MVN - Most Valuable Network

Could West Be Going East (Like Far East)?

Let the overseas onslaught continue. This time, it will affect the Cavaliers.

Yahoo! Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that Cavs restricted free agent Delonte West is considering signing overseas. According to Wojnarowski, a source close to West said he’s considering a 2-year, $10 million deal from Dynamo Moscow (after their latest signing of Bostjan Nachbar).

Now, from what I understand and from the things that I have read, the Cavs are offering Delonte a deal somewhere in the range of 5 years and $28 million dollars. That’s just me speculating and reading between the lines from what I’ve read, so don’t quote me on that. But here’s the thing: Delonte and his agent are asking for more. According to the Lorain Morning Journal’s Bob Finnan, Delonte and his agent are looking for something north of what Daniel Gibson got and it maybe upwards of $6 million a year (that not being from Finnan). That’s why, as Finnan reports, negotiations between West and the Cavs are not going much of anywhere right now. So this may be a ploy to get the Cavs to give in and offer more money for West, but Josh Childress “signing” with Greece was just supposed to be a ploy to get the Atlanta Hawks to ante up too.

So why in the world would Delonte accept an offer from an overseas team? It’s not that hard to see why, to be honest.

First of all, the money. Right now the Cavs and West aren’t agreeing on the money aspect of the deal. The years can be worked out and it looks like that is something that is mendable. But money? I don’t think so. That’s really the major sticking point. It’s also the major advantage of why signing a deal overseas would be so much more lucrative. Players overseas get cars, houses, maids, etc., paid for by their team. They don’t have to cover for any of that. It’s not a part of their contract, as it’s a norm, and that’s where a good chunk of their money usually goes, here in America. Not only that but all of their taxes would be taken care of overseas, as well as the increase of value of European money over America’s dollar. No matter what player goes overseas, they are likely to make a lot more money because of all of that and if that’s what West is looking for, that’s what he’s going to get.

Second, the star aspect. Fringe/decent players over here are stars over there. Heck, Anthony Parker was a superstar back in his Maccabi Tel Aviv days and now he’s a role player for the Toronto Raptors. I’m sure players like Josh Childress, Carlos Delfino, Bostjan Nachbar, etc., love the aspect of going overseas and being a star and I’m sure Delonte would like it too. He would be one of the best players over there and would be rightly treated as one. Heck, could you really blame him? I mean yeah he’d be the starting point guard for a championship contender here, but he’d basically be a top-flite option overseas, offensively, and would be treated as a star on and off the court. For a guy that’s been a “role player” his whole career, I’m sure he’d love to live in the spotlight for a little bit.

Third, the flexibility. All the NBA players that go overseas are given tremendous flexibility in their contracts. Most of them are given multiple options in their contracts that would allow them to come back to the NBA, at any time (sooner, rather than later). That makes the players feel a lot better about playing overseas because if they don’t like it, they’re free to leave at whatever time and go back to the NBA. It’s a huge part of the deal, as they’re not locked into their contracts like they are in the NBA (the NBA have options too, but you guys know what I mean).

Last but not least, the experience. Yeah it may not seem like much but it is a big part of it. These guys (Childress, West, etc.) have experienced everything in high school, college and the NBA. I’m sure they’d love to experience something different, like going to Greece or Russia and playing there. It’s a whole different experience and they get the chance to travel all around Europe and experience new things. That may not appeal to some people, but to others it does.

I know some may be confused, as to why it’s come to this point, but he really doesn’t have that many other options. The only team that has above the MLE (around 5.6) to spend is the Memphis Grizzlies. But Memphis is in pay-cut mode and not willing to sign any free agents to big deals. So that then limits Delonte to all the teams that have their MLE left. The thing is that all the other teams know that the Cavs will match any offer for West (since he’s restricted the Cavs have the right to match any offer) and it’s useless to make such an offer and freeze up their money (once a team makes a player an offer sheet, they can’t make any other transactions until the other team decides, within 7 days, whether to match or not). Not only that, but what teams would be willing to make an offer to Delonte that could possibly get him away from the Cavs? Sure he’s a nice player, but he’s a lot more valuable to us then to any other team.

