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The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

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  • #31
    Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

    I'd love to see Lance stay but anything over 9 mil is too steep.

    Comment


    • #32
      Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

      Not to be too blunt, but this is one of those circumstances where I hope the front office doesn't overthink this one too much. Love me some Zach Lowe, and I love this article, but let's face it:

      ...this is a player who has demonstrated fairly remarkable growth over the past two years, and has a very high potential ceiling. Unless he's super-priced out of the market ala Peja Stojavic back in the day before he went to New Orleans, the FO better freaking re-sign this kid. The risk/reward ratio is too strongly in favor of keeping him, IMO.

      He's 23.
      He works about as hard as any player on the team outside of games.
      He's fearless.
      He's got amazing physical attributes.
      He's got real, honest court vision.
      He does not do well with losing.

      When this kid adds a midrange game to his repertoire, look... freaking... out.

      Comment


      • #33
        Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

        Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
        Yep, IIRC, each of the Heat Big 3 took about $15 million less over the life of their contract. Pretty small amount individually, but it helps make a difference as a whole.

        The Spurs are another great example. Tim Duncan is making less than David West right now. Manu Ginobili is making less than George Hill. These guys could have absolutely squeezed out more money from the Spurs if they really wanted to (especially Duncan), but they took less to help the team's circumstances.

        Roy Hibbert, George Hill, David West, and Paul George OTOH all seemed to squeeze out every last dime from the Pacers. Hey that's fine, I can't blame someone for maximizing their worth. It's obviously easy to sit behind a computer screen and criticize someone else for doing what's best for them financially. I've never been in that position, but I have to think that it would be hard to notice a couple of million dollars a year when you're making such an obscene amount of money and living in Indiana. Again, easy for me to say considering I'll never be offered that kind of money, but the Spurs and Heat obviously agree with this line of thinking. Their star guys have taken less money to help the team win. The Pacers OTOH don't. It just makes me have a tiny bit less sympathy for them when the tears are falling at the end of the season. What the Spurs and Heat do is just a bit more respectable than guys who seem to want to max out every last dime.

        So now fans hope that Lance is the one who takes a bit less money for the good of the team. Why in the hell should he? If I'm him, then I say screw taking less money when Hibbert/West/PG/Hill never took less for the good of the team. Why should Lance be the one to start the trend, especially when he is the one who made absolute pennies at the beginning of his career while the other four at least started out on first round salaries?
        Agreed, I wonder too if Florida and Texas having no state tax helped ease taking less money too.

        Comment


        • #34
          Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

          I would rather the Pacers decide on Lance like this: Don't worry about the money (at least not at first) decide if we want lance on the team, can he co-exist with the current players, can he co-exist with PG long term, how good will lance be in 2 or 3 seasons.........decide on Lance first. If they decide they want him as part of the future, then OK pay what it takes to keep him.

          I think it would be a huge mistake as a franchise to decide yes he is 1 of our core players, we want him playing alongside PG for the next 5 years and then put a $8 million dollar budget on re-signing him and let him walk because he gets a 9.5 million offer.

          Either we want him or we don't. Don't let the money decide.
          Last edited by Unclebuck; 06-10-2014, 02:48 PM.

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          • #35
            Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

            Originally posted by Unclebuck View Post
            I would rather the Pacers decide on Lance like this: Don't worry about the money (at least not at first) decide if we want lance on the team, can he co-exist with the current players, can he co-exist with PG long term, how good will lance be in 2 or 3 seasons.........decide on Lance first. If they decide they want him as part of the future, then OK pay what it takes to keep him.

            I think it would be a huge mistake as a franchise to decide yes he is 1 of our core players, we want him playing alongside PG for the next 5 years and then put a $8 million dollar budget on re-singing him and let him walk because he gets a 9.5 million offer.

            Either we want him or we don't. Don't let the money decide.
            Oh I think that Larry Bird has already made the decision that he absolutely wants Lance to be part of the core.

            Comment


            • #36
              Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

              Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
              Oh I think that Larry Bird has already made the decision that he absolutely wants Lance to be part of the core.
              I think he already has made the decision, but I don't know if he wants him as part of the core, I'm not convinced of that. We'll find out in about 6 weeks

              Comment


              • #37
                Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                I wonder if we could do around 9mil in salary with potential of up to 3mil extra in bonuses for performance or would all count against the cap? Or even perhaps 9mil first two years with an opt out option and the last three jumping to the 12mil range?

                Comment


                • #38
                  Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                  Originally posted by Sollozzo View Post
                  Yep, IIRC, each of the Heat Big 3 took about $15 million less over the life of their contract. Pretty small amount individually, but it helps make a difference as a whole.

                  The Spurs are another great example. Tim Duncan is making less than David West right now. Manu Ginobili is making less than George Hill. These guys could have absolutely squeezed out more money from the Spurs if they really wanted to (especially Duncan), but they took less to help the team's circumstances.

                  Roy Hibbert, George Hill, David West, and Paul George OTOH all seemed to squeeze out every last dime from the Pacers. Hey that's fine, I can't blame someone for maximizing their worth. It's obviously easy to sit behind a computer screen and criticize someone else for doing what's best for them financially. I've never been in that position, but I have to think that it would be hard to notice a couple of million dollars a year when you're making such an obscene amount of money and living in Indiana. Again, easy for me to say considering I'll never be offered that kind of money, but the Spurs and Heat obviously agree with this line of thinking. Their star guys have taken less money to help the team win. The Pacers OTOH don't. It just makes me have a tiny bit less sympathy for them when the tears are falling at the end of the season. What the Spurs and Heat do is just a bit more respectable than guys who seem to want to max out every last dime.

