http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_yl...v=ap&type=lgns
Spurs sign George Hill
By CLIFF BRUNT, AP Sports Writer
INDIANAPOLIS (AP)—The San Antonio Spurs signed first-round pick George Hill on Tuesday, Hill’s agent said.
The Spurs took Hill out of IUPUI with the 26th selection, but didn’t have to sign him. Michael Whitaker said Hill participated in summer league with the Spurs and had been working out in San Antonio since Aug. 18, despite the fact that he hadn’t officially signed.
“The Spurs are a championship organization,” Whitaker said. “They told us all along they wanted to get the deal done, they just wanted to use the time to sign free agents. We just took them at their word.”
Now that Hill has signed, the first two years of the deal are guaranteed. The rookie scale shows that Hill would make $1.22 million his first year and $1.31 million his second year. The Spurs have team options the next two years.
Hill, a 6-foot-2 guard, averaged 21.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 4.3 assists last season for the Jaguars. He declared himself eligible for the draft after his junior year, and performed well enough in workouts to put himself in position to get selected.
Whitaker needed to reassure Hill that the deal was going to happen.
“It’s not common for first-rounders to go that long, but I told George, ‘You got drafted by a unique team,”’ Whitaker said.
Wow, it actually happened.
That doesn't make any sense. More like the Spurs might have to package him in a trade so they waited. There was no impending luxury tax or salary cap issue that would have forced the Spurs to sign free agents first and then Hill.“The Spurs are a championship organization,” Whitaker said. “They told us all along they wanted to get the deal done, they just wanted to use the time to sign free agents. We just took them at their word.”
It's impossible. It's more than 120% of the rookie scale.Now that Hill has signed, the first two years of the deal are guaranteed. The rookie scale shows that Hill would make $1.22 million his first year and $1.31 million his second year. The Spurs have team options the next two years.
It is done.
Bruno and timvp. The writer only states what the high of the scale is (120%). He doesn't say what he signed for.
Like I have been saying, the Spurs were probably holding off on signing him because they had gotten a willingness from Hill for the Spurs to play with the $335K of flex (80-120% of swing)
Jeff McDonald: Spurs ink rookie Hill
Meanwhile, in other backup point guard news ...
The Spurs finally put pen to paper and signed first-round pick George Hill on Tuesday. There was little drama in the signing.
The Spurs didn't have to ink Hill, taken 26th overall in June out of UIPUI. The rookie point guard, however, said he never had any doubts the deal would get done.
"I knew it was going to happen," said Hill, who played with the Spurs summer league entry and has been working out in San Antonio since mid-August. "They were just getting all their free agents and stuff in order first. They told me just to be patient, and I was."
There was little haggling to get Hill under contract. As per the NBA collective bargaining agreement, Hill is due a rookie scale contract worth a guaranteed $1.22 million this year and $1.31 million next year. The Spurs own team options in 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Training camp, which begins Sept. 30, will be key for Hill. Throughout the preseason, he will battle with Jacques Vaughn and newly signed Salim Stoudamire for minutes behind Tony Parker at the point.
And he is wrong.
The high of the scale for Hill is $1,006,200 for the first year.
It sounds like the writer was just speculating on the numbers based purely on some rookie scale chart he found. Based on the numbers he spat out, it looks like he was on the line for the 17th pick overall for some reason.Now that Hill has signed, the first two years of the deal are guaranteed. The rookie scale shows that Hill would make $1.22 million his first year and $1.31 million his second year. The Spurs have team options the next two years.
It's impossible. It's more than 120% of the rookie scale.
http://www.mynbadraft.com/nba-rookie...scale-2008/101
Yes, that's right. The scale for the 26th pick is $838,500 (100%).
The max Hill could make this season is $1,006,000, IIRC. The writer is either using erroneous information, his math is bad or my memory is bad.
The thing is though, unless I'm mistaken and I'm missing something, whether the Spurs signed Hill for 80% or 120% there was no effect on the Spurs in terms of salary cap, luxury threshold or anything else. The Spurs are $3M+ under the luxury threshold, far over the salary cap so I don't see a mathematical reason why Hill "holding off" would do anything for the Spurs.
$3M isn't that much. A trade and/or the sue of the trade exception could put Spurs damn near the threshold.
maybe the spurs thought they might trade for someone that makes 3 million
gives them flexiablitly
also spurs have some money left to sign players to
And I highly doubt Spurs will cut Hill at the end of the training camp. Even if they have low balled him at 80% of the rookie scale, they have still invested $1.4M in him.
He's the guy they had flexibility with, so why not see who they can sign before they commit to $1M or thereabouts. They seem to be sweating the details on not going over the Lux Tax line. Hill's numbers were a "known" whereas some of their FA possibilities were "unknowns" contract-wise.The max Hill could make this season is $1,006,000, IIRC. The writer is either using erroneous information, his math is bad or my memory is bad.
The thing is though, unless I'm mistaken and I'm missing something, whether the Spurs signed Hill for 80% or 120% there was no effect on the Spurs in terms of salary cap, luxury threshold or anything else. The Spurs are $3M+ under the luxury threshold, far over the salary cap so I don't see a mathematical reason why Hill "holding off" would do anything for the Spurs.
Let's hope that Hill is a big help to our team.
I think the possibilities for Hill for the beginning of the season are pretty clear.
Low-end expectation: He's shipped off to Austin as soon as the Toros start up.
High-end expectation: He's Tony's primary backup from day 1.
And as far as the first few months go, I don't think there's much in-between.
Assuming the plan all along was to sign Hill to a 120% contract, by holding out the Spurs kept open ~$161K. That's so little that it's hard for me to believe the Spurs drug it out for this long for an amount of money that is likely less than what they've guaranteed to training camp invites.
I'd say it's more likely they held off signing him so that if they needed to use him in a trade to match salary, they wouldn't have to wait the required amount of days. Or that they held off signing him in hopes to get him to take an amount less than the 100% scale ... like they did with Mahinmi.
Stoudamire signs.....then.....Hill signs.
Maybe they were playing with 20%, but it was really 20% on either side of scale ($335K). The Spurs like cashing their lux tax checks every year, not contributing to everyone else.
Roster as of now:
C Oberto/Kurt
PF Duncan/Mahinmi/Tolliver
SF Bowen/Udoka
SG Manu/Mason/Finley/Stoudamire
PG Tony/Vaughn
The roster is pretty much set.
My guess is Hill, Bonner, and whoever loses between Vaughn, Finley, and Stoudamire go on the IR.
so how many partial and guarateed contracts do spurs have now
So McDonald is basically plagiarizing AP articles, complete with incorrect facts, and re-badging them. Nicely done.
Good point.
I'll look at the salaries later today and perhaps the committed salaries + possible salaries - luxury tax threshold = ~$150K
It wouldn't surprise me if Solid D is right and ahead of the curve yet again.
Didn't one of Hill's friends post here that he had signed or agreed to sign a four year deal last week?
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