Eh, I mean yeah he deserved a better deal, but I don’t think you can blame his agent for a better deal not actually existing on the market. I think just by the nature of the RFA situation, and there were limited teams with cap space who had different positions of need, there just wasn’t anything else available. If it came out that some team was willing to sign him to a bigger offer sheet but his agent convinced him to sign cheaper with the Lakers, then sure. But I don’t think that’s how it played out
No matter how you break this down, any player that plays for the Lakers will make money in other venues besides the annual salary. The possibilities here are endless, would Austin have gotten a Chinese shoe deal if he played on the Thunder for example? Hell no. He's playing for a make or break situation here.
Exactly. If he's on Detroit he may not even be in this situation. He got a bigger bag than he ever imagined. Room for additional bread, too.
Yeah. If everyone knew a deal would be matched, why offer it and tie up your cap space? My guess is teams would have paid him more if they thought there was a chance of getting him, but why needlessly handicap yourself for a chunk of free agency just to stick it to the Lakers? Lakers gave him everything they could, and it was probably the best offer on the market. His agent did fine.
when i said i was surprised his agent didn't get the offer, i wasn't implying the agent sucked. i was surprised that the forces in the market didn't allow for it. let's hope he kills it so much that when he opts out of year 4 we want to max him.
Good job Lakers PR getting it out there and really pushing the narrative for the past couple months that we will match. No. Matter. What. So don't bother.
Still, other teams dropped the ball on not getting us in deeper cap situations down the road. I applaud them for that, though.
Let's be honest. Austin & his Agent did the Lakers a solid & he clearly wanted to be here. He easily could've gotten 10's of millions more, but took the best situation. Hope the Lakers treat him with the same respect.
to me, it's as much logic as PR. this is the one time lebron's clock helped us. we knew we wouldn't be paying 50 million to lebron two years from now, so the attempts to scare us with balloon payments were moot. wonder if SA has something short-term they like or if they simply didn't want reaves at 25 per when wemby was going to be extension-eligible. again, whatevs, we win. big.
I would imagine when considering signing just a 2 year with PO in 2nd to have earlier shot at more money, that he had to weigh the value of that full 4 year guaranteed contract with the risk of a career altering injury over that first year and now playing Intl. ball too. Seems smart to me. 58M guaranteed and he seems genuine about all things Lakers and Kobe with him and his family.
7 millions yearly after taxes is not bad. Not including agent fees yet. Hopefully his next contract with the Lakers, they will reward him.
I should hope so. He should get the ball on all secondary actions as well. That Bron chuck is going to kill me otherwise.
I sure hope so. Far and away the best man for the job. We are in a great position right now. Our main obstacles are the 2 H's. Health and Ham. Our roster is probably good enough to overcome whacky line ups. So heres to our health.
