kekgeek1 wrote:Nowell and Naz options picked up. Meaning both are UFA next year
This is the right call, in my opinion. I think Naz Reid's days in Minnesota are numbered and there's a chance they work out an extension with Jaylen Nowell either before or during the season.
I'm worried about the Nowell situation. But I'm a worrier at heart
I am fine with Naz being traded or walking. I don't see him as a long term difference maker. I am a bit concerned with letting Nowell become an UFA next year. If he breaks out next season, we'll have to pay market value to try to keep him and not have bird rights to match which tends to suppress offers.
Bird Rights essentially allow teams to sign their players while operating over the cap. Minnesota would still have Jaylen Nowell's Bird Rights. He just wouldn't be a restricted free agent, therefore the Wolves wouldn't have the ability to match another team's offer sheet. That's what you're referring to.
That's right. The Wolves will have his Bird rights and will be able to pay him whatever they want to keep him - of course up to the individual player max, which I'm sure won't be an issue. :)
Ok I read some of the CBA FAQ and now I'm tired so I'll leave my takeaways. I'm pretty sure ai have this info right but I'm not gonna go over it much more now because it probably doesn't matter for a few months.
Let's say the Wolves wanted to do an extension. With Nowell. The most they could offer him would be 120% of the average salary for the league. That's similar but not exactly the same as the mid-level salary but it's pretty close so yeah. That lines up roughly with the 55 million extension that Dallas could have done multiple times and then didn't do. Reading another article about that now I think that's another reason why Brunson is leaving the Mavs. He was open to taking the money according to his day but the Mavs wouldn't do it. I don't feel bad for the Mavs now. Anyways so sometimes in this upcoming season if the Wolves decide they want to lock in Nowell for a pretty decent chunk of money they can do that. Like Brunson Nowell might be included to take an extension and take the security of having a pretty nice chunk of change instead of waiting to see what happens and an injury could derail his whole career. We have seen plenty of players in positions take extensions for possibly less than what they could get on the open market.
Meanwhile the Wolves could wait especially if they were looking to open up cap space for the offseason as Nowel would have a small 4 million cap hold and they could sign him for pretty much whatever they wanted since they would have his bird rights. The pro balm with that could be like Brunson it might cost either the player leaving for nothing or costs more to retain him.
Either way the Wolves have some good avenues to keep Nowell around beyond this season. Before they commit to him it probably makes sense to see him play some this coming season and see if he is the guy they hope he can be. Nowell is a guy that hasn't made much money yet so I could see an extension that would pay say even 40 or more million to be pretty appealing. Nowell hasn't proven himself or had the opportunity to do so as much as Brunson did at the same points of their careers. Brunson started quite a few games his rookie year. Based on what he has done so far Nowell is closer to fighting for his NBA career than having a resume of a guy looking for a significant payday. I say that being a huge Nowell fan. Everyone also acknowledges that he could really breakout this year and Finch saying what he did about him makes that case fee even stronger.
Thanks, Monster. That's a great summary of the Wolves' options with Nowell under the CBA. I agree with the approach you suggested -- i.e., see how Nowell performs the first half or so of this season and if he does well offer a multi-year extension at the 120% level. In other words, do with Nowell what Dallas failed to do with Brunson. I think that plan would require Finchy to follow through on his desire to give Nowell a bigger role in the rotation. And that, in turn, would seem to require the Wolves to trade either Beasley or DLO.
lipoli390 wrote:Thanks, Monster. That's a great summary of the Wolves' options with Nowell under the CBA. I agree with the approach you suggested -- i.e., see how Nowell performs the first half or so of this season and if he does well offer a multi-year extension at the 120% level. In other words, do with Nowell what Dallas failed to do with Brunson. I think that plan would require Finchy to follow through on his desire to give Nowell a bigger role in the rotation. And that, in turn, would seem to require the Wolves to trade either Beasley or DLO.
Also it's worth noting that for Nowell it doesn't really make sense to have declined his option and make him a RFA when there is the option to do an extension. I had forgotten about doing an extension previously. The other advantage of an extension compared to declining his option for this season is that if the Wolves want to be able to use the full mid level they want to keep Nowell at his current salary to stay under the Lux tax. With an extension they can keep him for another cheap year while giving him a raise. If they had more financial flexibility this season and wanted to give him more money this season and maybe therefore lower what he would cost in future seasons they could have declined the option and worked out a new contract. With the extension the Wolves can also wait and see what happens and for Nowell he may want to wait and see if they make moves to actually give him a more significant role going forward.
lipoli390 wrote:Thanks, Monster. That's a great summary of the Wolves' options with Nowell under the CBA. I agree with the approach you suggested -- i.e., see how Nowell performs the first half or so of this season and if he does well offer a multi-year extension at the 120% level. In other words, do with Nowell what Dallas failed to do with Brunson. I think that plan would require Finchy to follow through on his desire to give Nowell a bigger role in the rotation. And that, in turn, would seem to require the Wolves to trade either Beasley or DLO.
