Post#33 » by Malinhion » Tue Jul 1, 2008 1:21 pm
Potentially you could extend him a flat-rate contract at $16.67 million per season. A 100m/6yr deal with 8% graduated salary increases would look like this:
Age: Salary
26: 13,888,888.89
27: 15,000,000.00
28: 16,111,111.11
29: 17,222,222.22
30: 18,333,333.33
31: 19,444,444.44
Now the first couple years don't look so bad. But I have no doubt that I can't build a championship contender around a team paying Gilbert Arenas $20 million. On the other hand, I don't know how bad the last year of this deal will actually look in 2014. There are a lot of factors in play. His knee has to hold up and other health issues can't arise. He needs to maintain his quickness and athleticism so people respect his shot and he's able to push the tempo--his two most valuable assets. Also, he will be playing the majority of that last year at age 32, since his birthday is early in January. All indications are that he's a gym rat but you never know how a player's career will pan out.
Personally, I'm kinda gunshy at this contract. He probably deserves it, but I don't see any other teams willing to bid that for his services (though the Clippers would love to and he would probably go to LA to fight Kobe for the spotlight). Clearly you are locking him up through his prime, so he's gonna want to get paid. But coming off of an injury-plagued year, I'm not giving six year without leaving myself an opt-out in one of those years.
I am intrigued at the prospect of him going to Golden State, but $20million/yr is like slitting your wrists now and letting it bleed out over the next few seasons.
