9:05pm: The Wizards had hoped to work out a more cap-friendly deal with Porter, but they still intend to match the Nets’ offer, reports Chris Mannix of The Vertical (via Twitter).
8:42pm: The Nets and Otto Porter have reached an agreement on a four-year, maximum salary deal, reports Shams Charania of The Vertical (Twitter link). Because Porter is a restricted free agent, Brooklyn will have to sign Porter to an offer sheet, and the Wizards will have the opportunity to match it.
Porter, who can receive up to $106,524,975 on a four-year deal, reportedly received such an offer from the Kings over the weekend as well. However, Porter didn’t accept that offer right away, opting to meet with other teams instead, and Sacramento used its cap room to reach deals with George Hill and Zach Randolph. In the wake of Gordon Hayward‘s departure from Utah, Porter had reportedly lined up a meeting with the Jazz, but Brooklyn swooped in with a max offer and struck a deal with the RFA forward.
Based on the wording of Charania’s report, it sounds like Porter hasn’t formally signed an offer sheet from Brooklyn quite yet. However, he is eligible to do so during the moratorium. If he makes it official with the Nets, the clock for the Wizards to make their decision would begin on July 6 when the moratorium ends. Washington would have until the end of the day on July 8 to match the offer.
Long considered a probable suitor for Porter, the Nets had an excess of cap room and showed in 2016 that they’re willing to dive into the RFA market in search of long-term assets. Last year, Brooklyn had offer sheets for Allen Crabbe, Tyler Johnson, and Donatas Motiejunas matched by the Trail Blazers, Heat, and Rockets, respectively. The club will be hoping for better luck this time around, though the RFA market has been slow to develop, so if the Wizards match on Porter, the Nets could go shopping for another target or two.
As for the Wizards, they’ve been widely expected to match any offer for Porter, but the Nets will put them to the test with this offer. Washington entered the free agent period with approximately $94MM in guaranteed money on the cap for 2017/18 and has since struck deals with Jodie Meeks and Mike Scott that figure to add nearly $5MM more to the books. As such, Porter’s deal, with its first-year cap hit of $24.77MM, will take the Wizards over the tax line if they match.
Washington reportedly intended to use the bi-annual exception to complete Meeks’ deal, but may instead choose to use a portion of the taxpayer mid-level exception to avoid becoming hard-capped at $125.266MM for the ’17/18 league year.
Porter, who has steadily improved his production in each of his four NBA seasons, had his best year as a pro in 2016/17, averaging career bests in PPG (13.4), RPG (6.4), and SPG (1.5), while posting an incredibly efficient .516/.434/.832 shooting line. I ranked him eighth overall in Hoops Rumors’ list of this year’s top 50 free agents.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Holy insanity!
This week’s sign of the apocalypse!
This was a great signing by Brooklyn! It would be a shame if the Wizards matched the contract.
Get a clue Chump, the Nets are “Hot Garbage” aND they have ZERO chance in getting Porter. They are wasting time, Otto will be a Wizard, they will match the deal…
Well that escalated quickly.
I would let Porter walk, wouldn’t match it
No chance, if they ler Porter walk they have little money under the cap to sign anyone. They will match, it’s all TV money anyway…The Nets sign a player every year to an offer sheet and the team always matches…
So they should put themselves in a bigger cap hole and sign Porter? Flawed logic there.
If they let Porter walk and get nothing, John Wall doesn’t sign his extension and then they have Beal and nothing else. I agree Porter isn’t a $26 million a year player. But it’s the cost of doing business in the NBA.
Well said, Scottbour
The thing is it’s not the same as a Hayward or Griffin max deal it’s only 27 ish million per season which isn’t crazy. Gallinari just got over 21 per season and I think I’d rather have Porter for a few million more.
$28M for an average player is flat out nuts
The highest paid NFL player makes $25M a year. Only 14 NFL players makes over $20M a season. The NBA is the 3rd most popular sport in America and they are taking it in like crazy. I don’t blame the players, but wow it must be nice to be a slightly above average NBA player. Making more than most CEO’s, more than most movie stars, and banking more than their counterparts in other sports. Life is definitely good for those guys!
It is crazy. That’s what you get when it is only like 10 players per team not on a rookie contract
Baseball and football have more than 3 times the players on a roster hardly a comparison
2nd most popular and slowly gaining on football. Baseball and hockey have solid loyal fanbases but are no where near basketball right now
You’re talking apples and oranges when it comes to comparing the NFL and NBA players’ salaries. The biggest thing is the extremely lucrative TV deal that was signed by the NBA that increased the amount of revenue available. Secondly, the amount you’re paying players is significantly different when you consider the amount of games their playing. Consider Porter, for example. Using the above max number, Porter stands to max roughly $26 million a year. If Porter plays all 82 games (not counting playoff games) he’s earning roughly $324k per game. Now consider an NFL player who will make roughly the same salary ($26m in a year), and he’ll get paid roughly $1.625m per game (over a 16 game NFL season). If you’re going to complain about NFL players not making equitable salaries to NBA players consider that NHL rosters are roughly the same size as NFL rosters, NHL players play roughly 82 games (same as the NBA), yet the highest paid players are lucky to average $10m per year.
