What was that about bigs who don’t shoot threes struggling to find a place in today’s NBA?
Nerlens Noel knows nothing of this. At least, he’s not about to. According to Scout.com’s Mike Fisher, a couple of teams are prepared to sling max offer sheets with the hope of poaching Noel from the Dallas Mavericks:
A source from another NBA team (not the Mavs) tells me that there will be “multiple” clubs willing to pay Noel his max once he hits the restricted-free-agent market on July 1. And just so there is no confusion as to what that “max” is:
Assuming the cap at $101 million, as the NBA is expecting, Noel’s contract can start at 25 percent of the cap with eight-percent annual raises. That equals $25.25 mil as his starting salary and about $146.45 million over five years.
Competing bidders can offer restricted free agent Noel a four-year max deal, also worth 25 percent of the cap and also starting at $25.25 mil, but with just five-percent annual raises, equalling about $108.575 million over four years. Dallas can match any offer and retain.
So, if my league source is correct, Noel is about to get a $108.575 payday if Dallas balks at paying him … because somebody else will do so.
Noel is a restricted free agent, so the Mavericks will have the right to match any offer he receives, and the belief is they will do just that. This might even be the reason Noel gets max offer sheets at all: Teams know the Mavericks are going to match, so they’re going to drum up the price tag to bilk them of cap space down the road.
Still, peruse the depth charts of NBA teams, and it’s really tough to find one that would consider maxing out a rim protector who has shown flashes as a strong pick-and-roll diver. The Brooklyn Nets might be trying to plan for a Brook Lopez replacement. The Boston Celtics might be willing to pair him with Al Horford. It’s really hard to come up with anyone beyond that, and even Boston and Brooklyn feel like super long shots to tender that large of an offer.
Either way, it seems the Mavericks’ willingness to match whatever money Noel finds on the open market is about to be tested. We’ll soon know just how serious they are about keeping him around.
