Mavs: agree with Wes Matthews to 4 year, 64 mill contract

[Franklin]

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ba...JfMQRzZWMDc2M-

One of the more intriguing situations of the 2015 free-agency season appears to be near a resolution. David Aldridge reported late Thursday night that injured unrestricted free agent shooting guard Wesley Matthews, most recently of thePortland Trail Blazers, hasagreed in principle to a four-year dealwith the Dallas Mavericks. ESPN.com's Marc Stein added thatthe dollar amount will not be finalizeduntil the Mavericks finish their attempts to sign power forwardLaMarcus Aldridge and center DeAndre Jordan, the latter of whom appears to have narrowed his choice to the Mavs and Los Angeles Clippers.[Follow Dunks Don't Lie on Tumblr: The best slams from all of basketball]
Aldridge also said that Matthews has notified the Sacramento Kingsthat he will not accept their more lucrative offer, which Stein tabbed atfour years and $64 million earlier Thursday. The Kings had engineereda much-criticized trade on Wednesday to open up cap space to sign some combination of Matthews, ex-Maverick and new Indiana Pacer Monta Ellis, and enigmatic point guard Rajon Rondo, also most recently of Dallas and the only member of the trio still available.
Once firmly entrenched as one of this summer's top prospective free agents, Matthews saw his stock dip in early March when he tore his left Achilles tendon during the second half of a home game against the Mavericks. Matthews entered free agency with the firm belief that he was still worth around $15 million per year in this market. Sacramento's offer confirms that at least one team agreed with him, and it stands to reason that Dallas's final figure can't be too much lower than $15 million if only not to damage their new shooting guard's pride. Yet Matthews poses a considerable risk given the poor history of full recoveries from Achilles tendon tears. The Mavericks will hope that Matthews bucks trends due to his age — he turns 29 in October — and considerable past success. Agent Jeff Austin deserves serious credit for finding Matthews a lucrative deal despite these factors.
If healthy, Matthews is one of the finest shooting guards in the NBA and an elite "3-and-D" wing. He has never shot worse than 38.2 percent from three-point range in any of his six professional seasons, ranks first in made three-pointers in Blazers history, and ranked fourth in the NBA in made threes at the time of his injury. He is also an excellent defender capable of defending several types of perimeter players, which could be a boon to a Dallas squad with defensive question marks. Although All-Star teammates Aldridge and Damian Lillardearned more attention, it was no surprise that Matthews's injury turned Portland from a conference- le contender into the playoff matchup every team wanted.
The risk of the Matthews deal is indicative of the Mavericks' offseason actions as a whole. The shooting guard has been said to be ahead of his rehab schedule, but this process usually takes eight to nine months and should keep him unavailable for the start of the season next fall. In addition, the Mavericks haven't yet added a starting-caliber point guard to replace Rondo and could have to turn to the notoriously plodding Roy Hibbert if they lose out on Jordan. With Dirk Nowitzkinearing retirement, the Mavericks are comporting themselves like a win-now team, but they have few assurances that they can add the right players to improve upon last season's seventh-place finish. Their plan could very well work, but Mark Cuban and Co. are betting on a lot of conditionals breaking their way. For all his talents, their commitment to Matthews is perhaps the biggest "if" of all.

[JamStone]

No contract this off season should be surprising or laughable. With the cap increase starting next summer, a max contract for players coming off rookie contracts will average over $23 million per, and obviously more after that when the cap increases again and again the following off seasons. The MLE will have an annual salary north of $10 million per. The contracts this off season (even the max ones) will be average size contracts for guys who are slightly better than MLE caliber type players. A below average player who would be worth $3-4 million per under the salary cap landscape of the last few years will be $7-8 million per type players.

All of the ridiculous contracts we will see this summer will pale by comparison to what contracts will be over the subsequent upcoming summers. Wes Matthews at $16 million per will be more akin to something like $9 million per. If anything, Monta Ellis sold himself short by signing for $11M per.

[djohn2oo8]

No contract this off season should be surprising or laughable. With the cap increase starting next summer, a max contract for players coming off rookie contracts will average over $23 million per, and obviously more after that when the cap increases again and again the following off seasons. The MLE will have an annual salary north of $10 million per. The contracts this off season (even the max ones) will be average size contracts for guys who are slightly better than MLE caliber type players. A below average player who would be worth $3-4 million per under the salary cap landscape of the last few years will be $7-8 million per type players.

All of the ridiculous contracts we will see this summer will pale by comparison to what contracts will be over the subsequent upcoming summers. Wes Matthews at $16 million per will be more akin to something like $9 million per. If anything, Monta Ellis sold himself short by signing for $11M per.

In this specific case, it's more about Cuban being an idiot and refusing to rebuild.

