Nemanja Bjelica

[Handlogten's Heros]

Reputations matter. If as an agent or a team, you develop a reputation of ignoring verbal commitments, no on ewill trust you anymore. Players have shorter careers, and less to lose that way.

Not necessarily... Jordan and the mavens reconciled.

I just think I’d have a really hard time with a player agreeing then taking a bigger offer later if the offer was made legally after free agency had opened.

 

[TheStormofWar]

A contract isn't a contract until it's signed. If the Kings are going to give him more years, more dough, or both, more power to him.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

A contract isn't a contract until it's signed. If the Kings are going to give him more years, more dough, or both, more power to him.

This is not necessarily true... a verbal agreement is enforceable in some cases. I'm fairly sure that if the shoe was on the other foot Bjelica could seek financial restitution. I think forcing performance is too tough and no team would pursue it.

Again - if this was the Jazz we'd all have a different opinion of this move... imagine getting a commitment... making other moves or foregoing other moves and then having this happen when the cupboards are bare. Say next year Niko does this to us... 2 weeks later says nah I'm going somewhere else for more... we gonna be cheering him for "getting his".

The Bjelica deal is small so it isn't a big deal... I could see this being a problem in the future if it became more common place.

 

[Game6Conley]

Serbian connection bruhs. connect the dots

 

[Hitman]

Just a shady deal... no penalty... just think I’d be pissed if I was the sixers... not sure they can force performance on a verbal agreement... I guess Deandre got out of it years ago.

Turkoglu stiffed the Blazers long before that too.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

Really?!?!? I’m not 100% sure on this.

So why wouldn’t a free agent agree on something and then keep shopping for a better offer... or why can’t a team do the same thing... like with Ersan, say the bucks see what someone else is willing to sign for and then changes their mind and signs them... Ersan can’t sue for some financial damages?

I just don’t know how you enforce it on the team side.

Another example... a lot of guys wait to sign because if you do things in the right order you create cap space. Like joe Harris hasn’t signed yet because they are using space first and he has a low cap hold... what if they say never mind Joe... there aren’t teams with space left so he might not get an offer that gets close to what he verbally agreed to.

I’m glad it happened to the Sixers... eff those tanking, arrogant, burner account turds.

No, they can't sue. The Bucks could not sign him, but that would really damage the agent/team relationship. Players can do it because their agents are really powerful. It's not like the league can blackball Priority Sports and all the players they represent. That's why players sign on to big agencies. You might be a mid-level player, but teams know if they do you dirty like that, then your agent could hold it over their head later by not having their higher profile client meet with them, or not having their draft clients agree to workouts.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

No, they can't sue. The Bucks could not sign him, but that would really damage the agent/team relationship. Players can do it because their agents are really powerful. It's not like the league can blackball Priority Sports and all the players they represent. That's why players sign on to big agencies. You might be a mid-level player, but teams know if they do you dirty like that, then your agent could hold it over their head later by not having their higher profile client meet with them, or not having their draft clients agree to workouts.

I’ll bet the player could sue... if they relied on the verbal agreement then had clear monetary damages I’ll bet they’d win.

 

[Saint Cy of JFC]

I’ll bet the player could sue... if they relied on the verbal agreement then had clear monetary damages I’ll bet they’d win.

No, I really dont think they can.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

No, I really dont think they can.

K well unless you are a lawyer I will stick with my own understanding

 

[Jack Strop]

Really?!?!? I’m not 100% sure on this.

So why wouldn’t a free agent agree on something and then keep shopping for a better offer... or why can’t a team do the same thing... like with Ersan, say the bucks see what someone else is willing to sign for and then changes their mind and signs them... Ersan can’t sue for some financial damages?

I just don’t know how you enforce it on the team side.

Another example... a lot of guys wait to sign because if you do things in the right order you create cap space. Like joe Harris hasn’t signed yet because they are using space first and he has a low cap hold... what if they say never mind Joe... there aren’t teams with space left so he might not get an offer that gets close to what he verbally agreed to.

I’m glad it happened to the Sixers... eff those tanking, arrogant, burner account turds.

Teams can do the same. Until a contract is signed, they can decide to rescind an offer. It's happened in the past. And they can pull a QO off the table. Of course, it's a gentleman's agreement like we had with Ingles. Jazz purposely delayed signing his deal - with Joe's permission - so they could use cap room for two of Udoh, Jerebko and Thabo and then only have to use part of the MLE for the last one.

Teams and FA's generally won't do that, though...as someone else mentioned, it's just bad for business.

What I want to know is why the deal wasn't signed as soon as the moratorium ended and he agreed. Obviously, there was a problem somewhere. Sixers maybe told him they were looking to complete other deals (like a Kawhi trade) and kept him out in the cold. Perhaps when they failed to commit, Bjelica said he wasn't waiting any longer because he needed a contract. Teams are running out of space. Bjelica was bearing all the risk.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Teams can do the same. Until a contract is signed, they can decide to rescind an offer. It's happened in the past. And they can pull a QO off the table. Of course, it's a gentleman's agreement like we had with Ingles. Jazz purposely delayed signing his deal - with Joe's permission - so they could use cap room for two of Udoh, Jerebko and Thabo and then only have to use part of the MLE for the last one.

Teams and FA's generally won't do that, though...as someone else mentioned, it's just bad for business.

QO is completely different... it’s an offer... not an agreement. If He player accepts said offer it cannot be pulled.

It’s a hypothetical so I’m not arguing it anymore, but a verbal agreement is an enforceable agreement in many businesses and if relied on to the detriment of the player I think they could sue for economic damages if there were any... can’t intentionally deceive someone have them rely on it and then hurt them economically... maybe they’d get off on a technicality...

There is the business side of course... but I think if the team did it to a player there would be some recourse.

 

[Handlogten's Heros]

Verbal agreements are binding. The NBA does do somethings different than the business world in general. In general verbal contracts can be hard to enforce but in the NBA there seems to be a lot of witnesses and the terms are pretty broadly announced. So it seems easy to enforce than most cases.

I am sure if the 76ers or whoever sued they would probably win the case. But teams dont really want a player that has no interest in playing for them and it seems teams dont really push this. It just burns a bridge

Exactly my point... the specific performance on the player side is tough to enforce... if he had a lesser known agent the team might make a stink and prevent him from signing with another team.

If the team did this to a player they may not have to sign them but they could sue for the difference in the contract amounts.