All right, Danny, it's been a while. Not that there's a ton to discuss quite yet, but we do have some news to get to. Where do you want to start Portland where Damien Lillard agreed to his extension and I also think there's some potential intrigue though

it's too early to get really definitive on it because the reporting that's been out there is describing this contract as to the extension as two years 120 million.

And if that number sounds like a lot, it's because it is and Lillard can't get that much through the kind of the normal channels of you know, if you're at the max you can only do a 5% in the first new season instead of the 8%

and the 20% raise that you can do on an extension that's just you know, it's how all the maxes interplay with each other.

So what that two for 120 is built on is that the first year of it is 2025 26 that this idea that the television money will increase the salary caps so much that Damien Lillard's normal raise would be less than the 35% max threshold in that 25 to 26 year.

So he's opting in to 24 25. I believe so yes because the years that have been mentioned as the two new years in the extension or 25 26 and 26 27.

And that makes sense like it was the same situation with Hardin if he was trying to maximize this money.

Right and that's the most years he could go out. So he might as well opt into that player option. You might say well, why would he do that? Why wouldn't he get the most that he possibly could by opting out?

Well, there's a couple of reasons for that. The main one is that the cap will probably be going up in 25 26 as you mentioned so you can build that new contract on top of the old one and not just be limited.

Right. If he opts out of that 48 million, he actually probably unless the cap really goes crazy over the next few years which had less reason to do before the new TV deal.

Then he actually would have to take a little bit less study wouldn't that option season. Now you can go up to 120% of that last option season and add two more years on as well.

That's the most that he could do right now. You can only go out for five years on an extension and that includes the current year that you are in. So as soon as the league year flipped over and he got past the three year anniversary of signing his last Supermax extension in 2019.

He was eligible to sign this one and if the cap does go up by enough that the 35% max is 60 million at least you're not in a situation as Portland. I'm looking on the bright side here. We'll get to the non bright side moments early.

You do at least get to only have to be paying 35% of the cap as opposed to like when these were going up so much more due to the pandemic. Then the cap was when you had 80% raises every year and guys were getting way ahead of what the individual maximum salary was in a given year.

Now at the cap growing back up again that's no longer the case even for these next few years with Lillard and then once you get into that 2526 season then it's going to really go up and it'll be based on essentially whatever the league and union end up agreeing on as far as to the thing I want to see what the new TV deal is.

From a rigid analytical non emotional standpoint I think this is going to be a problem for the Blazers at some point if the goal is to have a competitive team these are and please correct me if I'm wrong but I'm reasonably confident then right.

Damien Lillard is age 35 and 36 seasons and while Lillard is a little bit bigger than the smallest point cards he's listed at 62 and you you wonder about how he's going to age basically how anybody you know is going to go during those years we talked during the NBA finals about how Steph Curry's performance at his age is has very little precedent in I really in the NBA history and while Damien Lillard has never been the best player in the championship team in odds are that's not going to happen at this juncture.

He'll be older when this con when this extension kicks in then Steph Curry is right now and so you know age is definitely component and you have these precedents before but another thing that I was reminded of in this announcement and presumably these negotiations is the collective bargaining and this is owners and players you know deciding

this I think of it as the player side that only other than supermaxes players with 10 plus years of experience can get the 35% max because those players are almost all post prime and unlike in baseball where you can do these long contracts and you're paying players you know a lot of money in years that they are

as good those are like often those like 10 year contracts or something like that where you're getting maybe their pre prime prime and post prime years this is a commitment to post prime Damien Lillard.

Yeah and there's maybe some hope because he is one of the best shooters at the point guard position that we've seen although he doesn't have quite the size of some of these other guys I

mean Chris Paul certainly has been worth 35% of the salary gap for this contract although it certainly didn't look that way many others point guards have already found themselves not worth it and they're younger than or the same age is Lillard right now.

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