Splitter Waiting for Satisfactory Offer from Spurs

[ploto]

I'm sure they will come to an agreement soon.

There is not much of a rush for both sides when you think about it.

Splitter only has until July 15 to buy out of his contract in Europe.

[Mel_13]

Lots of good comments in here. Thanks to ElNono for the translation.

Just to add my 2 cents.

There is plenty to negotiate beyond what percentage of the MLE this contract will be based upon.

1. Contract length. I'd think that the Spurs would prefer to lock him up for the full five years while Splitter would probably prefer 3yrs (after which he has full Bird Rights and can get a max contract) plus a player option for the 4th year.

2. Trade kicker. CBA allows for a trade kicker of up to 15%.

3. Signing bonus. Players can receive up to 20% of the total value of the contract as a signing bonus. It doesn't affect the total value of the contract and the amount of the bonus is allocated against the team's salary cap over the term of the contract.

4. Pay schedule. I can't find the reference, but I'm fairly certain that players can receive up to 80% of their annual salary in their first paycheck of the season. I believe Kobe gets paid this way.

So, lots for the two parties to discuss. It would absurd for the Spurs to tell Splitter's agent "You can have the full MLE AND you can structure the deal any way you like".

[ploto]

Korver and Matthews will get deals starting around at least $3 million.

With Chicago getting desperate (if no LeBron), Korver will surely be offered even more than that.

[lurker23]

Spurs are trying to save part of the MLE for.....

Ryan Richards, so they can give him a 3-4 year contract and lock up the Splitter/Blair/Richards front court through 2012-13.

[rascal]

It matters from an assessment standpoint. Now that RJ opting out puts them under the luxury tax, I'm sure the ideal situation the FO is seeking is to remain there. So they need to know exactly how much are they under/over the salary cap, what the luxury tax is going to look like, and then determine how they want to spend the money they have available. If they're indeed intent in keeping RJ to a lower but extended contract, all those values need to be taken into account when extending him an offer sheet. And small tweaks on that offer and Tiago's may be needed to remain under the luxury tax threshold.

Agree. The spurs are trying to maximise the financial numbers that is why there has been no offer to Splitter yet.

[lurker23]

In all seriousness, I do think they would like to lock up Richards for more than 2 years (max they can give him without the MLE), but I doubt that's the driving force behind all this.

Spurs will get the final salary cap and MLE numbers tonight, and will have a solid offer on Tiago's desk by July 9th.

[Vic Petro]

Either they are trading Splitter (doubtful)

or

Trading Jefferson for a trade exemption to afford Matthews or Korver or Morrow (hopefully)

[lurker23]

Was just looking at the numbers salary-wise. We'll have the official cap/tax numbers tonight, but the last estimate for the luxury tax was approximately $68 million. The Spurs are at about $51 million for 6 guaranteed players (Duncan, McDyess, Blair, Hill, Ginobili, Parker).

That means the Spurs have about $16-17 million to play with if they want to stay under the tax. Here are some likely salaries to go along with those 6 guaranteed players:

2 of Hairston/Gee/Temple/Jerrells: $1.5 million, or $1.6 million if Hairston is one of the two.

James Anderson: $1,134,500 (this is 100% of rookie scale; Spurs have been known to give 80% at times, especially if numbers are tight)

Ryan Richards: minimum salary, approximately $0.5 million

That brings the Spurs up to 10 contracts at approximately $54.2 million, leaving them roughly $13.8 million to fill out 3 more spots. To show you how tight this could get for the Spurs (and why they're likely being extra careful with the financial numbers) here are two more rumored/speculated contracts to go with the above:

Splitter: $5.8 million
Jefferson: $7 million

That brings us up to $67.0 million with 12 players. (Granted, I've done some rough rounding during parts of these calculations; the Spurs will not do such rounding.)

Mathematicians in the Spurs front office, this is where you earn your money.

[Blackjack]

Was just looking at the numbers salary-wise. We'll have the official cap/tax numbers tonight, but the last estimate for the luxury tax was approximately $68 million. The Spurs are at about $51 million for 6 guaranteed players (Duncan, McDyess, Blair, Hill, Ginobili, Parker).

That means the Spurs have about $16-17 million to play with if they want to stay under the tax. Here are some likely salaries to go along with those 6 guaranteed players:

2 of Hairston/Gee/Temple/Jerrells: $1.5 million, or $1.6 million if Hairston is one of the two.

James Anderson: $1,134,500 (this is 100% of rookie scale; Spurs have been known to give 80% at times, especially if numbers are tight)

Ryan Richards: minimum salary, approximately $0.5 million

That brings the Spurs up to 10 contracts at approximately $54.2 million, leaving them roughly $13.8 million to fill out 3 more spots. To show you how tight this could get for the Spurs (and why they're likely being extra careful with the financial numbers) here are two more rumored/speculated contracts to go with the above:

Splitter: $5.8 million
Jefferson: $7 million

That brings us up to $67.0 million with 12 players. (Granted, I've done some rough rounding during parts of these calculations; the Spurs will not do such rounding.)

Mathematicians in the Spurs front office, this is where you earn your money.

