Larry David
Starter
It looks like we might have a season and free agency will basically occur over a period of about 10 days. Which if you look back to 1999, isn’t really a horrible thing for Sacramento. Sacramento isn’t the most appealing market right now for several reasons. Typically, all of the teams contact the best free agents on the eve of free agency and then the players are courted over several days. Players look for the most desirable slots, wait for the free agents ahead of them to make a decision, and then trade offers with several teams to jack up the prices. Thus, the mid-tier players are usually in a holding pattern that makes them overpaid and keeps out of the less desirable cities.
For example, all star player X wants to sign with the Knicks and he’s got decent offers from the Twolves, Kings, and Nets. Player X says, “Sorry, lottery teams, I’m going to make you wait,” and they typically will because it’s in their best interest. After the Knicks sign player Y, player X turns his attention to the other three teams and his agents forces them to bid against each other and imaginary offers. Often over several days, player X decides whether to hold his nose and take the most money in Minnesota or take slightly less to play in Brooklyn.
There have been a lot of stories written and there will be more about the compressed 1999 free agency. It didn’t apply to the top 10-15 free agents, but the agents of a lot of very good players got calls that said, “We would love to have you. We are offering __ and we’ve got to know in 24 hours. Sorry, but it’s crazy right now” When we signed Vlade, it was widely reported that he was waiting for the Clippers to make him an offer so he could get back to LA. Vlade and Ike Austin were the top two centers that were going to hit the market in 1999, because Smits was clearly going back to Indy. Sacramento jumped in quickly at 10 million a year. After the Clippers failed to make him an offer, Valde took the deal here. Valde made us wait a few days, but it’s unclear if the Kings could even pull of that signing in 1998. In any other year, Vlade would have had more time to get the Suns, Sonics, or Clippers to out bid Sacramento.
Look, you aren’t going to get Tyson Chandler here by saying, “Max deal take or leave it now.” But we’ll see compressed free agency again and agents know those, “You’ve got 24 hours to let us know” calls are coming so there might be even more of them.
Plus, the players didn’t take much of a pay cut in 1999. That CBA was more about capping max and rookie contracts. So the NBA middle class is going to be a little uncertain about the “new normal” over those 10 days. This will definitely apply to a player like Marcus Thornton.
When 30 teams starts throwing money at the top free agents, a team with a ton of cap like Sacramento could also make a killing on bench bargains. While the Kings bid on several centers and Thornton, they could simultaneously make time sensitive value offers to guy like Patty Mills or a veteran reserves they might also want. Most teams cannot do both and aren’t going to pass on the chance to sign a top guy over reserve, and no player wants to be sitting around when the cap space starts to dry up.
10 days of free agency could be a good thing for the Kings.
For example, all star player X wants to sign with the Knicks and he’s got decent offers from the Twolves, Kings, and Nets. Player X says, “Sorry, lottery teams, I’m going to make you wait,” and they typically will because it’s in their best interest. After the Knicks sign player Y, player X turns his attention to the other three teams and his agents forces them to bid against each other and imaginary offers. Often over several days, player X decides whether to hold his nose and take the most money in Minnesota or take slightly less to play in Brooklyn.
There have been a lot of stories written and there will be more about the compressed 1999 free agency. It didn’t apply to the top 10-15 free agents, but the agents of a lot of very good players got calls that said, “We would love to have you. We are offering __ and we’ve got to know in 24 hours. Sorry, but it’s crazy right now” When we signed Vlade, it was widely reported that he was waiting for the Clippers to make him an offer so he could get back to LA. Vlade and Ike Austin were the top two centers that were going to hit the market in 1999, because Smits was clearly going back to Indy. Sacramento jumped in quickly at 10 million a year. After the Clippers failed to make him an offer, Valde took the deal here. Valde made us wait a few days, but it’s unclear if the Kings could even pull of that signing in 1998. In any other year, Vlade would have had more time to get the Suns, Sonics, or Clippers to out bid Sacramento.
Look, you aren’t going to get Tyson Chandler here by saying, “Max deal take or leave it now.” But we’ll see compressed free agency again and agents know those, “You’ve got 24 hours to let us know” calls are coming so there might be even more of them.
Plus, the players didn’t take much of a pay cut in 1999. That CBA was more about capping max and rookie contracts. So the NBA middle class is going to be a little uncertain about the “new normal” over those 10 days. This will definitely apply to a player like Marcus Thornton.
When 30 teams starts throwing money at the top free agents, a team with a ton of cap like Sacramento could also make a killing on bench bargains. While the Kings bid on several centers and Thornton, they could simultaneously make time sensitive value offers to guy like Patty Mills or a veteran reserves they might also want. Most teams cannot do both and aren’t going to pass on the chance to sign a top guy over reserve, and no player wants to be sitting around when the cap space starts to dry up.
10 days of free agency could be a good thing for the Kings.
