Gooden has a deal
Posted August 14th, 2006 by bwindhorst
I’ve spoken to people with the Cavs and in Gooden’s camp, there is a verbal agreement on a contract. Not everything has been settled but things appear to be positive. His agent Calvin Andrews told me the total package was for three years and $23 million fully guaranteed with no team or player options.
This came together over the last few days, but they have been talking about the possibility of a shorter deal for a few weeks. It appears the Cavs were willing to go a little higher on the average salary — more than $7.5 per year — if Drew took a shorter. This makes him more tradeable to the Cavs over the next few years and richer in the meantime.
This is going to be spun both sides as the "Larry Hughes model," the idea of taking a shorter contract to set yourself up for a big one down the road. If you remember, Hughes signed a three-year deal in Washington and it set him up for a near max with the Cavs. Expect to see something similar for Chris Wilcox now in Seattle.
Also, I sort of expect this deal to start high and then descend in value. This will help ease the luxury tax burden over the years when Anderson Varejao’s new contract and LeBron’s extension get going. For more on that, read my Sunday Column.
A story will be on Ohio.com shortly.
August 14th, 2006 at 11:46 am
Great news…the three-year deal works perfectly and aligns with what I suggested at my site last week (although they weren’t dumb enough like me to overpay for Drew with $30 mil over three years). This also makes Drew very tradeable and doesn’t burden our payroll with a ton of long-term contracts. Also, Drew, Snow, DJ, and Marsh all come off the books in ‘09 should we still have all of them (hopefully we only have Drew and the others can rot/retire). That’s $25 mil in expiring deals. Enough to re-tool and re-load just before LeBron opts out in 2010 and hopefully re-signs.
So much deadweight on this payroll…ugh! I hope Drew lives up to it and gets motivated to live up to the hype that surrounded him when he came out of Kansas in 02. We’re still waiting.
August 14th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
Snow, DJ and Marsh are going off the books the same year they qualify for social security. It’s nice how Ferry’s keeping the Cavs’ core together plus looking out for those geezers’ families.
August 17th, 2006 at 5:56 pm
Pluto loves to point out how Gooden has had so many different coaches and systems in his career. This will be the first time Drew starts a season with the same coach as the one he started the previous season with. I think the continuity will help him tremendously.