MVN - Most Valuable Network

Baron opts out, what now?

    And then the unthinkable happened.

    Warrior fans are now in a new and strange place. Despite repeated pledges to stay in Oakland next season, guard Baron Davis opted out of the final year of his contract according to reports. This means that he will forgo $17.8 million next season in hopes of securing a longer term deal.

    As fans we’re left to wonder, why? Was it the late season benching? Was it the lack of what he considered a “respectful” contract offer? Until he speaks we won’t know.

    This puts the Dubs management in a situation that can at best be described as difficult. They can give him a pile of money and kill their cap for the next few seasons. They can look for sign-and-trades. Or they can renounce his rights, which takes his cap hold (around $24 million) off the cap but lose the ability to make a sign-and-trade.

    The market however further complicates this situation. Only three teams (LA Clippers, Philly and Memphis) have the cap space to make Baron as rich a man as he would like to be. Other than that, teams would have to sign him to the mid-level exception and pay more later. Furthermore Philly and the Clippers would have to renounce key players to generate that kind of cap space.

    Baron, Elton Brand, Corey Maggette and Gilbert Arenas are the top free agents out there, though Arenas reportedly has a $100 million-offer on the table at the moment.

    At the moment the Warriors still hold a lot of the power. Unless the Clippers do something drastic fro Baron, his avenues to a big payday still rely heavily on Mullin. In theory renouncing his rights would give the Warriors an even more decidedly upper hand since they would be one of very few teams that could give him real money (by renouncing they should be about $19 under the cap). This could however backfire if the impetus behind this move is respect more than money.

    Many media members are attributing this opt out to Baron feeling a lack of love from the team and renouncing his rights would probably only make that worse. For the team however it is the smart choice.

    Right now this team is not built to contend and unless they get Brand, likely won’t contend for a few seasons. By then Baron will be older, in theory creakier and will probably still be shooting a ton of low percentage shots.

    Baron rescued this team from the doldrums of the league and gave fans so much joy. Unfortunately it was bad contracts that made the Dubs a laughingstock in the first place and a new batch of them could likely send the team back there.

    Management needs to look and see if the rift with Davis can be repaired, if not, they need to keep all options open. It pains me to say this but as of now the shrewd move is to let Baron test the market and try to get him back or trade him if he can’t find greener pastures.

    It’s not the popular move, but as of now it’s the right one.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 11:01 pm and is filed under Golden State Warriors. 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.