While 11 players received rookie scale extensions this offseason, many notable players didn’t reach an agreement with their respective teams prior to Monday’s deadline.
As we detailed earlier, the Suns couldn’t come to terms with the No. 1 pick of the 2018 draft, Deandre Ayton. Phoenix was unwilling to offer Ayton a full max contract, which short-circuited any hopes of an agreement.
The Suns raised the concept of a shorter maximum contract — presumably for three or four years instead of the full five years — but never formally made the offer or broached the idea again with Ayton’s reps, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst report. Ayton is unhappy with the franchise’s consistent stance that it simply doesn’t view him as a max player, the ESPN duo adds.
That adds an intriguing subplot to Phoenix’s drive to make the Finals again. Ayton will be headed toward restricted free agent next summer. Will he be motivated toward proving the front office wrong or will his unhappiness create a major distraction? Ayton could be the most attractive free agent on next year’s market and receive a giant offer sheet, which would force the Suns to decide to match it or let their franchise center walk away.
Ayton has some company among his peers. The Cavaliers and guard Collin Sexton were unable to reach an agreement and he’s headed toward restricted free agency, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer tweets. Even though Sexton posted impressive offensive stats last season (24.3 PPG, 4.4 APG), his name was frequently mentioned in trade rumors this summer, a signal that the Cavs aren’t sold on the eighth pick of the 2018 draft as their long-term floor leader.
Sexton was hoping for a $100MM+, multi-year deal that aligned with his production over the first three years, Fedor reports. At one point this offseason, Sexton used De’Aaron Fox‘s five-year, $163MM extension in 2020 as a baseline. The Cavs were unwilling to go anywhere near that number and optimism waned in recent days about reaching an agreement.
The Hornets and swingman Miles Bridges also couldn’t come to terms, Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports tweets, nor could the Spurs and Lonnie Walker, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express News tweets. Bridges averaged 12.7 PPG and 6.0 RPG last season, while Walker contributed 11.2 PPG in his third year.
Donte DiVincenzo, a key member of the Bucks’ rotation last season until he suffered a torn ligament in his ankle in July, is also headed to restricted free agency. DiVincenzo averaged 10.4 PPG, 5.8 RPG and 3.1 APG last season. Some of the other notables who didn’t sign an extension or were not offered one include the Kings’ Marvin Bagley III and the Magic’s Mohamed Bamba.
The list of players who did and did not receive rookie scale extensions can be found here.
When the Suns end up matching a max offer sheet they will wish they just gave the max now instead of upsetting him.
Why would they give him the same max deal next year that they wouldn’t give him this year? It would cost them a lot in luxury taxes to sign him.
Because they’ll be matching an offer sheet. Unless you think they’ll just let him walk?
Because they won’t let him leave for nothing. He is an important piece, especially as Chris Paul gets older.
Greenwood Porter thinks no player should make money because he’s buying all of the suns tickets and apparel
How much do you think the Suns are making on tickets and apparel right now? They just added almost $30M to next year’s payroll with extensions for Bridges and Shamet. Add that to what CP3, Booker, Crowder, Saric, and Payne were already getting and that comes out to $117M plus they have 3 others with team-options that total another $13M. That puts them just $15M under the luxury tax right there. If they give Ayton $30M/year that will give them quite a sizeable luxury tax bill in 2023. Do you honestly think that Suns ownership will be willing to spend tens of millions on luxury taxes?
It’s either spend it or retreat back to fighting for the 7/8 spots in the seeding. Simple as that. That’s the way the league is constructed. Like many non-L.A., non-NYC teams, they’ve got a two year window, which they’re in the middle of right now. After that, they either spend big or the window closes.
The point of a team is to spend when you have a chance to be a contender. Every team does this. If you don’t want to spend when it matters might as well sell the team. There is a reason the Pacers tend to have a ceiling of a 4 or 5 seed in the East and that’s because they generally don’t even want to be close to the cap.
The upset thing is real but other teams can only offer a 4 max with less raises. Why not match that and save a year and some bucks.
The total dollar value of the max Ayton can get via offersheet is waaay lower than the max he was asking for. Suns will happily match and save about $40-50mln
@DaBlow and @xburner
You make great points
BlackAce Doesnt know what he is talking about
Ayton is not worth the max they can offer. AT ALL
People said the same about John Collins and it worked out fine
I’m very disappointed that the Cavs and Sexton haven’t come to an agreement. I hate the idea of his lack of contract and the idea that he might be focused on proving his worth COULD become a focus point in the media or used as a backdrop for his upcoming season. I love the energy and the talent coming into this season. It does take two to tango and while I don’t think they should acquiesce to ANY players demand, they SHOULD view him as more of a priority to lock up long term. They literally tripped over themselves to give Allen 5/$100 at a time where offensively limited bigs aren’t valued like they were in the past. That’s not to say he may prove worthy but there wasn’t a ton of competition for his services. In Sexton you have a guy who scored 20+ ppg while shooting over 45%/37%/80%. Only 7 other guards did that. His defense may be lacking in a team concept, vs on ball, which might explain while he’s a dog when it comes to aggressiveness on ball his IQ in terms of team defense, reading the offense and communication may be lacking. But by all reports, he’s a willing learner. He improved on his passing as he reached 4.4 apg despite being moved to the 2 with Garland being the primary point guard. Still, Cleveland has to know that without LBJ they are NOT a destination that ANY free agent in their prime wants to go to. Other than overpaying for past their prime stars, drafting wisely and retaining your prospects is your best bet. I would’ve happily given him 5/$110 to 5/$125 just to avoid hurt feelings and while “feelings” shouldn’t matter because it’s a business this is Cleveland and things can go south easily. I want to see Sexton, Garland, Okoro,Mobley, Markkanen and Allen stay together for at least 2 years to see if they can gel. They could be a really solid 50 win team soon.
