Congrats to Billy King for doing the right thing .

[Guest_Randy]

finally!!!

It appears that the Sixers have locked up Sam Dalembert to a 6 year contract (although the exact figures have not yet been disclosed).  King decided he didn't want to get into a bidding war with the Atlanta Hawks so he got the deal done.  Only question is "what took ya so long, Billy?"  

The Sixers should have ponied their best effort out a long time ago -- Dalembert was willing to take less than the Hawks would have offered to stay in Philly (who wants to play for the Hawks?) but King seemed to be content with lowballing from the beginning.  I'm sure they had to overpay Dalembert but they simply HAD to lock him up and I'm not sure what all the prancing around really gained (except giving Dalembert and his agent a sour taste in their mouth and forcing them to begin to explore other options).  I mean it would be different if you weren't going to pony up or if you aren't sure you want to keep the guy -- but if you are determine to keep a player and are going to match ANYBODY'S offer -- then why allow him to even entertain other offers and see what he can really get?  Start off with figure just a little under what you really think you are going to have to pay and get the deal done!

Well, here's one for finally seeing the light!   :cheers:  

[Derek Bodner]

Please, reports are that Billy could have signed him for between 60-80 million.  ATLANTA COULDN'T EVEN OFFER THEM THAT!

No reason to preemptively sign him for a deal he couldn't even get elsewhere.  He blew it if those #'s are correct.

[Guest_Randy]

Dbods,

I hadn't heard those kind of numbers -- and agree, King could have/should have offered close (not as much, IMO) as what Atlanta could have offered.  Are you basing this on the money that Atlanta currently has on the table with Joe Johnson?  I thought they were $22 mill under the cap?

I think $9 mill a year would have been a good offer -- giving him $13 mill a year is basing a lot on what he MIGHT be someday!

[Derek Bodner]

Well, max salary (before this year) for a player with 4 years of experience is 10.95 million, which would have come out to about 62 million over 5 years.  If the Hawks, with 21 million in cap space, use 11 of that to sign joe johnson, they can only offer him 10 million, or 58.8 million over 5 years.