Shutting down Blair? - Contract reasonings

I'd do the same if I was his agent... he deserves like 1 mill a year MINIMUM...

That Jodie Meeks contract is crazy. Has he proven a damn thing even in Summer League? I thought Milwaukee was supposed to save some money??

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Originally Posted by timvp

Thinking about it a little bit, this would be the perfect time for the agent to tell Blair to stop playing. The Spurs got a taste of how good Blair is, Blair is still healthy and training camp is a long ways away so there's time to negotiate. His knees are admittedly a concern so getting that guaranteed money is more important than most draft picks. The agent wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't trying to protect Blair.

If Blair does sit out, I would 100% see where he's coming from. It's a business.

We'll see what happens. Hopefully the Spurs sign him ASAP and the contract issue can go in the past.

Even if Blair sits out the rest of summer league, it wouldn't be a tragedy. Everyone already saw how good he is and Blair doesn't have much left to prove in this setting. Plus it'd give the Spurs more of an opportunity to take a look at Gist and Mahinmi -- and really, that's most important right now. Is Gist ready to make the jump? Is Mahinmi still a legit prospect? Blair has answered his questions already.

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Whole-heartedly agree. That first game was all we needed to see. If we see more, great. Otherwise, work the other guys out. Break into the LLE to sign Blair. He'll be worth a Million a year. Give him two years guaranteed, a third year team option, to retain Bird Rights and build in incentive.

Blair is a good signing for a portion of the LLE IMO.

As far as the Spurs go, I don't think it's neccessarily about the money. It's about the LLE. If they use some of that LLE money on Blair, which they'd have to in order to give Blair more than league min, then the remainder of their LLE basically just becomes another league min contract. So for all practical purposes the Spurs are facing a decision on whether they want to use their LLE on Blair or someone else. If the Spurs could offer Blair something in the 2yrs / $1.6 mil range and still have their LLE they'd do it in a heartbeat, IMO.

If Brian Scalabrine can make 3 Mil we can piece together at least, the very least, a Million for Blair.

I see Blair and his agent's point, but don't like the tactics. He's still a rookie and needs to be in there getting work and quite, frankly, to prove himself. Playing up that his "knees may go" is a double-edged sword because it would (and should) give the Spurs hesitance for longer contracts. We don't need if he can last 1 82 game season, much less 2 to 3....

But, the message it sends if he sits, is he's putting himself ahead of team. Yeah, there are reasons for it, but the Spurs are too good of an organization for these tactics. Keep playing while your agent negotiates, DeJuan. You do your job, he does his.

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Originally Posted by coyotes_geek

As far as the Spurs go, I don't think it's neccessarily about the money. It's about the LLE. If they use some of that LLE money on Blair, which they'd have to in order to give Blair more than league min, then the remainder of their LLE basically just becomes another league min contract. So for all practical purposes the Spurs are facing a decision on whether they want to use their LLE on Blair or someone else.

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If the Spurs use the LLE this season they can't use on the next one, right?

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Originally Posted by coyotes_geek

As far as the Spurs go, I don't think it's neccessarily about the money. It's about the LLE. If they use some of that LLE money on Blair, which they'd have to in order to give Blair more than league min, then the remainder of their LLE basically just becomes another league min contract. So for all practical purposes the Spurs are facing a decision on whether they want to use their LLE on Blair or someone else. If the Spurs could offer Blair something in the 2yrs / $1.6 mil range and still have their LLE they'd do it in a heartbeat, IMO.

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It's between Blair who has potential to get 7 + Boards a night or some veteran who will ride the bench.

1 freaking summer league game. Dude has not proven shit.

Already posters here are balloting him in the hall of fame.

Dude has to play the whole summer league and pre-season to prove anything

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Originally Posted by Spurs Brazil

If the Spurs use the LLE this season they can't use on the next one, right?

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Correct. They couldn't give out another LLE contract until 2011.

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Originally Posted by BillMc

I see Blair and his agent's point, but don't like the tactics. He's still a rookie and needs to be in there getting work and quite, frankly, to prove himself. Playing up that his "knees may go" is a double-edged sword because it would (and should) give the Spurs hesitance for longer contracts. We don't need if he can last 1 82 game season, much less 2 to 3....

But, the message it sends if he sits, is he's putting himself ahead of team. Yeah, there are reasons for it, but the Spurs are too good of an organization for these tactics. Keep playing while your agent negotiates, DeJuan. You do your job, he does his.

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How is he putting himself before team? I give them points for caution and wisdom. This young man knows this could possibly be the only contract he ever gets to sign.

