More Darko news. The truth may finally come out as to why the Magic pulled the qualifying offer from Darko. As it was laid out to me, the Magic were very worried about how Darko’s agent could mess up Rashard signing with Orlando. The truth is the Magic have several deals on the table that will allow them to free up enough cash and give Darko a deal for what they think he is worth. Which would equate to roughly $8 annual average over a 5 year deal. The problem I am hearing and the reason Otis did not call on July 1 is because of the previous meetings he had with Darko’s agent leading up to the free agency period. What has yet to be said in the press is back in May the Magic were trying to hammer out a firm number with Darko’s agent so they could quickly resolve his status and could know what they had to work with. What happened is his agent still held a lot of anger toward Otis for pulling the deal off the table back in October, and now was letting Otis know his demands would be STARTING at $10 million for the first year of the deal.
We could rehash why that October deal was ultimately pulled off the table but let us stick to what is happening now. I questioned the timing of pulling Darko’s deal off the table before the July 11th date because there was essentially no need since he was an unrestricted free agent. However, what I was told is back in late May/early June Darko’s agent let it be known Darko was going to get a deal STARTING at $10 million per year for 6 years. That total deal would have been for 6 years $75 million. Now stop laughing for a moment because this is where it gets serious. Out of those discussions, Otis came away feeling that Darko’s agent will prevent the Magic from signing any free agent this summer PERIOD!!!. Now we can debate this fact, but this is the main reason I was told Otis decided to pull the deal off the table. Apparrently Darko’s agent hinted around that he would wait until the last possible minute and then accept the one year qualifying offer if he could not find anything else better on the market or if the Magic failed to meet his demands.
Back to the offer that was pulled off the table in October; what I was told is that Otis went with a final and firm offer. The only thing I really know other than that, is I was told Darko’s agent was a bear just to get to that point and when Otis said it was the final offer, his agent still made unreasonable demands and never indicated that offer was satisfactory to Darko. In my opinion I think had the Magic known what would have made Darko happy back then, there would have been an agreement made.
So where does that put us now. At the moment I am told the sign and trade for Lewis is at a stalemate. The other part of this is how it will really effect Darko. The bottom line is the Magic will have to renounce Darko if they sign Lewis. The only saving grace to that is if Otis can free up enough cap space and have enough money under the cap to sign Darko outright. What this will do though is Darko will be a free agent without a team and the Magic could sign him but his raises will only be at 8% because they would have given up his Bird rights when they renounced him.
I was told Rashard’s deal is not for the league MAX but it is a 5 year deal that is just a hair under $75 million in total. With the maximum raise of 8% he can receive from year to year his deal would shake out like this. (Remember the CBA does not allow for compounded raises. It is 8% of the first year then that 8% is added to each of the remaining years non-compounded.)
Year 1
$ 12,925,000.00
Year 2
$ 13,959,000.00
Year 3
$ 14,993,000.00
Year 4
$ 16,027,000.00
Year 5
$ 17,061,000.00
Total Value
$ 74,965,000.00
Given the Magic’s current salary situation, there total salaries would look like this if you renounce Travis and cut Augustine.
Lewis
$ 12,925,000.00
Hedo/Traded Player
$ 6,373,900.00
Howard
$ 6,061,273.00
Battie
$ 5,200,000.00
Ariza
$ 2,710,800.00
Bogans
$ 2,710,800.00
Redick
$ 2,000,160.00
Nelson
$ 1,961,609.00
***Arroyo***
$ 4,000,000.00
***Garrity***
$ 3,818,750.00
***Dooling***
$ 3,596,000.00
***Augustine***
$ 51,358,292.00
Estimated cap
$ (56,500,000.00)
Cap space
$ (5,141,708.00)
July 11th cannot get here quick enough. But if I were other GM’s I would think twice about working with players who have Cornstein as a agent because one day he may just be calling them out in the paper too. The problem facing the Magic and Otis now is do they go ahead and clear the cap room and possibly end up trading a valuable player to a team when they will not be able to reach an immediate commitment with Darko’s agent. It is sad because Darko’s agent could have cost him the best chance Darko may have ever had in this league to become a star. Playing next to Dwight and Rashard would take all the pressure off Darko and created a lot more open opportunities. He could grow at his own pace and not be the one burdened to carry a team. He may one day prove to be that star he was project ot be, but as of right now it looks like if he is not on the magic, he will be signed by some team willing to take a flyer on him for the MLE and be a “role” player. A player that there is hope for, but at the MLE the team will not hesitate to make him a back up and probably brand him as a career back up big man. In Orlando he could blossom in to what Brad Miller ended up becoming. Or some place else he could just end up being a better version of Chris Mihm. It will be an interesting next 6 days to say the least. I hope someone with the Magic speak directly with Darko before he makes any move to another team. He needs to know that his agent was indeed representing him, but was doing so to the detriment of his teammates and possibly in the end to Darko himself.
***For the record if the cap comes in at $56.5 million the MLE should be roughly $5.55 million as the first year starting salary. If the Magic can not free up a few million they will have less to sign Darko outright then most teams because they will lose their MLE once they go under the cap to sign Lewis.***
:thumb: Alles Gute dennoch in Phoenix!
