6.8
'12-'13: $7.3
'13-'14: $7.8
I still say that Felton is worth keeping at around the mid-level (especially if they can get him for a short 3 year deal) but am not very excited about a long mid-level or greater contract. Raymond's poor shooting just kills this team. He'd be great on a team like Portland or Dallas that has actual "go-to" offensive players but Charlotte has absolutely zero guys that can get their shot every time.
leroy-
According to NBA.com, you can still have Bobcats replica and authentic jerseys custom made from their shop.
http://store.nba.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=…
On the bright side, you can get an Adam Morrison replica for $19.95!!!
Adam:
I agree on the 3 year but it looks from the articles that both sides want a longer deal. If we did that I'd prefer to make it flat so it's still tradable after 3 years. Besides, we're not going to spend any significant money…why not eat a million or so this & next season.
I won't disagree on the shooting, tho he did do fair after the all star break…43% average, very good last month of 45 & change. Thing is (and I'm sure you'll discover this in your comparison) DJ didn't shoot the 2 ball any better…in fact he was worse in most of the hotzones inside the arc. The 3 ball is what kept his % up.
BTW, I just mentioned the lack of a "go to" guy on the team on another site. I imagine both PGs would look a lot better if they had a Bosh they could just throw it to with 5 seconds on the clock and he bail them out.
And if you want to make Felton's contract more attractive to both Felton or any other team that might be willing to take Felton's expiring contract, you can add a 5th year Team Option to it. Felton will get the option for a fith year in his contract and any team that get his expiring contrat will have some leverage to negotiate.
The Bobcats can offer Felton a 4Yr/$28-30M deal ($7+M per season). He is a pretty good PG and he does have a great value for the Bobcats both as a player and as a teammate. He' already drawn a lot of interest from other teams and he really comes to play every night; plus he is very durable.
I do agree that DJ is our PG for the future, that being said, if Felton is signed for 4 years, by the time DJ is up for his contract, Felton would be an expiring contract and a really good trading chip an we can really get something good in exchange.
Then use the MLE (maybe less) to sign Hakim Warrick to a 2-3 Year deal. That guy is good and that $$$ is not bad for a backup PF that can really play and is only 26 years.
they sayin Mek for Chandler!!!!
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/bobcats
i only like it if Chandler is healthy. but if hes out 50 games a year, then im shaking my head.
i never thought the cats had it in them to pull off something gutsy again, but after the trade with Phoenix, i have full trust in LB. so maybe he sees something we dont.
I was wanting Charlotte to go after Warrick, even though he is a tweener he's the best option for a backup 4 right now. I hope they don't overpay for him though.
I need time to process this trade before I can really have an opinion on it.
At first thought, it seems like a short-sighted move given Chandler's recent toe injury, though he's played more than 70 games 6 out of his 8 seasons so I can't really call him injury prone. I don't like it right now though. Not unless something else is going on as well.
Seems like a salary dump further tarnishing Bob Johnson's legacy in the NBA
i say we let it play out. if it doesnt work, guess who wont have a job.
True it's too soon to say. It's got all the signs of another shitty move by the Bobcats though. I'll gladly eat my words if this turns out well for Charlotte.
i would like to publicly say that if this move turns out to be garbage, ill switch to the Thunder for the 2010-2011 season. 6 years of nothing is a long time.
It's a good move salary-wise, but what are the Bobs going to do w/ the cap space? That'll really determine how good of a move this is.
make them stop!
i dont know about that man….
a injury prone, even if he is fully healed with diaw, i doubt he will bring much impact than before with his poor FT% and no offensive skills whatsoever except from those alley-oops passes from chris paul (and there is no chance that felton is close to chris paul……)
what do you guys think….trading okafor away meaning signing warrick at mle for diaw back up?
Can you say "Salary Dump?"
Single worst move in team history. I'm stunned. A terrible signal to the fans who've stayed loyal to the team.
http://scottfowlerobs.blogspot.com/2009/07/though…
Screw you Scott Fowler, Okafor was one of the most underrated players in Charlotte NBA history. Not many guys can get you double-doubles during their first 5 season in the League. And all of that sissy pilates & yoga stuff that you and Coach Brown are worried so much about kept Emeka healthy for two consecutive seasons. Unlike the guy who's coming back in return…
Maybe the team is secretly hoping that Tyson has to retire and voids his contract for next season so that they can save even more cash. This is ridiculous.