                  So now fans hope that Lance is the one who takes a bit less money for the good of the team. Why in the hell should he? If I'm him, then I say screw taking less money when Hibbert/West/PG/Hill never took less for the good of the team. Why should Lance be the one to start the trend, especially when he is the one who made absolute pennies at the beginning of his career while the other four at least started out on first round salaries?
                  It is of course worth noting that those guys are long past their rookie deals.

                  Comment


                  • #39
                    Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                    Originally posted by righteouscool View Post
                    It is of course worth noting that those guys are long past their rookie deals.
                    True, but so is West. Yet he is making more than Tim Duncan......

                    Comment


                    • #40
                      Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                      Starting to think some team or teams become enamored with Lance and throw some cabbage at him. I think it's easy to sell yourself on him. Guys who play later rounds in the playoffs too, get much more credit, imo. I also don't think it will be hard to poison pill an offer to make the Pacers not be able to match it w/o going into the luxury tax. Sorry, I'm still hopeful, but not optimistic.

                      Comment


                      • #41
                        Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                        Originally posted by Speed View Post
                        Starting to think some team or teams become enamored with Lance and throw some cabbage at him. I think it's easy to sell yourself on him. Guys who play later rounds in the playoffs too, get much more credit, imo. I also don't think it will be hard to poison pill an offer to make the Pacers not be able to match it w/o going into the luxury tax. Sorry, I'm still hopeful, but not optimistic.
                        Agree that there's a risk of this. However, most other teams "know" him via game tape and reputation. We *know* him. Given his reputation, I would think this plays into our favor.

                        I also wouldn't underestimate the significance of his relationship with Larry, and suspect this is one of those rare cases where Larry will go against the instincts of his personality, and play this up with Lance.

                        We've heard nothing to suggest that Lance wants to "test the market" or anything of that sort, yet. He's consistently said he wants to re-sign.

                        I think the only thing that unseats his continued time here is an out of left field offer from a team that we simply can't match, and I think the odds of that aren't huge given the above.

                        If OTOH, he played as hard as he did this season, and the extracurriculars weren't so prominent, then he would be as good as gone.

                        Comment


                        • #42
                          Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                          Originally posted by Speed View Post
                          I also don't think it will be hard to poison pill an offer to make the Pacers not be able to match it w/o going into the luxury tax.
                          Nope, no funky poison pills for Lance. He's a standard unrestricted FA. Pacers don't even get to match his offers. So if he decides he wants to play for the Knicks for the minimum, he can. No point for teams to structure their offers in funny ways. Teams can still straight outbid us, of course.

                          Originally posted by jeffg-body View Post
                          I wonder if we could do around 9mil in salary with potential of up to 3mil extra in bonuses for performance or would all count against the cap? Or even perhaps 9mil first two years with an opt out option and the last three jumping to the 12mil range?
                          Bonuses do count against the cap if they are "likely". So I don't think we'd save a lot of cap space going that route. Raises are limited to a certain percentage of starting salary, so no you can't have a salary going 9, 9, then a sudden jump to 12.

                          Comment


                          • #43
                            Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                            I think Lance will end up going for years with us. I don't see him getting a bigger payday than something like a 5 year, 50 million dollar deal with us and I think that is probably our threshold. I mean someone could offer him something like 4-60, but I just don't see that happeneing. My guess is that we end up signing Lance for something like 5-45.


                            Comment


                            • #44
                              Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                              Originally posted by naptownmenace View Post
                              Great article. Zach Lowe is a professed Lance Stephenson fan going back to his days in high school so whenever he writes about "Born Ready", he knows what he's talking about.

                              Lance is going to get a crazy offer from some team out there. The reason I feel that way can be traced to one player that recently was paid more than he deserved - Jeremy Lin. Also, if JR Smith can get 6 million a year, you know Lance is going to make much more.
                              I don't think you can equate the LIn/Lance situation at all. Attitude is seen as a much bigger red flag in the NBA than questionable talent level. I think Lance is also maybe hurt more in exec circles by being part of such a good team, what I mean by that is I am sure there are plenty of teams that are asking themselves "How good would Lance be outside of the Pacers system?" It's a tough question to answer. Especially when you know how much Bird has sort of kept his thumb on Lance's pulse since the day he was drafted.


                              Comment


                              • #45
                                Re: The Courtship of Lance Stephenson- Zach Lowe, Grantland

                                Originally posted by graphic-er View Post
                                All I'm saying is that the Pacers do an absolute terrible job at negotiating contracts. "Mr. West, We want you back, and you want to be back with us" Here we will let you have a player option for 12 million when your 35 years old!!!!

                                Pacers certainly knew West would be 35 years old in the last year of the deal. Guess they think that if the team sucks then West could opt out and go ring chasing. Yeah right....dude isn't giving up 12 million dollars to come off the bench for some contender. He will wait until he is 36 and a FA to do that.
                                So your position is that the Pacers FO made one offer that was way over what West's agent ever could have dreamed of so they jumped at it. No negotiation, no starting point that was where you think they should have been, just a single ridiculous offer.
                                Last edited by BillS; 06-10-2014, 02:56 PM. Reason: forgot quote
                                BillS

                                A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
                                Or throw in a first-round pick and flip it for a max-level point guard...

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