Their contracts are almost identical in money and length. Deng's a year older. Can be argued Dragic is more important to his team. This season's stats would certainly indicate so. Our need at PG was less than SF so I'm glad we didn't get him either, just saying neither contract is something to rejoice about.
Goran Dragic 5 year 85 million - 17 mil a year (ages 28-32) Luol Deng 4 yr 72 million - 18 million a year (ages 30-33) I guess Goran's contract seemed outrageous prior to the salary cap increase. Luol's contract pays more than Klay Thompson's 4 yr 68 mil contract signed before the jump also. Wow, this is crazy stuff. Obviously he doesn't seem to be living up to that contract. Hard to have two guys like that chewing up lots of payroll space, but at least it appears we have high quality vets as role models. Mostly lol. Nick and Lou women decisions have to make you chuckle, by those guys have obviously put in the work.
Dragic's was a max contract when he signed it. Deng's actually wasn't close to a max deal. Deng's 18 million is less than 20% of the cap. Dragic at the time of his contract signed for the full max deal which would have been roughly 30 million last summer. Not saying Deng's contract isn't an albatross, but everything should be taken in context.
I was thinking that's where his advice came from. Didn't he have another one though where he got cheap shotted by someone who was able to stay in the game and Kobe kinda Raja Bell clotheslined him around the free throw line a little later to get even?
Well there is 4 years left on each, the bulk of the contract terms, so what matters is what % of the cap they are now. It's true about context but Riley was also aware or at least had a good idea of what the max increases were going to be after the new NBA tv deal (which was kicking in the summer after his deal with Dragic) so he probably felt it was a deal that would look not so good at first and much better later. Unfortunately for him, Dragic has turned out to be a long way off from an allstar PG in this league.
I mean much better is still relative. We're talking one percentage point difference between Dragic and Deng. I get your point and it's true, but even still within any context the contract is really no better than Deng's. Heck given the context of that team specifically, that contract was one of the main reasons Wade ended up in Chicago.
