[h=1]The Andrew Bynum question[/h][h=3]What's he worth? NBA execs say what they would do with oft-injured big man
By Chris Broussard | ESPN Insider [/h]
Forget Amar'e Stoudemire. Forget Danny Granger. Forget Andrew Bogut. The biggest disappointment of the season by far is Andrew Bynum.
I'll admit it: I thought the Philadelphia 76ers were big winners in the four-team Dwight Howard trade that sent Bynum from L.A. to Philly for some young talent and Andre Iguodala's burdensome contract. I thought Bynum would give the Sixers the chance to be as good as anyone in the East outside of the Miami Heat. I loved the deal for Philadelphia.
Bynum, of course, hasn't played all season and underwent season-ending surgery on both knees Tuesday. The Sixers are horrible without him and haven't even competed for the final playoff spot in the fairly weak Eastern Conference.
The big question is obvious: What do the Sixers do now?
Bynum will be a free agent this summer, so do the Sixers re-sign him or let him walk away and get nothing in return for him (and nothing for the sizable amount of talent they parted with to get him)?
I asked six executives around the league how they would handle the Bynum conundrum. Here's what they said:
<OFFER>
Executive No. 1
"[The 76ers are] in a tough spot. I don't know what I'd do if I were them. In this day and age, with the new collective bargaining agreement, if you lock up a guy for three or four years at a high number and it doesn't work out, it's the ultimate disaster. I could see them offering him a one-year deal for $10 or $12 million. It's a below-average free-agent class, so it's worth the risk for one year. But for any team to offer Bynum three years? I don't know. And if the Sixers sign him to a one-year deal, they won't have much to add other guys."
Executive No. 2
"He's clearly damaged goods, and it's going to take a while for people to have a comfort level before anyone signs him. It could be a situation similar to what happened with Eric Gordon. [Phoenix] signed him to a good free-agent offer sheet despite having knowledge of his knee injuries. Now he's missed half the season, he's clearly not 100 percent and he can't play in back-to-back games. But in Bynum's case, you're talking about a guy who's going to go through the entire year without playing.
"He's a big-time talent, and he's accomplished enough in the league to warrant heavy interest, but somebody better have some significant insight as to what's going on in his head and in his joints if they're going to shell out big money to him. I don't know how it's going to play out, but I would be very leery myself. He hasn't proven to be a real stable guy. He's had maturity issues, and he appears to be completely disconnected from the organization that reached out to get him. It'd be one thing if it's just the injury, but it's the injury plus who he has been."
Executive No. 3
"If you think there's some chance he'll play again, I think you've got to do a two-year deal; really, a four-year deal. You make the second year and the following years half-guaranteed. You've got to try to sign him, but you do it in a way that he has to play (to get his money). And he can't balk at that because he hasn't been playing. I would max him the first year, give him the second year half-guaranteed. It'd be fully guaranteed if he plays a certain number of games. So in a four-year deal, the first year is 100 percent guaranteed; the second year is 50 percent guaranteed but if you play 60 games the second year, it's fully guaranteed. Same thing in the third year. If Philly lets him go, somebody is going to sign him. I could see Houston rolling the dice and giving him a pretty good deal. I don't see Mark Cuban doing it. I think he'd be afraid."
Executive No. 4
"That's a question for all of us now since anyone can sign him this summer. The Lakers and Philly have all the [medical] information on him. The rest of us are going in blind. I don't think the guy's going to make a ton of money this summer. He's sat out the whole year. He's not going to make the max. He was on his way to making that, for sure. I'd say make him a one-year, partially guaranteed offer. You can get exclusions on his knees like Minnesota did with Brandon Roy. So if Roy's knees aren't good, next year's deal with Minnesota is not guaranteed -- that sort of thing. Of course, the player's got to agree to it, and the agent's going to do his best not to have it in the contract, so that will make it tough."
Executive No. 5
"Philly screwed that thing up so bad. They amnestied Elton Brand and lost two other young players [Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless] to get a guy who is not worth it, so I don't know how they can clean that up. You mean your doctors didn't know something was wrong with his knees? I wouldn't bring Bynum back at all."
Executive No. 6
"I'd be praying. They're in a bad spot all the way around. They're damned if they do or if they don't. What they're going to have to try to do is pay the guy the biggest salary they can pay him for two years and see what he can do. I don't think a team from the outside will give him a max offer, but teams can make some offers to apply some pressure to Philly where Philly will have to pay him good money just to keep him. Look at all they gave up for him. They gave up their best player in [Andre] Iguodala. They gave up their first-round pick this year and from a year ago with Vucevic and Harkless. All that has come back to haunt them because Vucevic and Harkless can play."
---
Indeed, executives seem divided on how they would handle Bynum. I think a one-year deal worth about $11 million certainly would be fair for Bynum, considering his injuries as well as his production when healthy. To take such a deal, he would have to understand he got paid nearly $17 million this season for doing nothing.
But if a team inexplicably offers him a multiyear deal and big money, I understand he'd have to take it. But anything beyond a year would have to be partially guaranteed, as Executive No. 3 said.