If, indeed, he is actually sitting out tonight.

hoopsworld

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Originally Posted by timvp

Thinking about it a little bit, this would be the perfect time for the agent to tell Blair to stop playing. The Spurs got a taste of how good Blair is, Blair is still healthy and training camp is a long ways away so there's time to negotiate. His knees are admittedly a concern so getting that guaranteed money is more important than most draft picks. The agent wouldn't be doing his job if he wasn't trying to protect Blair.

Blair has answered his questions already.

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Well.....yes and no. He did a great job of rebounding in 1 SL game. I'd like to see him out there for at least 1 more. I thought that his height was a bigger issue than anything. He forced a few shots amongst the trees.

Will the weight that he lost cause him issues with getting the spacing he is used to ?

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Originally Posted by Muser

It's between Blair who has potential to get 7 + Boards a night or some veteran who will ride the bench.

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I can understand the Spurs wanting to do due diligence and just see who they could possibly get for the LLE. But in the end I think we'll end up seeing the Spurs use a chunk of the LLE on Blair for a contract in the 2yr/$1.6 mil range and then shop for vets who will take league min.

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Originally Posted by tmtcsc

Will the weight that he lost cause him issues with getting the spacing he is used to ?

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no

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Originally Posted by BillMc

I see Blair and his agent's point, but don't like the tactics. He's still a rookie and needs to be in there getting work and quite, frankly, to prove himself. Playing up that his "knees may go" is a double-edged sword because it would (and should) give the Spurs hesitance for longer contracts. We don't need if he can last 1 82 game season, much less 2 to 3....

But, the message it sends if he sits, is he's putting himself ahead of team. Yeah, there are reasons for it, but the Spurs are too good of an organization for these tactics. Keep playing while your agent negotiates, DeJuan. You do your job, he does his.

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Well let's be fair though. The Spurs haven't hesitated to use strong arm tactics either. Just last year in the negotiations with George Hill they gave him a contract offer that only paid him 80% of rookie scale in his 3rd year and said take it or leave it. Every other 1st round pick got the 120% that the CBA allows. They did the same thing to Mahinmi too.

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Originally Posted by bishopospurs

If he is out of the league in 5 years that would be really depressing, it would suck to lose Duncan and Ginobli and have to rebuild without Blair

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I know it would be terrible and depressing. :depressed

But the medical facts are playing against him. Despite him having done so well up to now, time is against him. If anything else were to happen to either of his knees, his prognosis for complete recovery would not be good. Why do you think he wasn't drafted in the first round? Plenty of M.D.'s understand this and conveyed their opinions to the GM's and owners, IMO.

I am thrilled to have him, and will pray and hope he remains as health and strong as a bull. I'm just going to enjoy what we have now and hope he can play for a long time.

2/1.6 sounds good to me.

Man, you know the Spurs have got it bad when they can't even get their second round, barely in the league and was about to not even get drafted, players to play in SL.

Instead, they demand the MLE, and take summer off, on their agent's advice.

If anyone had a RIGHT to do this, it was DUNCAN after his rookie season, but did he?!?!?

Nope: he came to play, and was the biggest BARGAIN in the league.

To he whom much is given, much is expected: Blair was given much in athletic gifts, but he's not showing anything in the class department.

In Fact if you are young you must to choice between a better First Contract or a Better Second

Probably in Europe he can won more money with the First, but NBA he can made a Big Second Contract

A couples of million isn´t a Big Money in Europe, but Europe never can pay 10 millions or more for season like a player who play some season in the NBA

Manu had one small first contract of 2 millions a year, and paying 2 millions buyout.
He lost money in that 2 first years, but the second contract was 10 millions a year.

If he remain in Europe he never can signed a 50 millions second contract

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Originally Posted by poeticism707

Man, you know the Spurs have got it bad when they can't even get their second round, barely in the league and was about to not even get drafted, players to play in SL.

Instead, they demand they demand the MLE, and take summer off, on their agent's advice.

If anyone had a RIGHT to do this, it was DUNCAN after his rookie season, but did he?!?!?

Nope: he came to play, and was the biggest BARGAIN in the league.

To he whom much is given, much is expected: Blair was given much in athletic gifts, but he's not showing anything in the class department.

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It's his agent, Blair wants to play tomorrow.

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Originally Posted by Muser

It's his agent, Blair wants to play tomorrow.

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The proof is in the pudding: we'll see.

If I had to guess I would say the problem isn't the money like the LLE, it's the number of years.

My memory is that LLEs are limited to 2 years.

Spurs could lose him to an offer sheet after only two seasons. That's not what they want. Why get Milsapped?

If they had MLE left I'm sure they wouldn't scoff too much at greater than minimum salary guaranteed for 3 years, but they don't.

Maybe they'll just guarantee all 3 years at the minimum with the raises.

The key is the length, not the total.