Stifle Tower
Punch Bowl Re-Filler
What's the difference between being above the salary cap but below the luxury tax? Does it just mean you don't get luxury tax money from other teams? Because if we have a chance to build something special then I'd be pissed if we weren't at least willing to spend up to the luxury tax limit. So we can add about $20 million onto previous predictions.
If our top 5 players could be had for an average of $20 million each then we'd have another $20 or so million to spend on the bench. Which isn't very much considering Burks is getting $10 million by himself.
This sucks. Even being as optimistic as possible I can't make it work. Unless you want to root against Exum so we don't have to pay him. Or say that Hood has peaked and won't get and better.
If it comes to it, I think Hayward would be the odd man out between Hood, Favors, Gobert and Hayward. He'd command more money than Hood and isn't nearly as irreplaceable as Favors and Gobert.
If he lets it be known that he is going to opt out after next year then I'm guessing he's gone at the deadline.
I agree on 'odd man out.' Hayward's a great player, but not nearly as important as Favors and Gobert, IMO. Favors is an elite defender and not too shabby on offense, either. Realistically, he could be a top starter at either the 5 or the 4. If we didn't have Gobert, we'd be talking about Derrick at center and finding a good stretch-4 in free agency. Bigs like him are very difficult to find. Lyles MIGHT develop into a decent shooter, but he's not going to have the impact Derrick does. Favors could demand the same 5/30% contract that Hayward can, but showed once he was willing to accept less. Will he do it again if Gobert also accepts a bit less?
I wouldn't read anything into Hayward opting out. Anyone would in his shoes. He can go from making $16.8M/per to $30M+/per (projected $108M cap). Even if his salary remained the same, he'd opt out to get additional guaranteed years.
I think DL has a sit down with Gordon just like KOC did with DWill to try to gauge his willingness to stay at a reasonable price (say $25M instead of $30M). The difference is Utah can be in a position of being a top playoff team next season. With DWill, Utah was already declining. The key is adding a good vet or two to increase Utah's playoff chances, hopefully this season, but definitely next year. But iIf Gordon's heart is in the MW or Boston, trade him for the best possible assets. Hood then becomes Utah's alpha scorer and Utah hopefully gets a couple of very good draft picks in return to get another wing. In fact, that's what they should target in this year's draft. Have someone to develop just in case.
Again, it will be VERY interesting to see how the extension talks with Rudy turn out. If he sets the tone by agreeing to only $20M/per, that would be a great sign. And that could set the table for others taking less to keep the team together.
Last edited: