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[Mavsfan12]

Yes, but no. The difference wouldn't matter, because you only need EB rights to match a 2-yr player. It's merely a matter of whether you want to match.

And technically, it can force the value down, since on a 2yr, the max is up to what the team can pay - even if another team could pay more.  But the flip side to that is the player just signing their QO and becoming UFA next year.  Like this season, with the mavs not having capspace, I think Early Bird rights allow someone to be signed to either 175% of their prior year salary, or 105% of league avg salary...  So I think that is the max - and if Hardy blossoms, he could choose the QO and then be UFA the next year rather than taking basically the MLE.

The 3 year makes them restricted AND the team can spend up to the max to retain them.

Edit:  I think that using the tMLE to sign him to a 3yr works out best for the Mavs.  Get full bird rights on Hardy (who has star potential that may result in a higher than MLE payday) and it forces McGee into a lower cost contract.  I'm sure he would have liked to be paid that extra ~4M over the 3 year contract though.