(10-23-2023, 05:31 PM)DanSchwartzgan Wrote: I think this was a mistake. Yes, congrats to Nico in the near term. $13.7mm is good value for the team. It also makes team salary manageable next season.
But after two years of this deal (so 3 from now when he's 25) Josh will be extension eligible and we won't be able to extend him because 140% of his final year is only $20mm. So, Josh will be a full on UFA in 2027. We will either pay dearly for this or lose him altogether. My range was $14mm-$16mm, so $13.7mm isn't that far off. But, I'm not a fan of the 3 year term.
4 years away is too far out to worry about that because so many things can change. And it's a very good thing to have him locked in without worrying about his next contract because we have a bit of a history of players getting disgruntled with us in contract years. Come 2027 if he's an integral piece of the team we'll just have to throw the Brinks truck at him (because he's not going to give us another sweetheart deal like this in UFA and if we try to dick him around in the contract year he'll just leave so we'd have no incentive to mess with his minutes even in the contract year). It's not the end of the world to have to give a player a big contract if you need that player. Considering a guy like Jaden McDaniels got 5/136 this contract could also be a valuable trade chip if we want to go that route. Austin Reaves is 25 years old, Josh Green is 22. Because of the upside factor he would have been a lot more expensive barring a disastrous 23-24 season had we waited to do this