# Why Mike James did not sign here



## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

​ This is what Dallas offered; 3 years/MLE starting at $5 mil. Houston offered the same thing.Minnesota not only offered a fourth year onto the contract, but they also included a bonus; that if Mike James got traded he would receive some cash (I believe it was cash), and and option to opt out after 3 years and become an Unrestricted Free Agent. Minnesota had a 4 year/$23 million contract



> "Minnesota offered him more money and more years," Mavericks owner Mark Cuban wrote in an e-mail. "That was the most important aspect to Mike. He told me he was going to take the highest offer and he did."





> Duffy called the Mavericks' offer "competitive" but said Minnesota offered more security.





> Mavericks coach Avery Johnson met with James in Las Vegas on Monday. Duffy said Johnson was the primary reason James considered the Mavericks. James was swayed by a long conversation Tuesday with Timberwolves star Kevin Garnett.


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

Can someone explain the concept of Mid Level Exception to me?


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

Wikipedia said:


> *Mid-level exception* A team is allowed to sign a player to a contract equal to the average NBA salary, even if the team is over the salary cap already, or if the signing would put them over the cap. This is known as the mid-level exception, and it can be used each season, either on one player or split up between multiple players. Contracts signed under the mid-level exception can be for up to six years. The mid-level exception in 2004-05 was $4.9 million, while in 2005-06 it is $5 million under the terms of the new CBA.
> 
> An example of the mid-level exception's use would be when the Golden State Warriors signed guard Derek Fisher before the 2004-05 season.





Larry **** said:


> *MID-LEVEL SALARY EXCEPTION --* This exception allows a team to sign any free agent to a contract equal to the average salary, even if they are over the cap (see question number 24 for the definition of "average salary." Also note that for 2005-06 they used a defined figure of $5 million). This exception may be split and given to multiple players. It may be used for contracts of up to five years in length, and raises are limited to 8% of the salary in the first year of the contract. Signing a player to a multi-year contract does not affect a team's ability to use this exception every year. For example, a team can sign a player to a five-year contract using this exception and still use the exception the following year to sign another player. Also see question number 20 for more information on the availability and use of this exception.
> 
> If the player is a restricted free agent with one or two years of service and receives an offer sheet from a new team, the player's prior team may use the Mid-Level exception to match the offer sheet (see question number 36 for restricted free agency).
> 
> ...


Best two I could find.

It gives us the ability to resign Keith Van Horn for upto $5.2 million this season, even though we are over the cap


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

I don't know why he didn't sign here, but I know why he went to Minny. He's an idiot.


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## Diable (Apr 26, 2005)

You guys must not know much about Mike Jame$ *****


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## t1no (Jul 10, 2005)

But he is not going to get a ring, money is not everything.


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

One way you can look at that, is that he already has one.


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

Yeah but that was on a team where he was at the end of the bench


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

M F F L said:


> Yeah but that was on a team where he was at the end of the bench


He had 20 minutes per game in Detroit. _Hardly _end of the bench


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

Let me rephrase that

On the bench meaning he wasnt as big a part as he would wanted


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## xray (Feb 21, 2005)

He's been on 6 teams in 5 years, and said outright he was going to take the highest offer.

I'm not crying. :clap:


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## Coatesvillain (Jul 17, 2002)

Tersk said:


> It gives us the ability to resign Keith Van Horn for upto $5.2 million this season, even though we are over the cap


How much they can pay Van Horn is completely different. Since they have his bird rights, they can go over the cap to re-sign Van Horn and still have the MLE to play with.



M F F L said:


> Let me rephrase that
> 
> On the bench meaning he wasnt as big a part as he would wanted


If he's playing a bigger role than he was on that Piston team, I don't think that team would win a championship no matter who they were.


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

Coatesvillain said:


> How much they can pay Van Horn is completely different. Since they have his bird rights, they can go over the cap to re-sign Van Horn and still have the MLE to play with.


Really, I was under the impression that a player must be here for 3 years or on his rookie contract.


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

Tersk said:


> Really, I was under the impression that a player must be here for 3 years or on his rookie contract.


