dougthonus wrote:sco wrote:You are usually more right than me on these things, but the one factor that we have on our side is that he is a RFA. I'm a big believer in the market dampening effect of FO's saying that they'll match any offers. Pat will be coming off a season that was more in line with Ayo's last season than Coby's. Those two things coupled with the fact that Pat will go into free agency after a season-ending injury and not having a chance to show he's healthy, could work in the Bulls favor.
I don't know that he's going to have a lot of other bidders, but I don't know that it will matter. This FO hasn't found a way to negotiate hard on anyone yet, why do you think they'll start with the guy who was their first draft pick, whom they've never even brought in a competitor to his minutes and gifted a starting role to, and made untouchable in trades?
I just can't see them strong arming him at all. They're going to have a proactive, market deal for him on day 1 of FA IMO.
I don't disagree that they'll offer him a market value deal preemptively on day 1. I just don't see why it would be for close to the numbers you suggested. Pure (low volume) 3 and D isn't worth as much as you think. Look at Torrey Craig and Jevon Carter. Hell, look at Coby White from less than a year ago from this FO. He was definitely playing better than Patrick and got essentially a 3 year MLE offer. I know there is probably at least one guy around the league who is similarly mediocre to Patrick who got 20 or 25 mil a year, but I'd guess the examples to the contrary (similar guys who got way less) are much more abundant.
Paying Patrick Williams north of 20 million a year right now would be profoundly insane IMO.