crzymdups wrote:

BRIGGS wrote:Id love to hear what Allan Houston would say about Crabbe? Allan are you out there--come in Allan?

He's in Chicago interviewing players for the draft. I guess he's our GM now? Who knows.

I think I'd go as high as 4yr $60M on Crabbe that'd be a starting salary of $14M with raises. He'll get that, he may even get 4yr $70M from someone. Anyone who watched that Blazers / GSW series knows exactly how good he can be. But also, anyone who watched that series saw him play around 35 minutes a game off the bench against the Warriors. He's a perfect player for today's NBA. He's also deeply valuable to the Blazers. He's their third or fourth best player right now. I think Blazers will absolutely match. Look at the contract Brandon Knight signed in Phoenix - 5yr $70M and that was in a 69M cap world. That same deal in a 95M cap would be 5yr 91M going by percentage of cap hit.

I would offer a max to Evan Fournier and about $14M-15M starting salary to Crabbe - if you can get one to sign an offer sheet, you pull the other offer.

You have to be prepared that the other team will match though. They are highly likely to match. I would say there's an 80% chance the other team matches in both scenarios.

Also, Crabbe WANTS to be in Portland. Fournier may want to leave, especially in light of the Skiles weirdness. That to me does impact what teams do with their RFA.

5 years 70mm for Crabbe
5 years 38.5mm for Curry

fishmike wrote:

yellowboy90 wrote:I get the hesitation and aprehension of paying someone like Crabbe but name me another time in NBA history that will jump like it will over the next two yeara? Sometimes you have to role the dice on young players.

totally agree. But to me you don't do that until you have whiffed on the higher tier guys. Also if the Knicks do nothing, they could potentially bring in TWO high impact guys the following year. That is the REAL FA draw. One guy doesn't want to be the savior, but enticing two all stars to come join Melo/KP and maybe Grant or one of these other guys breaks out.

Much rather pay a guy like Derozan or Batum the max than give Crabbe $15mm. At least with one of those two I know they are moving the needle, I know they are good fits here, I know they will produce, I know they will fit I know what I am paying for.

I am just not willing to kill my future flexibility for Crabbe. To me he hasn't shown enough. This is usually the part where Briggs tells me I don't watch the NBA or have just been sleeping.

I don't mind paying Batum although his decline throughout the season scares me. Still you are not going to find that many 5 ast and 6 rebs guys. I don't know if Crabbe can grow into that. Maybe the rebounding but the passing, I'm skeptical. Then again you knew Batum would start passing like crazy after his first 4 years(he started out young).

Derozan has improved and attacks defenses and has become a better all around player than when he started but I would choose Crabbe over him. Give Crabbe 10 more minutes and you probably get similar production to Derozan. That's easy to say though and I get that but Derozan efficiency issues scares me. He rebounds okay for a 2 and is passing better now but his defense is about as good as Crabbe right now. He has not been consistent his whole career and the points he get are volume based and below avg efficiency.

Also, It's not just Crabbe versus Batum or Derozan its Crabbe and ? versus Batum or Derozan. The player the knicks get with the extra money could help too. BAtum/Derozan max contracts start around $25m and they may want the 4.5% increases.

But like I said before I get it and can understand people not wanting the knicks to pay big for Crabbe.

reub wrote:But Crabbe and Fournier are RFAs so we're not getting them. We should be realistic and look at Bazemore, Batum, maybe Lance Stephenson, Turner. They're unrestricted. Hey, if we get Bazemore and Pao this offseason I'll be very happy.

Actually RFA's are not so easy to protect. Sure the team can match but they have to take into account their team cap situation not just this year but going forward. If you sign an RFA his current team only has 3 days to match. The thing a team hunting RFA's can do is move quickly to sign the RFA. The earlier the better. Team's with RFA's won't even have had a chance to negotiate with Top level FA's in that short amount of time. These teams may decide that it's not worth it to match and lock up cap before they can go for one of the elite FA's. It will be an interesting thing to see. Guys like Fournier and Crabbe are prime targets IMO due to their team's cap situation and having to sign more important players to even bigger contracts.