The Dangers of Signing Johnson

[Karma]

Johnson is the team's most accurate 3-point shooter, best perimeter defender and a player who can break defenders down off the dribble.

His absence was sorely felt when he fractured his left eye socket against Dallas in the conference semifinals and had to sit out the first two games of the Western Conference finals. Johnson is a restricted free agent, meaning the Suns can match any offer he gets from another team.

Colangelo has said that any team that signs Johnson will be wasting its time.

This is what we all fear. We sign Phoenix to an offer sheet and they match. This could all be mind games by the Suns brass, but at the same time it could become reality.

 

[TyGuy]

I think its mind games. Its well known that sarver much like san antonios owner wants to steer clear of the salary cap. Lucky for him tim duncan opted out of his contract to take a cheaper max and got guys like manu and parker to sign cheaper for him to play with duncan. That wont happen with Joe johnson, they already have marion on a max deal, amare finna sign one this summer and q and nash just got big deals. Joe Johnson will command near max which i doubt they will match unless they plan on having a team salary of 70 mill + which is way into luxury tax territory. Iguess if they really wanted to keep joe they could look to deal shawn for expiring deals but of courset hat will hurt their squad, so i dont know.

 

[TheAdmin]

According to an ESPN article both the players union and the owners have already agreed upon reducing the 15 days that a players team has to match an offer sheet to 5 days.

So it won't be that big of a deal anymore to deal with a restricted free agent.

 

[LyXo]

According to an ESPN article both the players union and the owners have already agreed upon reducing the 15 days that a players team has to match an offer sheet to 5 days.

That would be huge. Those 10 days would be valuable, if they match. Opens up a bunch of doors for us to steal him.


I still don't buy Colangelo. Every fan thinks that Joe Johnson is the key to the Suns' win in game 4 and competitiveness in the series. But I think that they realize that they can't tie up money in 5 players and ride them throughout the seasons to come. They need help, they need backup, more role players. They just saw what happens when one gets injured: Extremely thin team. That's a factor we should think about.

We should also think about offering JJ near the max, if not the max, depending on what the CBA considers the max. He's the kind of player that we need. I have a feeling that Redd and Allen, if they don't get the max right away, they'll be contacting several other teams for offer sheets for longer than 5 days.

 

[aaronr]

I agree with Xylo, though I'm not sure what "the max"' means financially. If we could do Johnson and Z that would be great, but if I had to choose I'd probably go with Johnson because he's younger and fits our needs to the T. I love Z and I'd like to see him back, but his lateral immobility makes him a defensive liability, particularly on the pick and roll. A starting backcourt of Snow and Johnson would offer him more protection from penetrating guards, which got him into a lot of foul trouble, but defending the pick and roll would still be a problem.

 

[Glen Infante]

Basically, you offer Joe the amount you believe Phoenix cannot reach. Kinda like the Boozer situation. I am probably sure if Cleveland had the funds to match that contract, we would have.

What is Phoenix's exact salary situation anyhow?

 

[E-Light]

Phoenix's exact salary cap situation will soon be cap hell if they sign amare stoudamire to a max contract after next season when his rookie contract expires. Consider if they sign joe johnson they'll be around 55 million commited for next season, and they have about 9 players signed. 3 of those will only see garbage time, ala no time.

If they sign joe johnson, and amare stoudamire to max, and near max deals they'll be approaching 50 million in salary for just 4 players(amare, nash, joe johnson, marion) in 2006/07.[also add another 7 million from quentin's contract] so almost 60 million invested in 5 players in 06/07, and this doesn't count that the new cba you have to carry 14 players, so at least phoenix will have to pay an extra 10-15 million at very least on bench/draft picks for that year taking their total up to 75-80 million.

Sarver won't dare enter the luxury, we hope he wants to profit.

Sarver's as poor as people claim we hope.

 

[The Disector]

I don't know how true this is but I have heard rumblings that the players are pushing (in the new CBA)to have the 15 day waiting period for a team to match an offer to be reduced to 5 days.

This could be huge for the Cavs or any other team interested in signing a Restricted free agent and helps if a team does match a RFA offer to get moving on the next plan of attack.

 

[CRWine+Gold]

Phoenix can match any offer on Johnson because of the current salary cap regulations. A team can go over the cap as far as it wishes to re-sign it's own players, it can not go over by signing a player from another team. So basically, the Suns could have a 75 mil cap and still not get penalized because they are players signed from their own franchise. It isn't like they need too much help, so Johnson will probably stay. I want him here more than any other free agent, but I doubt that he finds a way out of Phoenix.

 

[TyGuy]

Phoenix can match any offer on Johnson because of the current salary cap regulations. A team can go over the cap as far as it wishes to re-sign it's own players, it can not go over by signing a player from another team. So basically, the Suns could have a 75 mil cap and still not get penalized because they are players signed from their own franchise. It isn't like they need too much help, so Johnson will probably stay. I want him here more than any other free agent, but I doubt that he finds a way out of Phoenix.

Wrong, yes they can match any deal for him but of course they gte penalized for going that far over the cap. If you are over the cap you are over the cap and you have to pay luxury tax no matter if its your players or not.

 

[NarlCavs]

You're right tyguy. Every team has the same cap. Don't confuse the words cap with payroll. The Suns would have a $75 million payroll and would be subject to a luxury tax.

I wouldn't give Joe Johnson the max. Teams get in trouble by giving max contracts to players who aren't worth it.
The Cavs could offer Johnson a contract starting at $10 million in the 1st year and give him a 5 year deal worth about $55-60 million and still have a good chance of getting him from Phoenix.
There are so many different stories out there on whether Phoenix will match or not. It is a risk but might be worth a shot if the matching time frame does drop to 5 days. Johnson is the best option for the Cavs among the top FA's in my opinion.

 

[TruBuckeye22]

i am all for signing JJ, but it makes me made that they didn't draft him in the 1st place. man did Paxson get rewarded for his stupid moves by landing Lebron.

 

[Pioneer10]

Johnson would be an almost perfect fit for Lebron: another ballhandler to take pressure off of him since I have feeling that Lebron will playing more "point" as his career progresses, can shoot to loosen the lane, and is a good defender. He's worth the risk.

If I was the Cavs I would also be on the phone to bobby simmons agent and telling although we're going after jJ we'd be prepared to pay him more then any other team if they would be willing to wait. Got to be prepared

 

[LyXo]

I wouldn't give Joe Johnson the max. Teams get in trouble by giving max contracts to players who aren't worth it.
The Cavs could offer Johnson a contract starting at $10 million in the 1st year and give him a 5 year deal worth about $55-60 million and still have a good chance of getting him from Phoenix.
There are so many different stories out there on whether Phoenix will match or not. It is a risk but might be worth a shot if the matching time frame does drop to 5 days. Johnson is the best option for the Cavs among the top FA's in my opinion.

Depending on how the CBA works out, something starting around 10 million would probably be the maximum contract we can offer him, since he's fresh off his rookie contract and should only be able to receive a certain raise, as opposed to Ray Allen who could command more because of his veteran status

 

[Karma]

I remember reading somewhere that the maximum we can offer Joe Johnson in his first year is 10.9 million. Same goes for Redd. Obviously Phoenix can offer a bit more then that if they were that desperate. I will concur with everyones sentiments that the 5 day waiting period instead of the usual 15 would be outstanding.