Bill Simmons: Worst Contracts Thread

[MaceCase]

Oh I agree with you Mace. I said at the time that it would be dumb for Josh to sign that deal, when it was rumored that he could get a 60 million+ deal at the end of the year.

The fact is though . . . Josh was "Ferry's Guy" during his first summer here. And Ferry offered that extension, when he didn't have to do anything. Had Josh not believed that he could get more money on the open market, we'd be talking about Josh right now, instead of Paul Millsap.

1) It's a good faith gesture. When you just take over a team it does you no good to shun its best players even when a contract offer favors you more than the player. It's called opening a line of communication and working to foster a good relationship with said player even if there is a lot of room for negotiation remaining.

2) There's no way Josh coming off what most believed to be a career year when Al went down would fear not being able to get money on the open market especially now that Joe was traded.

Fact is that Josh could have continued to build on his 11-12 season yet you think that Ferry after just arriving should have rather burned all relationships with Josh than attempt to throw out even a token offer or preserve his trade value by talking him up as "his guy"? As it turned out he regressed mightily yet he still ended up with a deal that paid him more total money over more years so no, I sincerely doubt that you understand the nuances of running a NBA team. What we saw was a very low risk gambit made by Ferry as he continued to get the full pulse on his team.