01-23-2017, 01:43 PM
(01-23-2017, 01:12 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: In the context I'm referring to...fans that say 'team friendly' mean Zeitler signs for $6-7 million a year.
How are we going to build a championship level team if we constantly let our good free agents leave because they want what is deemed too much money and then don't sign quality external free agents?
With the new rookie pool...it should be easier to retain guys as with a Top 10 pick years ago you would have potentially had to pay a guy $50 million. Now guys are slotted and rookie deals are relatively cheap early on.
As I said, you could realistically pay him 6-7 a year if you structured the guarantee/signing bonus correct. So while the per year looks like more it is only 6-7 a year against the cap, which is team friendly. The per year is a misleading number because so much of it is not guaranteed and on longer deals most is never seen. This is how we have always signed our guys is by creative structuring. I'm not saying 6-7 is the number (haven't even looked yet honestly), but we don't necessarily have to have the same per year to give him a similar deal to decastro.
