CJ's comment doesn't add up to me.. Miami didn't "wait for the Market to dry up" before withdrawing Nunn's Qualifying Offer. That all went down pretty early in Free Agency, if I recall correctly.. Is there something I'm missing..?
One day after free agency started. But 56 contracts were agreed to on day one. That's not including the dozens of on going discussions and negotiations that bled into the following day(s). If he didn't think he was going to be a free agent, then his agent had no reason to begin any level of discussions with teams before free agency or when the dam broke day one. I definitely think we got a value and he got screwed. I think under normal circumstances, he could net at least double what we gave him. Someone would've thrown the non tax payer mid level at him.
i agree with jsm (and cj). we were talking about this at the time, but they need to fix the rescinded QO stuff, imo. teams need to be committed once they extend it. i don't think miami did this to tank nunn's earning potential, but it had that effect.
So who do we believe …. the article which says Nunn got the 5M of the TP MLE or the earlier report Rob was playing chess with saving 1M of that to add to a minimum salary to be able to possibly entice a player like from G League or summer league standout? Help me out here, what was reported the strategy was on that? Or is the TP MLE almost 6M and we saved the money above 5M?
If it was nearly anyone else then I'd give them the benefit of the doubt. But this is Riley and he's a sneaky, greasy, and not above some shenanigans. I don't think he did this to intentionally cost Nunn money. But I think he could've done it so his competitors already fill out their roster before Nunn has the opportunity to go to a playoff rival.
I agree with what you're saying. CJ worded that terribly as it relates to the timing of how it went down. The market dried up quickly because of the flurry of action in the first day of free agency but there were also offers out there for much more money than what the Lakers offered. d*** move by Riley to even make an offer and on that point I totally agree but Nunn could have gotten paid more if that's what he really wanted so CJ is wrong in that regard. I'm all on board with CJ, I mean owners can't have it one way and just expect the players to be ok with it. This isn't the NFL thankfully and the players know they are the ones putting butts in the seats. I think CJ is just asserting his presence with the players now that he is the new president of the NBPA.
I think HoopsHype doesn’t update salaries until signings are official and they know the real numbers. They have Nunn at $5 million. https://hoopshype.com/salaries/los_angeles_lakers/ I do believe the taxpayer MLE was $5.9million, so technically we didn’t use all of it. But I’m not sure if we could realistically do anything with that .9 million wiggle room? I think that’s still less than a minimum contract, even for a rookie/G-League player? And I don’t think it’s possible to tack on that .9 million to increase a veteran’s minimum contract.
yeah, it's not clear. there's no way rob would have saved 900k just to pinch pennies (and risk losing nunn over it, tbh--that could be construed as insulting if the money wasn't earmarked for something that could be explained to the player and agent). right? i mean, i know he scrambles and doesn't know the cap...
I think there was a tweet saying that by not giving Nunn the full tax MLE, we can use that difference for roster moves during the season... something along those lines. Don't quote me on that.
yes, i remember that. and using exceptions allows for multi-year deals (as opposed to vet mins). but is 900k enough to make creative use of that? again, i have faith that our FO understands this stuff, but i don't know the cap well enough to foresee the exact application of this specific money,
Maybe later in the year that $900k would become more than the pro-rated veteran’s minimum, and so it would give us a slight edge on the buyout market? I’m not sure if that’s even true though, and if it was it seems like such a negligible thing. So yeah I’m with you, feels strange because I’d imagine that would be a tough sell to Nunn and his agent. Feel like if I were in their shoes, already screwed over with the RFA/qualifying offer stuff, and already taking a discount, I’d want the full taxpayer MLE. But eh, I guess it all worked out.
But .... L.A. ..... it's like it used to be before FAs started flipping us the bird, and a chance to win a ring on the biggest stage and "build his brand". Does he have a brand to build?
Re my query above, "does he have a brand to build?" .... yep guess so. Cue the slick Instagram (?) edits. No complaints here though, good to see.
for you @TIME Flying Nunn reference. Not sure how many will get it though wish we had Nunn, Pope, and Monk in the same season though. Woulda been a great threesome for a hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
