Kawhi: 5 years $80 million per Bill Simmons?

[polandprzem]

He is not superstar for sakes - would not give him max or anything close to it.

[TheyCallMePro]

Sorry, but this is way too much money. Kawhi has never been the first, second, or even third option on this team. He won Finals MVP, but Ginobili and Diaw had better a PER than him in the Finals. Furthermore, he's just not a superstar. He simply lacks the elite athleticism and ability to dominate the stat sheet night in and night out. Seriously, this is franchise player money. And Kawhi is NOT the franchise. The Big 3 and Pop are.

I like Kawhi, but in the end, he's just a quality role player on a GREAT team. 8-10 million a year would have been perfectly reasonable. 16.5 million a year is not. That kind of money is for the FIRST option Superstar. And anyone calling Kawhi a SUPERstar is just being foolish. I almost want to agree with Durant now. This is getting out of hand. Kawhi has been great for us, but ultimately he's just another glorious piece in the Spurs system. You put Kawhi on the Milwaukee Bucks and things are way different.

[phyzik]

I like Kahwi, but IMHO he still needs another year to prove himself worthy of $16mil a year.... hopefully this is just a rumor.... if not, hopefully Kahwi proves himself worthy for that type of money.

[SupremeGuy]

You match a max deal, and you offer a five-year near-max deal. You don't offer a max extension.

This, tbh.

[Brazil]

You match a max deal, and you offer a five-year near-max deal. You don't offer a max extension.

Yup

[TheyCallMePro]

Seriously, Kawhi is still extremely shy on the offensive end. He still passes up too many shots and hesitates too much. The Spurs system relieves him of a lot of the offensive burden. Pop even said he never called a single play on offense for Kawhi this year. I believe it. He's not even close to our first option. We'd run a play first for Danny Green at the end of a game instead of Kawhi--and that's no joke.

5 years/80 million is superstar money. Kawhi is not even close to a superstar. Kawhi should get something like 4 years/48 million. Anything more is ridiculous. And the Spurs need to wait until NEXT summer to extend him, so that the open market can properly determine his value before the Spurs do something stupid and give him something like 5 years/80 million.... I guarantee you no team will pay him that kind of money after being in the Spurs system for the last 4 years. That will in turn make it much easier and more cost-effective for us to sign him, and he can sign a reasonable contract fitting of his status as a very quality role player on a great team.

[rasuo214]

Sorry, but this is way too much money. Kawhi has never been the first, second, or even third option on this team. He won Finals MVP, but Ginobili and Diaw had better a PER than him in the Finals. Furthermore, he's just not a superstar. He simply lacks the elite athleticism and ability to dominate the stat sheet night in and night out. Seriously, this is franchise player money. And Kawhi is NOT the franchise. The Big 3 and Pop are.

I like Kawhi, but in the end, he's just a quality role player on a GREAT team. 8-10 million a year would have been perfectly reasonable. 16.5 million a year is not. That kind of money is for the FIRST option Superstar. And anyone calling Kawhi a SUPERstar is just being foolish. I almost want to agree with Durant now. This is getting out of hand. Kawhi has been great for us, but ultimately he's just another glorious piece in the Spurs system. You put Kawhi on the Milwaukee Bucks and things are way different.

Kawhi's PER was 3rd on the team during the regular season (higher than Parker) he had the highest WS on the team despite missing games due to injury (easily the highest WS/48). That's not to say he deserves max but if you're going to use his PER in the finals to discredit his contribution to the team then it's a little silly because he has had a big impact on this team. He's a much bigger impact player than Splitter (which is where you think he's worth).

Also the Big 3 aren't sticking around forever someone else is going to get paid and it isn't going to be them. If Kawhi was on the Buck he'd be taking a lot more shots and would easily have better numbers probably not as efficient though (something like Luol Deng/Andre Iguodala in his prime type numbers wouldn't surprise me).

[koriwhat]

Sorry, but this is way too much money. Kawhi has never been the first, second, or even third option on this team. He won Finals MVP, but Ginobili and Diaw had better a PER than him in the Finals. Furthermore, he's just not a superstar. He simply lacks the elite athleticism and ability to dominate the stat sheet night in and night out. Seriously, this is franchise player money. And Kawhi is NOT the franchise. The Big 3 and Pop are.

