San Antonio Spurs
Post by George Gervin on Jul 11, 2022 19:59:09 GMT
Jimmy Butler has decided to return to Jay Z and the Atlanta Hawks on a 5 year deal, with the fifth year being a Player Option, tying Kevin Durant for the richest deal signed in D5 history. This was a very contentious decision, with over five days of debate and a lot of wrangling over what was the appropriate move to make. It ended up as a 4-3 vote on Jimmy returning to Atlanta over the runner-up New Orleans Pelicans. I'll take the time to be transparent on how we arrived at this conclusion given the attention to this signing:
- Nine teams made max offers (either four year or in ATL's case, five years) for the opportunity to sign Jimmy. Outside of Jordan Poole and Bam Adebayo, I believe Jimmy garnered the most interest this offseason as folks recognized his talent capable of elevating their teams to another level. We were deliberate at the outset in reviewing offers to ensure Pros and Cons were weighed of each before ranking them.
- Many teams offered Jimmy interesting situations to walk into -- for example, New York was brought up as an 'outside the box' option with Mobley and Halliburton present and a ton of cap space -- but ultimately given Jimmy's age and desire to win, we had to carefully weigh the teams that provided the best nexus of his priorities while ensuring Jimmy was financially compensated appropriately, which he's made significant noise in his career about how much being paid matters to him. As such, only the three teams in the next bullet received voting consideration when it came time to put pen to paper on a destination.
- The group whittled the offers down to a trio -- New Orleans, Houston, and Atlanta -- that we felt rose above the rest. Houston offered the best chance to win with recent playoff success to match, New Orleans an elite running mate, tons of talent and assets to parlay into more help coupled with playoff success too, and Atlanta the fat pile of cash that Jimmy has always sought and being the clear alpha on the team.
- Houston's signing of DeMar DeRozan in the middle of the deliberations was a curveball we had to adjust to, as at the time there were several votes in favor of Jimmy joining Giannis and Jrue on his hometown team. We had to regroup after that decision to look at the two remaining teams we had selected: New Orleans and Atlanta.
- The debate was very lengthy on the two finalists. Some of us felt very strongly that the Pelicans represented a near parallel to Jimmy's landing in Miami, with Trae the equal to Bam as an elite young talent and the rest of the Pelicans youth representing the scrappy team that Jimmy extolled upon his arrival in Miami. Atlanta's roster, on the other hand, was such a blank slate that it was difficult for the group to project what exactly will be around Jimmy when it is all said and done. Ultimately what swayed the majority towards Atlanta was the fifth year presented, as Jimmy having $56 MM extra when he will be 38 with his punishing style of play (not to mention recent spate of injury issues) is hard to ignore, overriding any roster concerns that currently exist.
Terms and Conditions are below:
Year 1: $43,279,250
Year 2: $46,525,194
Year 3: $49,771,138
Year 4: $53,017,081
Year 5: $56,263,025 (Player Option)
Total: $248,855,688
Year 1: $43,279,250
Year 2: $46,525,194
Year 3: $49,771,138
Year 4: $53,017,081
Year 5: $56,263,025 (Player Option)
Total: $248,855,688
New Orleans Pelicans
Utah Jazz
Denver Nuggets
Portland Trailblazers
Atlanta Hawks
