SOOOOOOOO...RJ Opted Out

Let the guy walk! We shouldn’t over pay for this guy because he doesn’t fit the system and like you stated Wayne somebody sure as hell will over pay for his services now that he is out there. I see him getting paid well while playing for the sorry Knicks

Rumor: RJ wants to head back up state, out of the Spurs system.
Enter: Knicks and Mike D’Antoni run and gun system
RJ gets long term security in new contract and Knicks have a history of overspending.
Knicks missing out on LeBron and Joe Johnson. They have, I believe, 2(two) players under contract. (11 Mil. for 1 (one) player that doesn’t even play Snicker..)

Prediction: Spurs hold onto their cards, let everyone else bid themselves over the cap flooding the market with big dollars. When the tide rescedes, some nice fish might be available for cheap.

hah hah hah

Financially it’s a huge gamble. I wonder how much of it is about personal pride and hating how he got hammered by the coaching staff last year.

For all the negativity surrounding his performance I was impressed with how he stood up and took it. No tantrums really.

If that is the case and he just doesn’t want to have to go through it again I can live with that.

found this fantastic and damning assessment of the t wolves by Kelly Dwyer

They entered last week with three draft picks in the first round including a lottery selection, and potentially over $15 million in cap space including all the cap holds, and so far they’ve procured Martell Webster, Lazar Hayward, Wesley Johnson, Hamady N’Diaye, Darko Milicic (same guy), and Nikola Pekovic. Five million in cap space left.

Frankly if he leaves I kinda respect him for it. I was once stuck in a job that was a lousy fit for me but needed the money and the job market was lousy. I grew a bad attitude, messed up my reputation and hated that time – if I had to do it all over again I would have grown a pair and quit right away. The money is already spent and forgotten, but those years will burn in my memory forever.
And I did not even have the worst part that RJ has: every time he goes to a fan site or a newspaper they rag on him and talk about what a lousy deal he was.

He opted out simply for making sure he got the best quality contract for the long term before the new CBA. It definitely is not going to be as player friendly as it has in years past. This is why everyone is opting out and locking in right now.

Rudy Gay is definitely worth more money. Gooden is not though.

RJ is a smart, class-act Spur. I hope he stays with us and I hope he shows us everything we thought he would when we traded for him. Part of me thinks that if I were in his shoes, knowing I didn’t have a good first season in SA, but Pop still believed in me, I would take the challenge. He’s proved he can be a run and gun princeton offense player. Now, he can show he can be a team player in an orchestrated championship system.

There was some quote from RJ in the regular season about how Pop coaches yells at him a few times a game, but you don’t worry about it unless he stops yelling at you.

Hollinger has an article on ESPN about how there are more teams with big cap room than there are BIG name free agents. So he thinks that bidding will get way out of hand for 2nd tier players – especially if LeBron or Wade, etc. re-sign with their current teams.

But the reason I posted it here is what he said about RJ:

And we seem almost certain to see Richard Jefferson recoup the $15.2 million he forewent by opting out of the final year of his contract. In last year’s market, it would have been a long shot. This year? Heck, he might double or triple it.

I whole-heartedly believe you can get more value for your money than with RJ.

And don’t forget, when we’re talking about all this money being made by average NBA players in this economic climate :“We make a lot of money but we spend a lot too.”

shouldn’t the LLE be something like 3 or 4 million? I mean if the average player makes 5.2 and the MLE is at 5.8 or so, you’re targeting a slightly better than average player with the MLE. The LLE is closer to the veteran minimum than the average. It should split the difference.

if we forget last year, and say that we have a chance to sign RJ at a lower price and he already has the first year jitters out of the way, I think the front office sees this as a win win

I’m going to take a zen approach to the whole RJ thing.

If he resigns then I’ll be excited to see how much a year in the system would improve his production.

If he doesn’t resign, replacing his production from last year shouldn’t be that hard to do, be it by one player or by commitee.

The reality is he doesn’t deserve a 5 yr 45 million dolllars contract after the last couple of years, but if the FO thinks he could improve enough to earn it in the next couple of years, I’m fine with it.

I’d like to know how this whole ’replace RJ by committee" thing is going to work.

PTR isn’t the place where I see this idea floated the most, but you just reminded me how often I see it.

What’s important is not replacing RJ’s Numbers or production but replacing his contribution to the offense and defense in the minutes we gave him.

Hairston might be a good defender. Gee might be a good shooter. Of course we need both, at the same time – one skill without the other is a real step down from RJ, who was average in all aspects, a jack of all trades but master of none.

Tim Duncan is no longer dominant enough on either offense or defense that we can surround him with one-way role players.

We quickly got frustrated with RJ because it seemed like he didn’t do anything well. Also remember he doesn’t have any huge weaknesses in his game and is not as much as a gamble as signing over the minutes to a project like Hairston or Gee and hoping they polish the missing parts of their game would be.

I can appreciate finding a way to sneak him into Spurs basketball. LOL

At to the point, sure you can make a trade with a team that boasts plenty of cap room. Only you’re not looking to get a player but an asset. A trade exception. I gave an example of one here in a post entitled: That Just Happened (which I now know you can appreciate).

Could Jefferson still be traded?

Absolutely. Let’s say a team like New Jersey was interested in bringing back Jefferson, only this time at a much more reasonable rate. Say, 4-years and $32 million. The Spurs could then do a sign-and-trade with New Jersey for a conditional second-round pick and an $8 million dollar trade exception. That trade exception could then be used to acquire a player from a team looking to shed payroll or simply unload a player. If New Jersey needed some prodding and maybe a bit of a sweetener, the Spurs could take back Kris Humphries — 1-year and $3 million — and receive a trade exception for $5 million dollars.

For you sick puppies, I went ahead and broke down the financial ramifications (i.e. savings) in a little more detail to explain my previous post, so if you’re interested in the capology of the opt-out, give it a look-see. I tried to simplify it as best I could.

Here’s the link

I love how you tried to spin this into a good thing.

Well, I fhope we get Splitter, cuz I would flove having him next year!!