General

Andre Iguodala Has Deng Fever

Aug 3, 2008, 4:20 PM UTC

â†µIf Sixers swingman Andre Iguodala has â†µreally asked for $75 million over six years, the only â†µexplanation can be the recent contracts for Luol â†µDeng and Emeka Okafor. All three fellows (along with Ben Gordon) rejected substantial offers last summer â†µand are struggling to make up the difference this time around. â†µThrough tough negotiation and/or delicious muffin baskets, â†µboth Okafor and Deng signed deals better than $70 million â†µthis week.
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â†µAs Shoals has argued, the class of 2004 is â†µcompletely weird, and stuck in a paradigm no longer â†µrelevant to the NBA. An extra problem beyond that: there â†µhas been no real baseline for these players. Kevin Martin’s â†µ$55 million, five-year deal last summer was the closest â†µcomp (he’s also class of ‘04), and Al Jefferson’s $12 â†µmillion annually also bears relevance. But that’s â†µit.
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â†µWith Deng and Okafor, there’s a new baseline. Iguodala â†µasserts he deserves more (which is debatable). There’s â†µorder in restricted free agency at long last. Deng’s deal â†µespecially, replete with incentive clauses, brings the â†µclass of ‘04 up to speed and has -- more than anything but â†µJosh Childress in Greece -- evened scales for restricted â†µfree agents.â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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