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Re: Terrell Brandon to sign for 60 million
Andy Shaw wrote:
> | From: j.hironaka@unesco.org
> | Date: Tue, 24 Aug 1999 13:00:49 +0200
> |
> | The Timberpoodles reportedly will sign Terrell Brandon to a contract
> | through his 36th birthday for 6 years at 60 million dollars. The 5-11
> | point guard owns a career average of 13.1 ppg (13.9 ppg last year) and
> | 5.4 assists, and will be backed up (presumably for the next 6 years) by
> | rookie William Avery.
> |
> | According to ESPN, Brandon will become the fourth highest paid point
> | guard in the NBA. I find this deal to be typically irresponsible of the
> | T-poodles. I wonder what poor Kevin McHale is going to say at the press
> | conference.
>
> I have to respectfully disagree -- Terrell Brandon is one of the most
> under-rated players in the league. He has consistently played at a
> high level throughout his career, and he is not a distraction to his
> team like Iverson, Strickland, or Marbury are.
>
> Here's a list of the top 10 point guards, ranked by Tendex for the
> past four years. In his rookie year (94-95) he played behind Mark
> Price in Cleveland, which is nothing to be ashamed of.
>
> Remember also that the the newest contracts are always the biggest, so
> the fact that he is the 4th highest paid point guard does not mean
> that he is valued as the 4th best point guard in the league. If Gary
> Payton is paid less, that's because he signed his contract 4 or 5
> years ago.
>
> The only two point guards I would rather have than Brandon are Kidd
> and Payton. Iverson, Marbury and Strickland are big headaches -- they
> think they can do it themselves, but that's not their job. Other
> point guards are either too old (Stockton, Tim Hardaway, Mark Jackson)
> or are over-rated (Stoudamire, Cassell, Van Exel, etc.) or don't
> really have any talent (Darrell Armstrong, David Wesley, Avery
> Johnson).
>
> | Derrick Anderson and Ron Mercer must be doing cartwheels.
>
> At this point, Derrick Anderson and Ron Mercer are not even in the
> same league as Terrell Brandon, and nothing indicates that they have
> shown the potential to get to that level. Plus, shooting guards are
> much easier to find than point guards.
>
> -Andy
>
> Point Guards (98-99)
> MyTendex (min 30 games)
> Player Team MyTend
> 1) kidd,jason Pho 27.24
> 2) payton,gary Sea 23.75
> 3) strickland,rod Was 21.32
> 4) iverson,allen Phi 20.84
> 5) marbury,stephon njn 20.65
> 6) brandon,terrell min 18.75 <-
> 7) armstrong,darrel Orl 17.69
> 8) stockton,john Uta 17.25
> 9) hardaway,tim Mia 17.07
> 10) wesley,david Cha 16.82
>
> 97-98
> Player Team MyTend
> 1) strickland,rod Was 23.67
> 2) payton,gary Sea 23.14
> 3) hardaway,tim Mia 20.88
> 4) iverson,allen Phi 20.85
> 5) kidd,jason Pho 20.77
> 6) brandon,terrell Mil 20.23 <-
> 7) cassell,sam NJN 19.55
> 8) stoudamire,damon por 19.30
> 9) stockton,john Uta 18.79
> 10) marbury,stephon Min 18.01
>
> 96-97
> Player Team MyTend
> 1) johnson,kevin Pho 25.58
> 2) payton,gary Sea 23.62
> 3) stockton,john Uta 23.57
> 4) hardaway,tim Mia 21.83
> 5) strickland,rod Was 21.51
> 6) blaylock,mookie Atl 21.14
> 7) hardaway,anferne Orl 21.05
> 8) stoudamire,damon Tor 20.94
> 9) anderson,kenny Por 20.47
> 10) jackson,mark ind 20.41
> ??) brandon,terrell Cle 20.1 <-
>
> 95-96
> Player Team MyTend
> 1) jordan,michael Chi 29.34
> 2) hardaway,anferne Orl 25.30
> 3) johnson,kevin Pho 24.70
> 4) stockton,john Uta 23.81
> 5) payton,gary Sea 22.40
> 6) kidd,jason Dal 22.04
> 7) strickland,rod Por 22.01
> 8) brandon,terrell Cle 21.89 <-
> 9) stoudamire,damon Tor 21.01
> 10) johnson,avery San 19.64
Hi Andy:
I have to agree with you on the "underrated" and "consistent" description, but
the Tendex does not really support the case for making Brandon the fourth
highest point guard salary in the NBA (what a killer agent he must have!). The
confounding thing is that when Brandon turns 35-years-old, he'll still be
locked up for 2 more seasons at presumably more than 10 million dollars a
year. That's why I said "poor Kevin McHale."
The Timber-gerbils have two contracts taking up their entire 34 million salary
cap, so there's not much flexibility when the time comes to add a veteran to
their playoff run. I guess McHale shouldn't complain about working for a
generous billionaire owner, but it still makes his job untenable in many ways.
You have to credit McHale for recruiting Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, Will
Avery etc. I hope it will be enough.
It's hard to believe McHale spent a lotto pick on Will Avery with the intention
that he'd be a backup for 6 more years. Avery could have used an additional 30
games of point guard training at Duke, but he has more true experience at the
position than most NBA point guard prospects and he's a lights out shooter and
top defender with nearly ideal size and quickness.
****