But that NFL player earning $25 mil is literally one of the best players (top 5 regardless of position) in the league. Otto isn’t even a top 25 player. What allows Otto to make more than players better than him is the amount of money the offering team MUST spend inorder to comply with the NBA salary floor. A team with no star players has to spend at least $89 mil in it’s roster. The rule had good intentions but the results are horrible for the most part. Now, a team lacking of star power must spend stupid money that will saddle them with a bad contract unless Otto suddenly becomes a star.
That’s the point I was trying to make. Lebron, Curry, etc… all deserved to be paid and the points made in the above comments are warranted. But Otto is a slightly above average player and is making more than the best player in the NFL and almost as much as the highest paid player in baseball.
Lol you’re so mad that NBA players make money it’s ridiculous that you’re that jealous.
Dude you’re an idiot. Even a scrub makes more than I do. It’s WHO is making the money and WHY? I want to see the stars make that money, not marginal players. The rule that every team MUST spend at minimum amount of money per year ($89 mil next season) forces bad teams (those devoid of stars or rebuilding like the 76ers) to spend however much money they have on the cap. They can’t get stars to come so they have to overpay. Those contracts become immediate albatross deals as soon as the ink is dry.
Sure, I’m the idiot here. The salary cap changed man Currys and Lebrons are going to make $40 million now, $26 million for Otto Porter is perfect if you ask me. I’m the idiot but you’re over here trying to argue against teams having to spend money on their roster. Not that they even have to! It looks bad on a team if they don’t reach the salary floor but if they don’t spend that much money then they split the difference with their roster. 76ers signed JJ Redick and Amir Johnson. 1 year deals!! Is that an albatross deal? Or were they smart and did they just spend their money wisely? “Forces bad teams to spend” the Nets have tried to sign players for like 2 offseasons now. Tyler Johnson got matched. Allen Crabbe got matched. Donatas Motiejunas, Otto Porter, if these were really such terrible deals maybe teams wouldn’t match the offers. By the way you like the Knicks and the Cavs you can’t have 2 favorite teams. Like why? One team sucks and you like the Cavs so you can have a contending team to cheer for at the same time? Brb changing my name to blazerswarriorsfan
I also disagree that the NBA is the third most popular sport in America (I’d agree football is first, but I think baseball has fallen to third). You also gotta consider popularity outside of America. Sure, basketball isn’t as popular as football is in America, but the NBA also draws an audience from around the world. The NFL would probably be lucky to draw an international audience if there aren’t any games being played in London that week. And if you doubt the importance of an international audience, consider that there are few, if any, American style football leagues outside of the USA and Canada but there are leagues all around the world for basketball, baseball, and hockey.
You have to look at the revenue of the sports to see why people think the salaries are weird. I heard on the radio the other day that NFL brings in $13m, MLB $9m, and NBA $5m.
Julia Roberts $12M
Jennifer Aniston $21M
Jeffrey Immelt, CEO of GE, $26.6M
Rex Tillerson, CEO of Exxon, $24.3M
CEO of Pepsi, $22.2m
Will Smith, $20.5M
Leonardo DiCaprio, $27M
Aaron Rodgers, $22M
Russell Wilson, $21.9M
Cam Newton, $21M
Tom Brady, $20.5M
Otto Porter, $26M
Miguel Cabrera, $28M
Felix Hernandez, $27M
Robinson Cano, $24M
Hater (CursedRangers), $0
Lol but hope you have a great time hating!! While you’re hating, Otto Porter is making more money per 30 games than you will ever physically see in your whole life, meanwhile you’re making 0 money hating on him.
I created a cesspool
Using actors and actresses are poor comparisons. Most of the big time stars probably get their money from endorsements, special appearances/talks, and royalties (I imagine). Someone like DiCaprio, for example, stars in what? 1, maybe 2 movies in a year? Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of work that goes into making a movie, but few movie roles are as physically or mentally draining as being an athlete is.
Nets have to max to get any RFA look at last year’s, Crabbe and Johnson
So if Wizards match then Otto has to stay? Or is it still his choice?
He has to stay
Wizards shouldn’t match, he’s not even a all-star.
He shot 50/40/80 last year. That’s not exactly something to scoff at.
Thats not bad at all lol.
Poor Nets. Every RFA player they offer a contract and signs, their original team matches.
Maybe they do it on purpose, kill other teams caps such as the Trail Blazers who are always looking to shed salary to make moves.
I want to know where all this money is coming from in order to do this.
I want to know right down to the penny!!!!
Mikhail Prokhorov is a russian billionaire
Yeah, but he gets reimbursed through the league revenue share. I just want to see where TNT and ESPN get their money
Or even the Cable company (provider), where they get their money, their profit margins.
Commercial advertisements. Billion dollar companies that make money off of consumers pay he Networks to be advertised. This money goes from the consumer, to the company, to the network, to the NBA, to the teams, and then to the players
It’s all about TV money…
All about the TV money.
Joe Johnson part 2
You know the Nets are secretly smart keep throwing out these huge contracts to players and have their respective teams match it. Then in the end they’ll be the only one left with money to sign players because guys like Allen Crabbe, Tyler Johnson and Porter is overpaid.