Magic will sign Howard to five-year, $85 million extension

[rl564411]

" Very little negotiating will be necessary before the Orlando Magic signs Dwight Howard to a five-year contract extension that could be worth an estimated $85 million, serving as the long-term centerpiece for the franchise.

Although the signing might not be done until the business of free agency has begun next month, his presence and the talk of the Magic's commitment to him will be used to help lure any free agent who is wavering. "

Source: Orlando Sentinel

Wow! I am glad the Magic locked him up but is he very worth that much?

[LakersRule24]

$17,000,000 a year?

[Tuomas]

Wow. Good centers are hard to find. Let's not hope he'll pull a Stoudemire-knee-trip.

[Axel]

I don't think he's worth that much yet. He still needs to develop his offensive game a LOT. Perhaps in a year or two he will be worth $17,000,000 per year, but for now 12-13 mil seems more apropriate.

[NovU]

a monster contract for a monster kid.
i say he deserves every cents of it.
17.6ppg 12.3rpg .603fg% also durable yet 21 years old.
iverson gets paid more and webber was getting paid like 18 mil too...

i for one expected okafor to be a better pick but dwight really prove me wrong.
great job! keep it up & and u will be hof.

[benji]

His contract would start at around $12.5 million. And I do not believe he can even get an $85 million contract at five years. As the maximum raise in the league is 10.5%.

His contract would look like this:
Year 1: $12.5 million
Year 2: $13.8 million
Year 3: $15.1 million
Year 4: $16.4 million
Year 5: $17.8 million

I rounded on those figures but the unrounded amount is $75.625 million.

Assuming the leap from 05-06 to 06-07 in Maximum Salary it looks like this:
Year 1: $12.9 million
Year 2: $14.3 million
Year 3: $15.6 million
Year 4: $17.0 million
Year 5: $18.3 million

Which is still only: $78.1 million.

He'd have to get a six year deal, and at the maximum that would be: $97.8 million.

Unless, I screwed up the math of course...

[shadowgrin]

Maybe it's the perks and other bonuses in the contract that increased tha amount.

[benji]

No, because those bonuses cannot make the first year exceed the Maximum Amount. And the bonuses are distributed equally throughout the contract.

Howard could get a $15.6 million signing bonus, but it would be removed from the $78.1 million and then distributed back among the years to reach $78.1 million again. The difference is that instead of that $15.6 million coming over five years of the contract, Howard would get it plus the first year's salary totalling $28.1 million payment in the first year. He would still only get $50 million over the last four years.

Incentives and bonuses do not apply to SET contract values like the Mid-level exception and Maximum contracts. The maximum contract IS $12.455 million for last year (and I assumed $12.9 million for this year) a player CANNOT make more than this in the first year of the contract.

[cyanide]

It's clear he's the future of the franchise.

[BigKaboom2]

That's quite a bit of money.

He's worth a big contract though. Dwight is an excellent player.

[maes]

It's a free market, relatively speaking yes.

Remember Nene is worth $60M, so is Sam Delambert, so is Troy Murphy. Getting Dwight Howard for an extra $25m is a relative bargain upgrade over those big men.

[Sauru]

i persoanlly think its too much money, however, thats the way the nba is going, and he could be huge for the magic in the future. he does need to find himself a go to move, or 2, then he will be worth it. as of now though i think its too much. still i like him, one of my fav players in the nba right now

[Matt]

Adonal Foyle, Murphy, Dunleavy, Dalember, Nene....etc all push up the price of these superstars. No way an all-star takes Nene money when he can get considerably more.

[Ty-Land]

I think it is a little reactionary to the whole Shaq saga of a decade ago. They don't won't him to have the chance to walk, so they are locking him up now. Reasonable amount of money they are throwing around this summer. As long as Howard continues to develop on offence and doesn't get a major injury then he will be worth the huge sum. If he doesn't improve much from last seasons form, then the Magic are in a bind as they will need another 'star' to get them deep into the playoffs.

[Silas]

i for one expected okafor to be a better pick but dwight really prove me wrong.
great job! keep it up & and u will be hof.

As did I, I thought from day one that the Bobcats had a better player than the magic after the draft, but I was wrong. Not to take away from Okafor, he's been one of the better players from that draft and a very good big man, but not quite on the same level as howard.

[Fenix]

With all due respect to Howard, I can't see how he can be worth of that contract. Sure, he's 21 years old and putting monster rebounding numbers but he has yet to prove himself to be worthy of being a no.1 option on his team. As of now, he's all about potential and most definitely not in the same league as players like Lebron and Wade. He slightly underachieving on defense and has limited moves on offense while being quite mechanical (which is always a bad sign for a post player as far as his potential goes).

[maes]

With all due respect to Howard, I can't see how he can be worth of that contract.

All true, and i'm sure Orlando has thought that too. The problem is the contract spans 5-6 years for the better players and so the price must be appropriate to how good the player will be in the future, not the present.

If Orlando (or any team) takes a more cautious approach, say they'll offer $10M for Dwight, Dwight's agent will sign a 2-3 year contract or opt out clauses that can limit it to 2-3 years.

Then what happens is if the player does end up being good, they can opt out of your team. This is what happened w/ Rashard, Sonics were cautious and signed him to a lower contract so he included an opt out clause, and he's taking it. Now Rashard is a SF so Sonics will probably only a pay a few million more for him, but with Dwight in 3 years could command a huge paycheck.

Plus, if Orlando loses both Shaq AND Dwight Howard to free agency someone will probably be beheaded, so i'm sure they'll pay any money to extend Dwight to max length.

[Its_asdf]

Orlando better pray that Dwight's offensive game grows under Van Gundy and that he stays relatively healthy throughout the years. Not really a huge gamble since Dwight has been improving year by year and seems to be a nice kid on and off the court, but he hasn't shown the level of dominance that most centres have shown and have gotten that amount of money.

[ThaLiveKing]

I wouldn't stay in Orlando that long

[shadowgrin]

The worse thing Dwight could turn out is become A.C. Green with his jesus-loving.

[Its_asdf]

^I'm pretty sure Dwight would've boned a chick by now though.

[Dro]

I think he's being slightly overpaid. Amare Stoudemire, probably the most comparable player to Dwight, was signed for 5 years, $73 million after putting up 26ppg in his 3rd season (keep in mind, the contract was signed prior to the Suns' knowledge of his knee injury). Dwight put up 18ppg in his 3rd season.

Dwight will be worth every penny if he develops a reliable mid-range jumper as Amare has done.

But it's not like the contract isn't deserved. No way Orlando management could afford to not extend Dwight's deal.