If Mobley can reach his full potential, then the Cavs could definitely become a solid 50-win team a few years from now given his extremely high ceiling.
But 8 of their 11 50-win seasons in franchise history were when LeBron was in Cleveland. Getting back to that level will be very difficult for them.
@GreenWood
Not really. The organization, historically, has been poorly ran. Gilbert is the only owner that’s been willing to invest in the team. Take away MJ from the Bulls and Duncan from the Spurs and you have teams similar to the Cavs. It’s not hard to be a 50 win team if you run the organization right. The team has a lot of talent now. I want to see them gel.
Honestly, I’d like to know what was offered (or rejected) specifically for Sexton.
I get not wanting to go into Fox territory—although if you look at Fox’s age 22 season it’s not that far off from Sexton’s last season—was Cleveland really unwilling to do, say, 5/125? 4/100?
Because to me that seems like a pretty fair offer for a guy who’s still not even 23 putting up 24 ppg on decent efficiency IMO, Sexton has more upside than Garland so if it’s an issue of breaking up SexLand for defensive reasons I’m not sure I’d pick Land over Sex.
You bring up some decent points, but I disagree that Sexton has more upside than Garland. I don’t think Sexton has peaked, but I don’t think he has a ton of room left for growth either. He pretty much is what he is, which is fine — he’s an efficient shooter with defensive and creativity concerns. Garland is at least a year younger and a little more of an unknown, but with the improvements he made from his rookie to his sophomore year, it’s not crazy to think he’s still improving. He at least has somewhat of an ability to create, so if that part of his game keeps growing, there’s more upside to tap into there too.
I’m a Sexton fan so I’d like to see him stick around, but I’d also be reluctant to give him the max. My guess is that the Cavs wonder if this current roster will ever have championship upside, so they don’t want to financially lock themselves into a core that they don’t see massive upside with. Another year of Sexton playing at his usual level probably won’t answer those questions, but at the very least it gives them more time to think about the decision. They can still offer him the max or match an offer sheet next offseason if they change their minds.
Sounds like time for a Simmons for ayton trade.
Cannot disagree, though for the last five, it did not say what the players were asking for. I’m sure dunking talents Lonnie W & Miles B asked too much… likely Bamba % Bagley too, who could use more consistent aggressiveness, kind of the opposites…
Sexton presents all the problems of a short shooting guard, which goes to assembling a team.
I hope the Cavs build an offense around Garland. Let Mobley get used to things and Sexton get to his level, which could still be 20+ppg.
@x%sure
can you explain on the problems aspect? is it defense, because if so, guys like Kyrie, Curry, etc offer little defensively. not arguing. just want you to expand in the subtext.
Ayton and Sexton – either/both would be a fit in NYC…
It’s a huge development because Suns might not have money left to sign Ayton in the offseason if they want to remain under the luxury tax line. This could all mean that they will trade him this season. WoW!
Any FO that would rubber stamp an early extension for Ayton at max, or Sexton at close to it, or any other player who isn’t almost certain to command that salary in RFA market next year, is incompetent or reckless or both. There’s a CBA negotiated market driven process in place around RSC’s and it doesn’t even start until after year 4. Early extensions are for instances when both sides (team and player) can benefit (for different reasons) by getting ahead of that market. There’s no such thing as earning an early extension, and they are not intended to be used as (and won’t be effective as) gifts or other means of keeping players happy.
I’m not surprised . Good bigs just aren’t as valuable as wings in the modern NBA.
Big mistake by CLE & PHO, by not extending Sexton & Ayton… one can only hope that they will live to regret them… hopefully that’ll teach them for the next time not to be penny pinchers & just pay the man!
They can still pay him at the end of the year. That’s what “restricted free agent” means. If their fragile egos can’t handle it you probably don’t want them anyways. I think the Ayton situation is better than Sexton’s by far. At least Phoenix is winning and has CP3 to talk some sense into the guy.
I figure the Suns can’t keep Ayton, so if they won’t contend, why keep CP3 at such a high price? Maybe they can get in with Sacramento and Philly to do a Simmons deal. Send CP3 to Philly, Ayton to Sacramento, Ben to the Suns.. oh hang on Booker and Jenner there.. Never mind..
I don’t really see anybody giving Ayton the max, tbh. None of the teams with real cap space next summer make any sense. He also showed he’s not a championship level player/defender by just being atrocious against Giannis. Yes Giannis is Giannis, but still, he just showed why there’s really “levels to this” when it comes to defense.
With all that being said, the Sun’s still need to pay him. He’s a good player, and the Sun’s are a good team with him. They also just gave $50 million to Landry Shamet, lol
No big deal on all of those guys. They all have a lot more to prove
Ahahah I tried to tell everybody on here that the center position is the least valued position. Literally 5 years ago this kid would have gotten the max but the suns know that without booker & cp3 they were not making the finals.