2024 Playoffs - 1st Round: Los Angeles Clippers - Dallas Mavericks- MAVS WIN 4-2!

[KillerLeft]

I’d be interested to know how many players have went from signing a one year vet minimum and then MLE+ money.

I can’t remember who said it on a pod but once an NBA player signs a vet min, that becomes his reputation/value going forward, despite the level of play in most cases.

Going from ~2M to ~5M (Taxpayer MLE) is a significant raise really. There can’t be many 8/3/1 players getting 13M+/yr (Non-Taxpayer MLE) after a year of vet minimum pay (~2.8M)

This is where my head is. I don’t think he is relegated to a minimum status, forever, regardless of how he plays. That’s too extreme. 

But, he is a minimum player now, really didn’t overtly win a starting job until the end of the season, isn’t really playing better than he has in the past – it’s just that what he does fits really well with this team. Shooting has been a bit of a surprise, but I don’t feel like it is sustainable, and I doubt the market will, either, unless he does it for a couple of years, consecutively. 

Mix all of that into the batter with the fact that the economics of the league are changing drastically, and I am honestly not sure that he’s in line for the payday people around here are assuming. I could be wrong, but I think he will count himself lucky if he gets the taxpayer MLE for a couple of years. Especially if that comes with the idea that he gets to continue on in his current role. This is a guy who has had to fight for a role every single year, so far.

Also, while what he is doing is amazing and much needed on this team, I would personally be hesitant to overpay him until I had seen those threes drop for a couple of seasons, at least. My strategy to negotiate with him would be to get him to take another one year minimum in order for Dallas to get his bird rights. Do it again, and maybe we can talk about something close to the full MLE next summer. That might be too far on the other extreme, but I am definitely not walking into those negotiations assuming that he is an MLE player right now.