So what are the Cavs options regarding this? Well they have a few.

The first being they could obviously up their offer if they feel this is a serious threat. But I don’t see that happening. Maybe some, but not much. We all know what happened with Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao last year and we all know that Danny Ferry is very stubborn, when it comes to contract negotiations. He’s not a guy that will overpay and give into players demands. He’s a pretty tough negotiator and stands firm in negotiations. But, who knows. Last year leaving for overseas offers wasn’t a real option for Varejao and Pavlovic, so it may be different this time around.

The second being the Cavs and Delonte could agree to the qualifying offer. What’s the qualifying offer? It’s an offer needed to be made to make any free agent a restricted free agent (of course that doesn’t apply for all free-agents-to-be, but only some). It’s basically a 1-year deal that the Cavs offered to West, as a fallback plan, should Delonte not want to sign long-term. The QO for West is around $2.7 million for next year. If he were to take that, then he would be a Cav next year (playing under that 1-year salary) but he would be an unrestricted free agent this coming off-season. So it’s something very interesting, but it doesn’t happen all that often in the NBA.

Third, the Cavs could work out a sign and trade. This would mean that the Cavs and another team would agree in a trade for West. The Cavs would sign West and then trade him immediately to whatever team that wanted him, for whatever players, picks, exceptions, etc., the other team would give up. S&T’s often don’t happen because of the difficulty of them but it is a legit option to keep in mind.

The bottom line of this whole ordeal comes to down to what the Cavs really think of Delonte and whether or not he’s replaceable.

To answer one thing quickly, he’s without a doubt replaceable. Yeah he’s a nice player and a real good fit, but he’s easily replaceable. The Cavs would have to replace him either with Gibson or via trade. There is nothing in free agency unless you want Jason Williams or Flip Murray as your starting point guard come the season opener. Gibson seems like a stretch as a starter, so it would have to come via trade (at least in my mind). The Cavs certainly have the assets and there are guys certainly available (Raymond Felton, Kirk Hinrich, Mo Williams, etc.). The bottom line, he’s not hard to replace.

That’s easy. The hard part is determining his real value to this team, how good he can become with us and what he’s worth. I’m a really big Delonte supporter, but if he wants anything higher than the full MLE, I’ll be glad to kiss him goodbye. I like him as a player, I really do. I think he can become a real good player here (he’s only 25) because of how good of a fit he is (due to his tremendous versatility on both ends of the court) and his potential. But, he’s not that good and doesn’t have that much potential to warrant a big deal. I think the Cavs see the same thing and is why they really don’t seem to want to go over $6 million per year because of being not a great starting point guard and him not being great at any one thing (but that’s also an advantage). Even if he does grow and develop real well, it’s not going to be into a top-10 point guard. Some may argue that you don’t need one with guys like Rajon Rondo, Derek Fisher and Jason Williams all having rings but guys like Chauncey Billups and Tony Parker also have rings, so it can go both ways.

Delonte’s agent is trying to get the most money he can for him and I don’t blame him one bit for anything that he’s doing. He’s an agent, that’s his job. But the Cavs also have a job to do and right now it’s to determine whether or not they’re willing to go that extra mile and give Delonte what we wants.

All I know is that I just want this stand-off to be resolved quickly. Whatever may happen, I just want it to happen quickly (I know, the same guy telling you to be patient). The Cavs need to move on and start focusing on acquiring pieces to help them next year, instead of hassling with the uncertainty of Delonte’s future with the team.

My gut feeling is that Delonte will be back with the Cavs and will be our starting point guard. But that’s just my gut feeling and this report does nothing to make my gut feeling, feel any better.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 7:05 pm and is filed under Carlos Delfino, Josh Childress, Danny Ferry, Rajon Rondo, Flip Murray, Delonte West, Anthony Parker, Yahoo!, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Ronald Murray, Bob Finnan, Adrian Wojnarowski, Dynamo Moscow, Anderson Varejao, Derek Fisher, Toronto Raptors, Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Hawks, Raymond Felton, NBA, Jason Williams, Tony Parker, Bostjan Nachbar, Chauncey Billups, Kirk Hinrich, Sasha Pavlovic, Daniel Gibson, Cavaliers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.