I like Kawhi, but in the end, he's just a quality role player on a GREAT team. 8-10 million a year would have been perfectly reasonable. 16.5 million a year is not. That kind of money is for the FIRST option Superstar. And anyone calling Kawhi a SUPERstar is just being foolish. I almost want to agree with Durant now. This is getting out of hand. Kawhi has been great for us, but ultimately he's just another glorious piece in the Spurs system. You put Kawhi on the Milwaukee Bucks and things are way different.

role players don't drop 3 consecutive 20 pt games in the finals. pop is always preaching that kawhi is next in line to take this team over and i'll definitely agree with pop before i agree with any of you here.

[manufan10]

Since The Betrayal the Spurs might as well trade Kawhi. Not going to win it all next year anyway. Time to unload everyone.

[koriwhat]

plus i was discussing this earlier today with a friend... if lebron is the best in the world, right now, then what's that make his opposition in kawhi? i mean, kawhi came out on top even receiving FMVP and not being glued to the bench back to back during the end of the 4th like lebron was. role player or real deal? the best got beat by the real king.

[DMC]

He got us 5 so I don't really care if he got Kobe money because he's more effective at this stage than Kobe tbh.

[DrunkTXLabrat]

Not being a , but he was the best player on a championship team

x2... and good lord. x3!

[DMC]

Since The Betrayal the Spurs might as well trade Kawhi. Not going to win it all next year anyway. Time to unload everyone.

What's the betrayal?

[Ron Swanson]

You match a max deal, and you offer a five-year near-max deal. You don't offer a max extension.

Exactly.

[TheDarkSide.]

Like it's been said after the big 3 or even just Duncan and Ginobili are gone nobody will be lining up at that door, they never have. Lock him up at all cost and build around him.

[manufan10]

What's the betrayal?

Manu playing international basketball.

it was beautiful while it lasted

best ST couple of days ever

June, 20th 2014 will always be remembered as the betrayal.

[Nathan89]

If this mother er wants the Spurs to win he better not demand the max.

[Uriel]

Kawhi is great, but he does not deserve to be the highest paid player on a championship team full of accomplished veterans.

A salary of 12M/yr is fair for all parties involved. And his salary would be slightly less than that of Tony Parker's.

[FkLA]

They're paying for his potential, not for the 13/6 he put up. Obviously the role he will play a couple of years into his second contract will be dramatically different than the one he plays right now. There's plenty of players that have blown up after their first threes, I'm pretty sure he will be one of them. Pop seems to feel the same way as well which is all that really matters tbh.

[HI-FI]

I said before if he helped us ring, I wouldn't give a about his contract. I gotta stay true to that, although it would be great if it was a hometown discount obviously. But ultimately i got faith in RC and Kawhi reaching a good deal.

[Nathan89]

Not being a , but he was the best player on a championship team

He was only on a championship team because a load of people took less than their market value.

[SnakeBoy]

Heard it on ESPN 1250 earlier today and the guy gave KSAT12 credit. Wouldn't go into effect until the 2015-2016 season obviously. Also mentioned Kawhi will be on national TV (Strahan&Kelly Show) on Wednesday morning.

Pure speculation due to nothing else to talk about. Here is the article others are quoting as their source...
http://www.expressnews.com/sports/sp...394927fc3fb#/0

In it McDonald just states what the max is not that the Spurs have actually offered it...

Beginning July 1, Leonard is eligible for a contract extension. The maximum the Spurs can offer him, under the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, is a five-year deal worth a tad less than $79 million.

[Chinook]

Pure speculation due to nothing else to talk about. Here is the article others are quoting as their source...
http://www.expressnews.com/sports/sp...394927fc3fb#/0

In it McDonald just states what the max is not that the Spurs have actually offered it...

And McDonald is incorrect. The max is going to be about $10 Million more than that.

[Leetonidas]

People always talking on here about how Manu's contract was warranted because of his past accomplishments tbh don't see how this shouldn't apply to Leonard, just won a FMVP at 22 years old, give him the ing max he deserves every penny for this le alone imho

[100%duncan]

Lol kawhi being a role player. off