I haven't crunched the numbers to say this is without flaw but I believe this to be a pretty damn good depiction at first glance.

It's all about creating the necessary flexibility when in most cases -- and most teams -- there isn't much to be found. But saving some of their MLE for second-rounders, negotiating pay-scale for their first-rounder, structuring salary to be more cap-friendly on a yearly basis for players with multiple years ... these are all things being considered, maneuvered and massaged as the Spurs try to maximize all the tools at their disposal to get the most for their money and out of their roster.

Nice post, lurker.

[Bender]

Nice post, lurker.

Lurker23 is 1st All ST in my book

[Fabbs]

Nah, he's right. The Spurs are probably the most shrewd franchise going and maybe the most creative in terms of structuring contracts and creating some room and flexibility when otherwise there'd be none.

Whether he does or not is another story, but it's just the smart and prudent due-diligence the Spurs have always been a prac ioner of.

Were you towel boi #2 with Eric_Park in the Bonner-Pop-Fin menage a trois?

[lurker23]

I haven't crunched the numbers to say this is without flaw but I believe this to be a pretty damn good depiction at first glance.

It's all about creating the necessary flexibility when in most cases -- and most teams -- there isn't much to be found. But saving some of their MLE for second-rounders, negotiating pay-scale for their first-rounder, structuring salary to be more cap-friendly on a yearly basis for players with multiple years ... these are all things being considered, maneuvered and massaged as the Spurs try to maximize all the tools at their disposal to get the most for their money and out of their roster.

Nice post, lurker.

Thanks, Blackjack. Here are some of the more exact numbers for those interested (all numbers taken from ShamSports):

Already guaranteed contracts:

18 835 381 (Duncan) + 13 650 000 (Parker) + 11 854 584 (Ginobili) + 4 860 000 (McDyess) + 854 389 (Hill, minimum salary for player w/ two years experience) + 918 000 (Blair) = 50 972 354

Gee/Temple/Jerrels potential salary: $762,195
Hairston potential salary: $854,389

(Side note: No matter what the Spurs do with the above 4 players, they have already guaranteed $50,000 to Hairston, $100,000 to Gee, and $35,000 to Temple.)

Anderson: minimum salary $907,600, maximum $1,361,400.

[Sigz]

Splitter sucks.

[Dex]

I'm not completely surprised by this. They haven't even decided on the salary cap or TEs yet, have they? Kind of hard to negotiate if you don't know what money you are working with.

I don't think you land Splitter for less than the MLE either, but maybe this is a good sign that the Spurs didn't just promise to offer as much money as they could throw at him.

Then again, maybe that's the right thing to do if we really want to get him over the pond.

[Blackjack]

Were you towel boi #2 with Eric_Park in the Bonner-Pop-Fin menage a trois?

Wait for it ....


Wait for it ....








You're such a repugnant putz.

[Sportcamper]

Splitter sucks.

Say what? A little weight training & SA TexMex…This guy could be 285 lbs in 8 months & terrorizing the NBA…

[Johnny RIngo]

Spurs better not be ing around with Splitter. It'd be a disastrous off-season if they lost both RJ AND Tiago.

[HarlemHeat37]

Losing RJ doesn't matter to me, but if Splitter isn't coming, then start the rebuilding..

[TJastal]

Say what? A little weight training & SA TexMex…This guy could be 285 lbs in 8 months & terrorizing the NBA…

lol @ Splitter at 285.

If he got that big he would need this to get up and down the court.

[urunobili]

where will the money come from to sign our first round pick?

[spurs_fan_in_exile]

I'm not exactly shocked. This offseason was shaping up to be a huge string of dominoes with so many bidders clearing out cap space for a run at FA's this summer. With Wade and Bosh committed and Lebron's announcement coming tomorrow it makes sense to wait until the picture grows much clearer before putting exact numbers out there. Maybe some unexpected trade offer comes out of that mess that shifts priorities. Probably not, but there's little likely harm in waiting another day or two.

I'm not nervous yet but I'd welcome hearing that there's been action on this deal sooner rather than later.

[Obstructed_View]

Splitter's deadline is a week after everyone else's. It's not like he has a lot of other options, so he's just going to have to wait. I'm sure he'd like to have an offer now. The Spurs would like to have had him in San Antonio two years ago. Them's the breaks.

[buttsR4rebounding]

Spurs are trying to save part of the MLE for.....

Ryan Richards, so they can give him a 3-4 year contract and lock up the Splitter/Blair/Richards front court through 2012-13.

I believe this is what is happening.

[Anonymous Cowherd]

My Calculations:

Tim Duncan 18.700
Tony Parker 13.500
Manu Ginobili 11.855
Antonio McDyess 4.860
George Hill 1.157
James Anderson 1.135
DeJuan Blair 0.918
Malik Hairston 0.854
Alonzo Gee 0.762
Garrett Temple 0.762
Curtis Jerrels 0.762
Ryan Richards 0.474
Tiago Splitter (MLE) 5.800


TOTAL 61.54

Salary Cap 56.1
Over 5.44

Luxury Tax 68.4
Under 6.86

[Blackjack]

Yeah, that's not happening . . .