Also it's worth noting that for Nowell it doesn't really make sense to have declined his option and make him a RFA when there is the option to do an extension. I had forgotten about doing an extension previously. The other advantage of an extension compared to declining his option for this season is that if the Wolves want to be able to use the full mid level they want to keep Nowell at his current salary to stay under the Lux tax. With an extension they can keep him for another cheap year while giving him a raise. If they had more financial flexibility this season and wanted to give him more money this season and maybe therefore lower what he would cost in future seasons they could have declined the option and worked out a new contract. With the extension the Wolves can also wait and see what happens and for Nowell he may want to wait and see if they make moves to actually give him a more significant role going forward.
That's right, Monster. The Wolves' front office obviously had their off-season plan calibrated perfectly to bring back the guys they like while leaving one roster spot and the full MLE to fill it without exceeding the luxury tax threshold. Picking up Nowell's option rather than extending him this summer was obviously part of that carefully calibrated plan.
lipoli390 wrote:Thanks, Monster. That's a great summary of the Wolves' options with Nowell under the CBA. I agree with the approach you suggested -- i.e., see how Nowell performs the first half or so of this season and if he does well offer a multi-year extension at the 120% level. In other words, do with Nowell what Dallas failed to do with Brunson. I think that plan would require Finchy to follow through on his desire to give Nowell a bigger role in the rotation. And that, in turn, would seem to require the Wolves to trade either Beasley or DLO.
Also it's worth noting that for Nowell it doesn't really make sense to have declined his option and make him a RFA when there is the option to do an extension. I had forgotten about doing an extension previously. The other advantage of an extension compared to declining his option for this season is that if the Wolves want to be able to use the full mid level they want to keep Nowell at his current salary to stay under the Lux tax. With an extension they can keep him for another cheap year while giving him a raise. If they had more financial flexibility this season and wanted to give him more money this season and maybe therefore lower what he would cost in future seasons they could have declined the option and worked out a new contract. With the extension the Wolves can also wait and see what happens and for Nowell he may want to wait and see if they make moves to actually give him a more significant role going forward.
That's right, Monster. The Wolves' front office obviously had their off-season plan calibrated perfectly to bring back the guys they like while leaving one roster spot and the full MLE to fill it without exceeding the luxury tax threshold. Picking up Nowell's option rather than extending him this summer was obviously part of that carefully calibrated plan.
Yeah and with Finch talking up Nowell I wonder if Nowell and the Wolves have had some sort of discussions about an extension. Again i think the Wolves need to make some sort of move to make a path for Nowell before that happens. It would be interesting to know what number the Wolves would be willing to offer Nowell in an extension. I would think if Nowell was to agree to something it would have to be worth enough over a vet min deal to make him want to lock in a sure thing. With that line of thinking then I would think a contract starting at 5 million would be the lowest he would consider.
I would think that finding an appropriate trade for Malik Beasley before finalizing an extension with Jaylen Nowell would make sense. I think doing the latter first tips their hand that Beasley is even more expendable than they've made him appear. Luckily, I don't think Beasley will be difficult to move for value.
Camden wrote:I would think that finding an appropriate trade for Malik Beasley before finalizing an extension with Jaylen Nowell would make sense. I think doing the latter first tips their hand that Beasley is even more expendable than they've made him appear. Luckily, I don't think Beasley will be difficult to move for value.
I think you're probably right about that, Cam. On the other hand, I think Beasley's trade value will be driven by competition among teams that would like to have him. Beasley is a very attractive asset, which is why you're right that he won't be difficult to move. So the leverage point you made, while still relevant, is probably not significant.
Camden wrote:I would think that finding an appropriate trade for Malik Beasley before finalizing an extension with Jaylen Nowell would make sense. I think doing the latter first tips their hand that Beasley is even more expendable than they've made him appear. Luckily, I don't think Beasley will be difficult to move for value.
I think you're probably right about that, Cam. On the other hand, I think Beasley's trade value will be driven by competition among teams that would like to have him. Beasley is a very attractive asset, which is why you're right that he won't be difficult to move. So the leverage point you made, while still relevant, is probably not significant.
All good points. I also think for Nowell he may want to actually see a role opened up for him before he makes the commitment. The Wolves can say they will make a deal and I don't think they would go back on that once Nowell was signed but they could. It just seems to make sense for all the reasons to talk about the extension in this case more after the roster is settled. If Nowell was more proven I think it would be different. Dalllas screwed up with Brunson. Hopefully the Wolves don't make a similar mistake (assuming an extension is a reasonable number) because they want to stay flexible.
