Nalod wrote:ChuckBuck wrote:Nalod wrote:1. Who cares if he starts. he is playing starter minutes.2. JR is a tough sign for another team for two reasons:
a) he is unpredictable, unreliable in his career. He is tough long term investment
b) How many years would another team give him? We have his bird rights after next season so:
He plays for us next year for a reduced rate and we compensate him for it with a longer term deal so his multi year average will benefit him.
It makes sense. He has been the key to this season in Amare's absence!
When all is said and done the balance of the team rests on the very inked shoulders of JR Smith!
He has a Player Option for 2013-2014, which he can opt out of. We can only offer him a salary with $5.5 million average. I'm pretty sure some team will offer more than $5.5 million, either that or they'll Jeremy Lin us(Poison Pill contract).
And after that option we have his bird rights. Thats my point. Say he gets 30 mil over 4 years. WE can give him the money the year after and while he gets underpaid for one more year, knicks can pay him more and his average salary will be higher. Say we give him 10 mil for three years, then he would have made like 32.5 for the same 4 years. Just an example.
We need him and he sort of needs us as well.
We have his early bird rights in which we can pay him a starting salary a little higher than 5m a year with increases each year after
He is NOT in a rookie deal, in which we have the ability to match an offer he receives from another team
WE DO NOT have the ability to get ANY compensation in return with a sign and trade because under the NEW CBA, tax paying teams CANNOT facilitate S&T's
For this reason, it makes NOT matching Lin's offer much other to swallow because we don't have any ability to add players in the next 2-3 years till 2015 summer FA when Amare/Tyson/Kidd/Camby all comes off the books, other than mini MLE, vet min deals, limited picks, and trades *without S&T's* with our limited assets/salaries to match up/entice other teams to consider dealing with us
In the off season, We are looking at the possibility of losing
JR Smith
Kenyon Martin
and even Copeland *could offer him a 2 year vet min deal(around 2m for 2 years) but a team could offer him about 2 - 2.5m for a stretch 4/5 that could play some SF as a scorer off the bench*
and any future vet min deals that turns out to be steals but many still believe as long as we have Melo, it will be easy to find "ROLE PLAYERS" to fill our roster with
I would be very surprised if we were able to keep Martin with the way he has played unless we use our mini MLE to keep him (I am not even sure that would be enough as a team could offer him 3-5 for 2-3 years with what he has shown thus for)
As for JR Smith, I can see a team offering him a 2 year about 20m deal, compared to our 5 year about 30m deal
Problem is we need to keep these players, draft well, sign a solid mini MLE player, and continue to find great vet min steals to keep us legit contenders for next 2 years
I would love someone like Kyle Korver if possible for the mini MLE
As for keeping JR Smith, it would most likely include WASTING a roster spot to sign Chris Smith, in order to compensate for what JR should get elsewhere for a chance to help his brother develop as a NBA bench player
Regardless of the good and bad of JR Smith, we need players of his talent, as he is our 2nd best player after Melo, talent/athleticism/shooting ability/penetration/def is there...
6th man candidates
JR - should be the leading candidate but we shall see with the games left
Crawford - has cooled off recently after his hot start with the Clippers recent struggles*
Jack - should be right up there in contention with the Warriors success this year
Jeff Green - although he has been starting much more since KG's recent injury*
4/6/2013 7:16 AM