http://www.ajc.com/blogs/content/shared-bl...rket_value.html
Market value?
By Sekou K Smith | Tuesday, July 29, 2008, 08:23 AM
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
SMYRNA - So let me get this straight, Emeka Okafor gets $72 million, Monta Ellis $66 million and Andris Biedrins $62 million and folks are still willing to stand on this argument about the market value of restricted free agents?
I think the market has spoken.
And the going rate for a real player (and in some cases what might be a real player) is in upwards of $60 million.
Funny, that’s the same price range as last October, when Al Jefferson signed for $65 million and Kevin Martin for $55 million. And it’s the same price we’ll see for the next crop of free agents; Andrew Bogut has already got his $72 million (with incentives).
That’s the case many of us were making from the start, that there is no swinging market value number that you can assign to these players. That $10 million a year baseline has been established for legitimate young stars.
It’s not like it just popped up out of nowhere and suddenly became the figure. It’s a staple.
For months now folks here have raged against the restricted free agent machine about this guy not being worth this or that guy not being worth that. And my personal favorite, “nobody has given a big money restricted free agent an offer sheet to sign so that means there is no market for their services.”
Well, you are welcome to keep sippin’ that syrup.
I think most of us know better.
Most of us realize that quality outfits are willing to lock up their prized assets when they are restricted free agents at fair prices.
Sometimes it takes a bit longer and there are frayed feelings on both sides, but usually both sides come to an agreement on what’s fair.
That’s certainly what appears to have happened in Charlotte, where the Bobcats had to crank up their initial offer to Okafor to reach the going rate for a player of his caliber.
Someone asked me yesterday if the Hawks have passed the point of no return with Josh Smith to get something done. I have a feeling they have. But I can’t say that for sure, and that’s why I’m working overtime to find out.
And yes Clint, I’m making every effort to get in touch with Smith (who is not in Atlanta this summer) and will most certainly report on his situation from his perspective when I can. But it’s not easy to get in touch with these players during times like these.
They have every reason to avoid the media during negotiations, for fear of the repercussions of anything they might say (notice the lack of comment from all these restricted agents until a deal is done).
THE ORIGINAL AL H: If you didn’t know the power of this blog, you will now.
While baking last night at the Campbell Middle School football field (watching the Smyrna Spartans opening practice, long story, tell you later) my cell phone rings and former Hawks captain Al Harrington is on the line.
He’s calling from Vegas to find out if what he’s heard is true, that I wrote a story about him being traded back to the Hawks in a package for Josh Smith.
After we laughed and clowned for a couple of minutes I reassured Al that I wrote nothing of the sort. I explained to him that what he was talking about was a conversation that originated here, strictly a hypothetical conversation cooked up by the world’s greatest bloggers (I saw the 600 posts last week and then we bang out almost 400 more on Switching lanes - y’all are some monsters. And I love the diversity of opinion, that’s what makes this place fun to hang out in).
The writer in the Bay Area that relayed to him that a story about the trade was written by me has to answer to me later - dude already owes me $178 for getting my rental car impounded on a Western Conference road trip a couple years back, so he’s on thin ice with me as it is.
But for the record, and for the sake of Al’s mental health, I’ve neither written nor heard anything of the sort regarding him being traded to the Hawks. He won’t have to deal with us again. Ha.
Nothing has changed, however, on those potential sign-and-trades I mentioned Saturday. There are still a number of them in circulation, the specifics of which I can’t speak on because like all sign-and-trades, they’re in the conversation stage and nobody wants to admit what they’re doing behind closed doors.
And nothing has changed on an expected DOR (date of resolution) between the Hawks and Smith. We’re steaming toward the middle of August, the usual time for the Hawks to wrap up their summer business.
So don’t lose your edge now. We’ve got a few more weeks of this back and forth.
NO KWAME: The Hawks’ pursuit of Kwame Brown was undercut by what appears to be his agreement to a two-year, $8 million deal with Detroit (per his agent and as reported by ESPN.com).
He would have been an intriguing player in a Hawks uniform. Despite the knocks on him, he’d have seriously fortified the Hawks’ frontcourt rotation from just a purely physical standpoint.
He’s one of the most impressive physical specimens in the league (on the hoof at least). Whether or not his game ever matches his appearance no one knows. But I imagine there are plenty of teams willing to pay to watch that experiment up close.
And right now it appears to be the Pistons’ turn to pay.