[JamStone]

In this specific case, it's more about Cuban being an idiot and refusing to rebuild.

The thing is even if the Mavs did pay Matthews $16M per and even if they sign Jordan for something similar, that doesn't prevent the Mavs from making rebuilding moves going forward. Even with Parsons contract, their payroll is flexible because remember Dirk only took about $8M per when he re-signed last year. You're talking about a payroll somewhere in the neighborhood of $55M just for those four guys, but a salary cap estimated near $89-90 million for 2016-17. And because most "long" contracts are now only 4 years long, even those big contracts of $15M per are movable because of the forthcoming increases to the salary cap.

Now, I understand the criticism of giving a big contract to a guy coming off an achilles injury. But that's an issue of whether they should have signed him at all. The dollar amount imo isn't something to criticize too much, particularly when you take into consideration that teams now also have a salary floor to meet. They have to spend the money anyway. Most contracts being signed this summer are still reasonably movable going forward with the possible exception of some of the Bird Rights max contracts that by the fifth year will be $20M+ salaries.

[Spurs9]

Portlands team is literally shrinking by the minute

[hehateme]

Haven't heard from tschlong in a while. Wonder how he feels about his team getting tier day by day.

[SPM]

The thing is even if the Mavs did pay Matthews $16M per and even if they sign Jordan for something similar, that doesn't prevent the Mavs from making rebuilding moves going forward. Even with Parsons contract, their payroll is flexible because remember Dirk only took about $8M per when he re-signed last year. You're talking about a payroll somewhere in the neighborhood of $55M just for those four guys, but a salary cap estimated near $89-90 million for 2016-17. And because most "long" contracts are now only 4 years long, even those big contracts of $15M per are movable because of the forthcoming increases to the salary cap.

Now, I understand the criticism of giving a big contract to a guy coming off an achilles injury. But that's an issue of whether they should have signed him at all. The dollar amount imo isn't something to criticize too much, particularly when you take into consideration that teams now also have a salary floor to meet. They have to spend the money anyway. Most contracts being signed this summer are still reasonably movable going forward with the possible exception of some of the Bird Rights max contracts that by the fifth year will be $20M+ salaries.

DJohn is a got, no reason to even engage that fool

[djohn2oo8]

DJohn is a got, no reason to even engage that fool

Lol Cuban paying Matthew's that kind of money coming off an Achilles injury

Lol Matthews rated worse on defense than Harden (pre injury)

[NBAFan]

The deal is for $12-13 million depending on Jordan deal.

[Mori Chu]

Horrible contract. The guy will never be the same after tearing that Achilles. Just look at Kobe post-Achilles; he's done.

[Kim Jong-il]

Horrible contract. The guy will never be the same after tearing that Achilles. Just look at Kobe post-Achilles; he's done.

1. The terms of the deal haven't even been released yet, dip .

2. The last two years you predicted the Suns would make it into the playoffs over Dallas, and then when that failed you predicted Dallas would get swept. Wrong as about the Mavs two straight years. So shut the up.

[Mori Chu]

ROFL mad. Look at the thread le, man. 4 years, 64 mil. Horrible. He probably won't even be able to play on opening night. And yeah I'm not always right, but I can still have opinions. I still think this is a horrible signing and the precedent for players coming back from Achilles injuries is NOT good.

http://regressing.deadspin.com/how-a...kobe-472944871

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/fantasy...tured-achilles

Methinks them Mavs will come to regret this particular signing.

[Franklin]

1. The terms of the deal haven't even been released yet, dip .

2. The last two years you predicted the Suns would make it into the playoffs over Dallas, and then when that failed you predicted Dallas would get swept. Wrong as about the Mavs two straight years. So shut the up.

Mono dropping truth nukes upon that , Asian implosion imho

[Franklin]

ROFL mad. Look at the thread le, man. 4 years, 64 mil. Horrible. He probably won't even be able to play on opening night. And yeah I'm not always right, but I can still have opinions. I still think this is a horrible signing and the precedent for players coming back from Achilles injuries is NOT good.

http://regressing.deadspin.com/how-a...kobe-472944871

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/fantasy...tured-achilles

Methinks them Mavs will come to regret this particular signing.

I know it may be a tough task for you s to read the lines written in English but I do believe it'd help a lot making yourself look less like an idiot if you bother to read some reports on that deal. Just like Kim said, the amount won't be finalized until the Jordan signing is done. 4yrs 64 million was what the Kings offered him, which he declined. There're doubts about his form coming back from a torn achilles, of course, but it's not like paying him 12-13m/yr is much worse than giving Carroll (who has only one skill) 15m/yr or Lopez 20m+ a year, tbh.