Kenneth Faried has 60 million more reasons to smile now.
Denver Nuggets fans have 60 million reasons to scratch their heads.
According to Yahoo Sports’ Adrian Wojnarowski, Faried has agreed to a contract extension with the Nuggets that’s worth $60 million:
Denver Nuggets forward Kenneth Faried has reached agreement on a five-year, $60 million contract extension, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Faried is part of the 2011 NBA draft class eligible for extensions until Oct. 31.
The deal includes a partial guarantee in the fifth year that assures Faried he will make no less than $52 million over the life of the contract, sources said.
Denver general manager Tim Connelly and Faried’s agent, Thad Foucher of Wasserman Media Group, started to seriously exchange proposals in the past week and ultimately came to terms on a deal Sunday night, sources told Yahoo Sports.
Paying Faried that much money is a risk, and one that’s likely the byproduct of his breakout campaign with Team USA at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. It must—yes, must—also have something to do with the NBA’s latest TV deal.
Per The New York Times‘ Richard Sandomir:
NBA to announce $24 billion/9 year deal w/ ESPN and TNT on Monday. Annual average value nearly 3x current deal.
— Richard Sandomir (@RichSandomir) October 6, 2014
At some point the NBA’s salary cap is expected to skyrocket after this deal, hence the decision of LeBron James to sign a shorter, option-inclusive pact with the Cleveland Cavaliers this summer. Kevin Durant may have also timed his 2016 free agency perfectly, in hopes of maximizing his earning potential after the TV covenant has been inked.
The timing of the announcement had to help Faried as well. His contract was ironed out shortly thereafter. This seems like one of those situations where the Nuggets had a hodgepodge of options set on the table and were prepared to act accordingly, whenever the TV deal announcement was made, provided it went public or became privileged knowledge before the Oct. 31 deadline for signing all fourth-year players to extensions.
Under the eventual salary cap guidelines, this contract won’t seem too expensive. But it’s a lot to pay someone who has largely been deemed an energetic specialist. Faried is a never-ending supply of diligence, but he’s limited offensively and his defense has never been considered staunch. If he develops a jumper and improves his protection on the other end, the Nuggets might have just signed a steal. If they’re paying him strictly for what he does now, well, the amount is ambitious.
But that’s the thing: Extensions aren’t typically about what a player has already done; they’re about what said player is capable of doing. After watching Faried dominate the 2014 FIBA World Cup, it convinced many that he was someone preparing to make a superstar leap.
Such a leap will be hard on a deep, superstar-less Nuggets team, but the consistent court energy he brings, mated with the projected rise in the salary cap, brought Faried and Denver here, tied together for more than the next half-decade, his contract a reminder of both the TV deal and the franchise’s faith in his future.
Dan Favale is a firm believer in the three-pointer as well as the notion that defense doesn’t always win championships. His musings can be found at Bleacherreport.com in addition to TheHoopDoctors.com.
