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The Long Term Implications of the Matthews Match

This is tough. I am not sure Wesley is worth that much money over that many years. It is one thing to be overpaid for a season or two, but you are going to have him on the books for FIVE freakin' seasons. Is Wesley a cornerstone? Is he the answer at SG for the next half decade? How much "upside" does he have? How will this affect the restructured cap and salary rules in the NBA? Portland is taking a huge gamble on this for essentially a backup SG they see as a defensive specialist, but I suspect Portland will use his as a permanant piece of trade filler for other marque players.

Why not...slide CJ down to SG and start Hayward at SF to speed up his development. Sign Strange Brew to be your cheaper, off-the-bench energy guy. And bring in another FA as another bench wing player. I don't think Matthews won't be missed that much at all in Utah...while in Portland he will not get a lot of minutes and will eat up a roster spot and cap space.
 
Great points by Thriller, write4u and jazzman12.
And Bentley...there is a HUGE dropoff from Matthews to Brewer. About equal defensively - Brewer takes more chances, Wes plays more straight-up. But do you understand how rare it is for a SG to hit 48% on his FG's? Who else did last season? I'll give you some help. Here are some of the players who didn't: DWade, Kobe, Allen, Johnson, Crawford.
It is really amusing how often Matthews' FG% is brought up as an indication that he is a good SG. Who else did it last eason? Pretty much every shooting guard on the Jazz: Brewer and Korver had 49 FG%. Or such outstanding SGs as Bill Walker, Sonny Weems, Marquis Daniels or DeMar DeRozan.

It is quite easy to shoot a high % if you are a fifth option on on the court on a team that runs a structured offense using players that are willing to pass. But what happened when the Jazz lost two of their first options for the 2010 playoffs and Matthews was all of a sudden forced to become not the last, but the third option? His shooting percentage plummeted to 39%, that what happened!

Guys like DWade, Kobe or Allen carry their teams as the first-second option on offense. If you put Matthews in that position no way he would be able to shoot even 45% - he is simply not good enough to outplay elite defenders or to break down double teams. And, since you specifically mentioned them, both Allen and Wade did shoot 48% in the 2009-2010 regular season.
 
I think most of the Matthews threads are only considering the short term effect of matching. What we really need to look at it, is the long term. We traded RB because we felt he wasn't the long-term answer, and thought that Matthews might be that guy. If he is, then no way should we not match.

I think it's too big a contract for him. That being said, if the cap hit is multiplied to be 5.5 million a year throughout the contract, then I won't be as upset as I was when I thought like 9 million or so would be the cap hit for the first year. Keeping in mind I only have the most basic knowledge about how the cap works in the NBA.
 
I'm pretty sure Matthews Cap Hit is his annual salary year to year plus the pro-rated signing bonus. For ease of numbers, say the signing bonus was 5 million. That would mean his first year salary is 5.75 mil + 1 mil for a 6.75 hit. The signing bonus may be less, but I think this is how it works. Thus, in year 5, if his salary was 7.5, his Cap Hit would be 8.5.
 
On the other hand, his 5th year salary can never reach $7.5 million if he gets $5 million up front.

Isn't his first year salary 5.75? In any case, I'm pretty sure it was reported in the Trib his final 3 years were "approximately" 6, 6.5, and 7. But if I recall correctly, the Arenas provision limits his second year salary. Thus his contract, if structured to maximums, would look something like 5.7, 5.7, 6.2, 6.7, and 7.2. I don't think the numbers matter so much as you add the prorated bonus onto each year to determine the Cap Hit.
 
I don't think the numbers matter so much as you add the prorated bonus onto each year to determine the Cap Hit.

Offhand, I can't see where it makes much difference.

Two scenarios:

1. 35 million over 5 years, no front-loading: Average per year = $7 million

2. 35 million over 5 years, with $5 million paid in advance the first year. $30 left to pay, so average per year = $6 million (plus 1 for cap purposes = 7 million)
 
Offhand, I can't see where it makes much difference.

Two scenarios:

1. 35 million over 5 years, no front-loading: Average per year = $7 million

2. 35 million over 5 years, with $5 million paid in advance the first year. $30 left to pay, so average per year = $6 million (plus 1 for cap purposes = 7 million)

The difference is the Cap Hit specific to year. It averages the same. But practically speaking, it makes a slight difference. If he makes 7 every year (with no bonus), it's a Cap Hit of 7 every year. If he makes graduated salaries, his Cap Hit in Year 3, for example, when he's making 6.5 in salary, becomes a 7.5 Cap Hit with the bonus in the example. Similarly, his 6.7 becomes a 7.7. And 7.2 becomes 8.2. The numbers are fairly close, but what it means is divorcing from Wes is a little harder in later years because any team acquiring him absorbs the extra Cap Hit. By the same token, our Cap Hit in the last 3 years is higher than his salary.
 
Isn't his first year salary 5.75? In any case, I'm pretty sure it was reported in the Trib his final 3 years were "approximately" 6, 6.5, and 7. But if I recall correctly, the Arenas provision limits his second year salary. Thus his contract, if structured to maximums, would look something like 5.7, 5.7, 6.2, 6.7, and 7.2. I don't think the numbers matter so much as you add the prorated bonus onto each year to determine the Cap Hit.

I'm torn too but does anyone have the yearly breakdown with his cap figures??
 
it makes a slight difference
Yeah, that's why I said I couldn't see where it made "much" (as opposed to "any") difference. The differences seem minor, and probably not worth worryin about, but it seems to me like the effect would be the opposite of what you're claimin in the rest of this post.

And 7.2 becomes 8.2. The numbers are fairly close, but what it means is divorcing from Wes is a little harder in later years because any team acquiring him absorbs the extra Cap Hit. By the same token, our Cap Hit in the last 3 years is higher than his salary.

Our cap hit is "higher than his salary" in every year, if you exclude the front load "bonus" from his "salary." But the overall effect would seem to be to shift more of the cap hit to the early years, not the later years. In this case, using real numbers, 7.2 won't "become" 8.2, because the front-load is not $5 million, as we have been usin hypothetically.
 
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