Update: Charles Gardner has more on the deal. As suspected, $60 million appears to be the guaranteed dollars with the $72.5 million figure including both team and personal incentives. Just as interestingly, the deal will be structured at a flat $12 million per season, meaning the Bucks are less concerned about their luxury tax situation next year than in the out years.
As it stands, the Bucks now have $65 million committed in 09/10 to just seven players: Bogut, Redd, Jefferson, Williams, Bell, Alexander and Gadzuric. If they use their BAE this summer to sign a free agent big man for two seasons and ink Luc Richard Mbah a Moute to a two year minimum deal, then the total payroll increases to about $68 million. Assuming the luxury tax rises to something in the range of $75 million next summer, that would leave them only about $7 million to re-sign Ramon Sessions and fill out the remainder of the roster. Which is do-able, but rules out the possibility of signing anyone to an MLE-type deal.
Following up on our earlier post, I spoke to Andrew Bogut's agent David Bauman this afternoon and he offered some clarification on the contradictory contract numbers floating around:
- Bauman told me a deal was indeed close and that if all goes to plan they hope to have Andrew in town for a physical and press conference by the end of the week. However, they don't have paperwork in hand and the final details were still being worked out and subject to change.
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As he first told Charles Gardner, Bauman told me the deal will be worth $72.5 million over five years including all incentives. He could not comment on the possibility of options or ETOs being included in the deal. Earlier suggestions were that there would not be any, so we'll keep you posted if that changes.
- At this point he did not want to comment on the portion of the deal that is guaranteed or the exact nature of the incentives. And that is really the key to judging the value of the deal to the Bucks, since incentives could be tied to anything from all-star appearances to statistical milestones. Depending on what they are, the deal could be a good one for the Bucks or could end up looking somewhat inflated. It's possible that the $60 million figure that WSSP is reporting represents the guaranteed dollars, which would make both reports right in some sense.
- Bauman also stated that the distribution of the salary from year-to-year was less important to Bogut, especially given the possibility that the later year salaries could cause luxury tax/cap issues if the deal involves max raises (10.5% of the first year salary in this case). As I noted earlier today, the near-term could be just as problematic, however, with the Bucks possibly having luxury tax concerns in 09/10, the first year of the extension. Either way, Bogut is leaving it up to the Bucks to decide how the dollars are distributed. That could also be important down the road given that Bogut's next deal (starting in 2014 when he's 30) will likely be somewhat dependent on the final year salary of this extension.