RICHARD JEFFERSON opts OUT!!

[Shastafarian]

Yeah - it's super close. I still think they are over.

I wish I knew how to calculate all this .

[Crazymaddopeyo]

WojYahooNBA

Christmas morning in Spurs front office with Richard Jefferson opting out of $15 million. Incredible.

[mattyc]

What's Robert Horry doing these days?

[TheProfessor]

I wish I knew how to calculate all this .

Where's coyotes_geek when you need him?

[EricB]

WTF

how can it be christmas morning!?!?!?!?!?!?

Maybe for the owners if they didnt want to spend luxury tax anymore.





God.....

[Nazrat]

Does Anderson get time at the 3 position now?

[TimmehC]

You still get the MLE if him opting out puts us under the cap, which it does. As logn as you over the salary cap at the BEGINNING of the offseason, you get the MLE.

Offseason begins tomorrow, not today.

[ChuckD]

We'll say this:

If it puts them under the cap, they're screwed.

No, if they drop under the cap by LESS than the MLE, they still get the MLE, PLUS whatever cap room is there. Dropping under by $1 doesn't blow away your exceptions. Each exception goes away as you drop THAT much under the cap.

Hoopshype's salary page puts them about $52M minus Jefferson. If the cap stays the same or drops a bit, they should still have the MLE plus a couple mil of cap room.

[timvp]

I'm actually not that surprised. Yesterday I posted this when ESPN prematurely listed RJ as not opting out:

I heard a rumor that RJ was thinking about opting out to sign a 4-year, $35-40 million deal with the Nets ... but obviously that didn't pan out.

Welcome back, RJ

The rumor was from a good source and I hadn't heard anything different. That'll teach me to listen to ESPN . . .

Anyways, I think it's the right move for Jefferson.

1) I don't think he liked his role with the Spurs. He tried to talk as if it didn't bother him but the fit was just horrible.

2) From the rumor I heard, the Nets are really hot on his trail. Truth is, RJ never wanted to leave New Jersey. With a win-now coach in Avery Johnson in place, the Nets could sign Jefferson and someone like Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer or David Lee (or even Chris Bosh) and have an impressive starting lineup of Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Richard Jefferson, Big Name Power Forward and Brook Lopez.

3) With the CBA expiring, RJ would be smart to cash in this summer rather than risk it and go into next summer's unknown.

4) Another year in the Spurs' system would lower his stock a lot. He'd be a year older and I don't think he'd really see his stats improve. If anything, I think he'd get worse with Parker and hopefully Splitter eating up more shots. Right now, his stock is down but not horribly down. Other teams could justify his bad season as an adjustment to a difficult system to learn.

5) He's proven to be durable the last few years but with an ankle surgery in the past and back problems last year, RJ would be playing with fire by trying to get through another 82 games before inking his last deal.

6) There is an unprecedented amount of money for free agents this year. A feeding frenzy is about to take place the likes the NBA has never seen. RJ won't be a prime target but he's a solid fallback plan. For a contender, would you rather roll the dice on an enigmatic player like Rudy Gay or a more sure-thing like Richard Jefferson? When it's all said and done, I think RJ gets that four-year, $35-40 million deal I was hearing rumors about.

[Seventyniner]

I wish I knew how to calculate all this .

If I remember right, then if a team is under the cap by less than the amount of the MLE, they get the MLE instead of their cap space. This would be to prevent teams just under the cap from being punished for being under (vis a vis teams that are over). I could very well be wrong, though.

[tdunk21]

15 mil off of 67 mil payroll.....so thats 52mil and i dont know if there are any cap holds.....

[Shastafarian]

Where's coyotes_geek when you need him?

Definitely scrambling to jot down something that will make us all look dumb.

[TimmehC]

Does Anderson get time at the 3 position now?

Spurs don't really have any choice in the matter, if they can't find a replacement for cheap.

[dc_spursfan]

I'm happy RJ is gone but upset at him opting out. Now the Spurs lose a great trade asset and don't have the money to find a decent replacement SF.

[Vinnie_Johnson]

Merry Christmas you get rid of the .

[SenorSpur]

Attn K-Mart shoppers:

Blue light special over at the SF free agent bin.

[TDMVPDPOY]

shouldve traded for jax last season then this jackass wanker

[Seventyniner]

2) From the rumor I heard, the Nets are really hot on his trail. Truth is, RJ never wanted to leave New Jersey. With Avery Johnson as coach, the Nets could sign Jefferson and someone like Amare Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer or David Lee (or even Chris Bosh) and have an impressive starting lineup of Devin Harris, Courtney Lee, Richard Jefferson, Big Name Power Forward and Brook Lopez.

3) With the CBA expiring, RJ would be smart to cash in this summer rather than risk it and go into next summer's unknown.

Agreed on #3.

As for #2, would NJ be willing to let us sign-and-trade RJ, giving us a trade exception? That would go a long way towards fixing the roster.

[slick'81]

Man, out of all the times for Shamsports to be down.

For the record we are not under the cap with RJ opting out.

thats what i figured this doesnt help at all rj screwed the spurs big time we lost our major trade piece

[Mel_13]

Relax everyone.

Spurs will still have the MLE and the LLE.

[TheProfessor]

Definitely scrambling to jot down something that will make us all look dumb.

[Kori Ellis]

15 mil off of 67 mil payroll.....so thats 52mil and i dont know if there are any cap holds.....

You need to add cap holds to fill out the 12-man roster.

[Dr Cox]

so can we still sign and trade him? if so get rudy gay right now ..

[tdunk21]

Wait, that's my bad. Here you go:

http://blog.shamsports.com/2010/06/a...l#comment-form

Just scroll down to the Spurs part.

wow RJ ed us bad by opting out

[Seventyniner]

Wait, that's my bad. Here you go:

http://blog.shamsports.com/2010/06/a...l#comment-form

Just scroll down to the Spurs part.

Great find! This means even with Splitter and the LLE, the Spurs should stay under the tax.