Which Richards? Our second round draft pick Richards won't eat from MLE i guess.
They are referring to Ryan Richards, our second round pick in this year's draft. The Spurs apparently are hoping to save some of the MLE to sign him and if the reports are correct that Splitter is coming over for less than the $5.8M MLE than the remaining amount can be used to pay for Richards.
Good find. Do I also read that he may sign a three-year contract with the final year not guaranteed? (That doesn't sound right so my Spanish is probably wrong.)
Looking at the market, something like three years and $15 million for Splitter would be fair for both sides.
As far as I know, the teams can sign with their draft picks without touching their MLE? Am I wrong?
Usually that is the case. A team can always sign their 1st round selections without incident. Also, a team can always sign a player to a minimum contract (or veteran minimum) regardless of their cap situation. Second round picks are unique in that all a team is obligated to give them is a non-veteran minimum contract. However, a team is able to sign them for more if they choose. However, to do this the team must either be under the cap or utilize an exception to ink the deal.
The most common type of situation where a 2nd rounder gets more than a minimum contract are foreigners who stay overseas and then sign later for significant contracts (ie, Manu). However, it does happen occasionally with domestics as well (Blair).
You can sign a second round pick to a minimum contract but the max length is 2 years.
Ryan Richards was arguably the less NBA ready player of the whole draft. Only Favors was younger and Richards has played at a very low level in Europe. The idea with using a part of the MLE would be to lock to a 3 or 4 years contract (with only 1 or 2 years guaranteed). It's about having a long term project locked with a long term contract.
Splitter's first year of contract needs to be $5.3M or lower if Spurs want to have enough left on their MLE to sign Richards.
The article linked seems ready for ESPN: there's not one bit of information in it
What they say is:
- according to Texas news sources: 5 years deal
- according to "other" (totally unknown) sources, what they call a "more realistic" possibility: 3 years with only the first 2 guaranteed
- according to their own sources (whoever that might be), the contract would be in the range of $4.5-5 million.
In the same article they claim "San Antonio Express" is a "newspaper of reference".
I'd approach this Spanish article with a huge grain of salt.
But if we're not bringing Ryan this year, we shouldn't sign him at the moment. Am I right?
Is Ryan coming NBA to play in Toros this year, or will he continue to play in Gran Canaria again?
Richards will likely be signed this summer. He doesn't want to be stashed in Europe and Spurs are said to be fine with that. Playing with Toros will help way more his development than staying in Europe.
Bruno, do you agree Richards is 2-3 years from contributing in the nba? I respect your opinion, that's why I'm asking.
Richards is a very long term project. Barring a miracle, he will spend his whole first year in Austin.
Yeah Im even less optimistic but hopefully our FO is right about Richards. He seems like a really nice guy and I hope for him to learn and improve. Anyways second round picks are just bonuses. I think signing Splitter is 20 times more important.
Veteran teams such as the Spurs can afford to gamble on these 2nd round picks. By taking a player such as Richards or the Lakers by taking Ebanks and Carracter they are gambling that these players down the road turn into a productive player. They know they will not be putting these players in a position to contribute for a year or two.
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
