Quote:
Originally Posted by purplefrog
You know, I agree with you 90% of the time, but I just have to disagree with this one. If this offseason is anything like the summer of 2012, then players and agents know that the longer you wait to sign, the less $$ is out there for the taking. Dwight, being as flakey as he is, could wait months to sign a contract with someone. Who knows what his immature and indecisive brain will tell him to do. RFAs like Pekovic are likely to be offered a contract relatively quickly, so his new potential team can move on to Plan B if he re-signs. Same thing with Jennings (although I'm not a fan). I'm by no means saying you skip the Dwight and CP3 sweepstakes, but you've got to think ahead and figure out a reasonable timeline within which you are willing to wait.
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You've got it backwards. The players who signed late last summer didn't lose money by waiting. They waited to see if the offers would come up, and/or to try to latch on with the team or teams they thought would give them their best chance to boost their value. It'll be the same this summer. Teams with space will have their priority list. Some of them will make early, aggressive bids for their top choices (Portland to Pek, say), and some will reach agreement with those top choices, and message board posters will cry about the Mavs spending all their time on Chris Paul's doorstep while all the good free agents get snatched up by other teams, ignoring the fact that Dallas would never have agreed to pay that much for Pekovic even if they weren't chasing Chris Paul. Meanwhile, any player with even a passing interest in Dallas who plays a position of need for the Mavs, doesn't have his sights set on Miami or OKC, and is at all dissatisfied with their current team, or is anything short of blown away by the current best offer on the table, will wait to see what Chris Paul and Dwight Howard decide to do, in the hope that by waiting they'll be able to increase their chances for a big payday, or at least catch on with a more desirable/less dysfunctional franchise with which to build up their value.
As a side note, I actually won't be surprised to see Jennings wait it out and just end up eventually signing his qualifying offer.