By Chris Broussard | ESPN Insider [/h]
Forget Amar'e Stoudemire. Forget Danny Granger. Forget Andrew Bogut. The biggest disappointment of the season by far is Andrew Bynum.
I'll admit it: I thought the Philadelphia 76ers were big winners in the four-team Dwight Howard trade that sent Bynum from L.A. to Philly for some young talent and Andre Iguodala's burdensome contract. I thought Bynum would give the Sixers the chance to be as good as anyone in the East outside of the Miami Heat. I loved the deal for Philadelphia.
Bynum, of course, hasn't played all season and underwent season-ending surgery on both knees Tuesday. The Sixers are horrible without him and haven't even competed for the final playoff spot in the fairly weak Eastern Conference.
The big question is obvious: What do the Sixers do now?
Bynum will be a free agent this summer, so do the Sixers re-sign him or let him walk away and get nothing in return for him (and nothing for the sizable amount of talent they parted with to get him)?
I asked six executives around the league how they would handle the Bynum conundrum. Here's what they said:
<OFFER>
Executive No. 1
"[The 76ers are] in a tough spot. I don't know what I'd do if I were them. In this day and age, with the new collective bargaining agreement, if you lock up a guy for three or four years at a high number and it doesn't work out, it's the ultimate disaster. I could see them offering him a one-year deal for $10 or $12 million. It's a below-average free-agent class, so it's worth the risk for one year. But for any team to offer Bynum three years? I don't know. And if the Sixers sign him to a one-year deal, they won't have much to add other guys."
Executive No. 2
"He's clearly damaged goods, and it's going to take a while for people to have a comfort level before anyone signs him. It could be a situation similar to what happened with Eric Gordon. [Phoenix] signed him to a good free-agent offer sheet despite having knowledge of his knee injuries. Now he's missed half the season, he's clearly not 100 percent and he can't play in back-to-back games. But in Bynum's case, you're talking about a guy who's going to go through the entire year without playing.
"He's a big-time talent, and he's accomplished enough in the league to warrant heavy interest, but somebody better have some significant insight as to what's going on in his head and in his joints if they're going to shell out big money to him. I don't know how it's going to play out, but I would be very leery myself. He hasn't proven to be a real stable guy. He's had maturity issues, and he appears to be completely disconnected from the organization that reached out to get him. It'd be one thing if it's just the injury, but it's the injury plus who he has been."
Executive No. 3
"If you think there's some chance he'll play again, I think you've got to do a two-year deal; really, a four-year deal. You make the second year and the following years half-guaranteed. You've got to try to sign him, but you do it in a way that he has to play (to get his money). And he can't balk at that because he hasn't been playing. I would max him the first year, give him the second year half-guaranteed. It'd be fully guaranteed if he plays a certain number of games. So in a four-year deal, the first year is 100 percent guaranteed; the second year is 50 percent guaranteed but if you play 60 games the second year, it's fully guaranteed. Same thing in the third year. If Philly lets him go, somebody is going to sign him. I could see Houston rolling the dice and giving him a pretty good deal. I don't see Mark Cuban doing it. I think he'd be afraid."
Executive No. 4
"That's a question for all of us now since anyone can sign him this summer. The Lakers and Philly have all the [medical] information on him. The rest of us are going in blind. I don't think the guy's going to make a ton of money this summer. He's sat out the whole year. He's not going to make the max. He was on his way to making that, for sure. I'd say make him a one-year, partially guaranteed offer. You can get exclusions on his knees like Minnesota did with Brandon Roy. So if Roy's knees aren't good, next year's deal with Minnesota is not guaranteed -- that sort of thing. Of course, the player's got to agree to it, and the agent's going to do his best not to have it in the contract, so that will make it tough."
Executive No. 5
"Philly screwed that thing up so bad. They amnestied Elton Brand and lost two other young players [Nikola Vucevic, Moe Harkless] to get a guy who is not worth it, so I don't know how they can clean that up. You mean your doctors didn't know something was wrong with his knees? I wouldn't bring Bynum back at all."
Executive No. 6
"I'd be praying. They're in a bad spot all the way around. They're damned if they do or if they don't. What they're going to have to try to do is pay the guy the biggest salary they can pay him for two years and see what he can do. I don't think a team from the outside will give him a max offer, but teams can make some offers to apply some pressure to Philly where Philly will have to pay him good money just to keep him. Look at all they gave up for him. They gave up their best player in [Andre] Iguodala. They gave up their first-round pick this year and from a year ago with Vucevic and Harkless. All that has come back to haunt them because Vucevic and Harkless can play."
---
Indeed, executives seem divided on how they would handle Bynum. I think a one-year deal worth about $11 million certainly would be fair for Bynum, considering his injuries as well as his production when healthy. To take such a deal, he would have to understand he got paid nearly $17 million this season for doing nothing.
But if a team inexplicably offers him a multiyear deal and big money, I understand he'd have to take it. But anything beyond a year would have to be partially guaranteed, as Executive No. 3 said.
