martin wrote:this makes sense to me:

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/07/01/at-negotiating-table-grizzlies-opt-for-quick-defeat/

Some reports argue that the team feared Gay would sign a front-loaded offer sheet that would give Gay a $20 million salary in his first year. Those fears are completely overstated. The teams with space, as mentioned, are chasing a bigger fish. LeBron reportedly won't make a decision until Monday, July 5. And if a franchise had tried to turn Gay's contract toxic, as Portland did with Paul Millsap last summer, Memphis would have been in prime position to take it without much pain. The Grizzlies are in no danger of drifting deep into luxury tax territory; furthermore, the signing bonus clause used to facilitate these front-loaded deals spreads the cap/tax pain over the length of the contract, which means a front-loaded deal would have count as $14 million on the cap/tax ledger, just as the deal Gay will sign does.

and if this is correct, why would a team ever just offer a max deal to a player like Gay instead of letting the market dictate the price?

BigDaddyG wrote:

martin wrote:this makes sense to me:

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/07/01/at-negotiating-table-grizzlies-opt-for-quick-defeat/

Some reports argue that the team feared Gay would sign a front-loaded offer sheet that would give Gay a $20 million salary in his first year. Those fears are completely overstated. The teams with space, as mentioned, are chasing a bigger fish. LeBron reportedly won't make a decision until Monday, July 5. And if a franchise had tried to turn Gay's contract toxic, as Portland did with Paul Millsap last summer, Memphis would have been in prime position to take it without much pain. The Grizzlies are in no danger of drifting deep into luxury tax territory; furthermore, the signing bonus clause used to facilitate these front-loaded deals spreads the cap/tax pain over the length of the contract, which means a front-loaded deal would have count as $14 million on the cap/tax ledger, just as the deal Gay will sign does.

and if this is correct, why would a team ever just offer a max deal to a player like Gay instead of letting the market dictate the price?

Good question. I think part of the reason for this is that Heisley is a bit of a cowboy and he wanted to flex a little bit. This has shades of Allan Houston all over it.

That's a great comparison.

crzymdups wrote:

knicks1248 wrote:knick fans are the only ones being cheap

i think what's happening is that GMs are panicking because there are so many teams with cap room out there. they're overpaying to get their guys early before the 4 teams with double max room learn what happens with lebron and start chasing the second and third tier guys.

knicks face the unappetizing realization that by the time they learn lebron isn't coming, there might not be anyone left on the market. at all.

seriously, how long til mike miller signs? when someone offers him $50M tomorrow?

The potential max guys will likely wait till the decision is made by Lebron. But they may not want to come here if he doesn't. Except Bosh who seems to want to be the man all by himself.