Yeah, that's right, so Bird rights didn't apply to JET's case either.


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

StackAttack said:


> Yeah, that's right, so Bird rights didn't apply to JET's case either.


Damn you for getting me confused. We must have had Bird Rights for Terry, because we signed him for 7ish million dollars, and we definately were not under the cap.


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

Terry's only been here two years...idk, I'll look into it. I don't know why people are afraid of going over the cap. That's just something I don't understand. I mean it's not like it's not allowed, you just have to pay some extra money. If the owner's got money, why not?


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## jdlhi (Apr 28, 2005)

I'm pretty sure the bird rule did apply to Jason Terry


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

"Larry Bird exception

Perhaps the most well-known of the NBA's salary cap exceptions, it is so named because the Boston Celtics were the first team permitted to exceed the salary cap to re-sign one of their own players, in that case Larry Bird. Free agents who qualify for this exception are called "qualifying veteran free agents" or "Bird Free Agents" in the CBA, and this exception falls under the auspices of the Veteran Free Agent exception. In a nutshell, the Larry Bird exception allows teams to exceed the salary cap to re-sign their own free agents, at an amount up to the maximum salary. To qualify as a Bird free agent, a player must have played for three seasons without being waived or changing teams as a free agent. This means a player can obtain "Bird rights" by playing under three one-year contracts, a single contract of at least three years, or any combination thereof.* It also means that when a player is traded, his Bird rights are traded with him, and his new team can use the Bird exception to re-sign him. Bird-exception contracts can be up to six years in length.*"

Yeah, you guys are right. So even though he didn't play three years here, his years in Atlanta count.

Also, that last part...so with this extension, does that mean that we won't be able to go over the cap to re-sign Dirk in a few years?


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

No, because Nowitzki will have been with us for over 3 years - which means we will have bird rights..I believe

I assume he would be restricted, anyway..


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

We got rights over Dirk, he's never even left us.


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

I understand that, but it says Bird-edception contracts can be up to six years in length.


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## Saint Baller (May 3, 2006)

_Dre_ said:


> We got rights over Dirk, he's never even left us.


 He loves Dallas man if you see him talking in interviews about the city, the people, the enviroment, the team he is one humble down to Earth guy that just loves it here


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

M F F L said:


> He loves Dallas man if you see him talking in interviews about the city, the people, the enviroment, the team he is one humble down to Earth guy that just loves it here


 Yeah, let's not even bring this up. You see that huge extension he just signed. You think he's thinking about leaving?


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

I'm not saying that he doesn't want to say. God damn, someone just tell me if that thing's accurate, that Bird contracts can only be up to six years.


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## Tersk (Apr 9, 2004)

All I know is that six years is the maximum length of a contract, for anyone.

I think?


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## Dre (Jun 20, 2003)

I thought it was 5 with the new CBA.

And with Birds, you get one extra year, so yes, I'm guessing it's 6.


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## Coatesvillain (Jul 17, 2002)

Tersk said:


> Really, I was under the impression that a player must be here for 3 years or on his rookie contract.


When a player is traded their bird right's are transferred to the team who acquired him. That's how the Heat were able to sign Shaq to his extension last offseason, despite the fact he only played one season for them.

Also there's no limit to the amount of times a team can go over the cap to re-sign the players who it owns the Bird rights of. The only way that would make an impact, is if Mark Cuban started to get scared of the luxury tax and didn't want to go over it.

And yeah, you can re-sign your bird rights players to six year deals, anyone else can get up to five.


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## StackAttack (Mar 15, 2006)

Coatesvillain said:


> When a player is traded their bird right's are transferred to the team who acquired him. That's how the Heat were able to sign Shaq to his extension last offseason, despite the fact he only played one season for them.
> 
> Also there's no limit to the amount of times a team can go over the cap to re-sign the players who it owns the Bird rights of. The only way that would make an impact, is if Mark Cuban started to get scared of the luxury tax and didn't want to go over it.
> 
> And yeah, you can re-sign your bird rights players to six year deals, anyone else can get up to five.


Ah, ok, that explains it, from what I read I thought it meant that you could only qualify as a Bird player if your contract had been for up to six years.


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