Warriors Lose Out on Layman

[cb4raptorscb4]

Warriors Came Close To Signing Jake Layman



Oakland, CA - The Golden State Warriors had a few younger forward targets in free agency, but have come up empty so far. The team initially showed strong interest in Aleksander Vezenkov, but refused to pay the man more than $6-7 million a year. At the same time, their other target, Jake Layman had really strong interest in joining the Warriors. After making a couple of offers to Layman, the Warriors heard back from his agent:

"With some of the latest offers coming in, Layman is going to need another 24 hours to make his decision. The frontrunners are between Washington and Indiana, as both are offering the most guaranteed money, and money is the most important thing to Layman. Brooklyn is not in the running as their offer is not competitive. Miami's offer is competitive in AAV, but the guaranteed money isn't there. Golden State is the team Layman is the most interested in, but their offer will need to come up significantly in guaranteed money, otherwise they won't be a finalist."

The Warriors knew they had to up their offer. Assuming that Washington was offering all of their cap space, which was just over $9.6 million for 4 years with a 4.5% raise ($41.3 million), Golden State went in with an offer that would provide more overall money. Their offer was $10.4 million for 4 years with no raises or options. That is a higher starting salary than what they gave their own free agent Henry Ellenson. The total money for the contract would have been $41.6 million. Unfortunately for the Warriors, the Miami Heat also made a strong offer and Layman's greed allowed him to return to Miami, where he will be paid almost $46 million over 4 years.

Layman would have been a starting forward for the Warriors, but will instead return to Miami where he only played 31 games last season and saw 9.7 minutes of action. Clearly, money means more than anything for Layman at this stage of his career. The Warriors thought Layman would be a good fit on the team as he provides shooting and is adequate at many other parts of the game. However, they didn't see him as a near max player.

With a bunch of cap space still left, the Warriors will likely just fill out their roster now with 1 year contracts to save cap space for next season while seeing what type of talent they have in their new young talent (Coby White, Zhaire Smith, and Chimezie Metu).

[emplep7]

I know people are high on Layman, but he rotted on Miami's bench last year and this contract doesn't make any sense to me from their standpoint. I think hes an average player who just got paid a whole lot of money for never producing in his CSL career.

I would consider myself lucky if I were you.

[KW]

+1. I've never seen the hype.

[Myles]

Just noticed something in your article, you mention that you offered 10.4M starting but no raises, that’s actually an illegal contract here. If the contract starts at 8M or higher, the raise % must be 3% or higher. Just a heads up for future contract offers

[TheTwoWallaces]

Yea I wouldn’t feel too bad about losing Layman, he would’ve been a solid plug piece, but would alter the future of your franchise.

However, when the rest of your roster is rookies, I do agree that slightly overpaying for a young talent is a good strategy. Too bad for Layman he’ll be a bench warmer again this year

[GreenBear]

Like others have mentioned, I was a little surprised to see Miami go after him hard considering he mostly rotted on their bench, but I am pretty confident in saying that I don't think anyone has done as many simulations in the new engine as silo, so I'm sure the plan is to have him be a big part of the team over there.

I think looking for prudent contracts like you've been doing this far is the right move for the warriors. No need to blow your cap space for years to come on mediocre players. If you find guys you like on good contracts or short term deals, great. But whatever you don't use will come in handy for future years.

[GreenBear]

As for Vezenkov, I'm just going to refer to him as "Greedy" henceforth

[cb4raptorscb4]

Just noticed something in your article, you mention that you offered 10.4M starting but no raises, that’s actually an illegal contract here. If the contract starts at 8M or higher, the raise % must be 3% or higher. Just a heads up for future contract offers

Touche ... Totally forgot about that rule lol

[Flaming Homer]

Did the same thing back then with the Jrue contract.
Hard to follow up all the rules in the CBA. More off-season to learn helps

[Myles]

One of our goals is to clean up the CBA (and the forum) so it’s easier to read the rules, find the rules, etc. It’s a bit convoluted at the moment

[Silogical]

I know people are high on Layman, but he rotted on Miami's bench last year and this contract doesn't make any sense to me from their standpoint. I think hes an average player who just got paid a whole lot of money for never producing in his CSL career.

He was my 2nd best player in my 2022 finals playoff run and my 3rd best player in my 2021 finals playoff run. I dont play him last year and i lose in the 2nd round. he was also amazing for brooklynn and when they lost him they dropped off hard and were forced to rebuild.

[GreenBear]

I know people are high on Layman, but he rotted on Miami's bench last year and this contract doesn't make any sense to me from their standpoint. I think hes an average player who just got paid a whole lot of money for never producing in his CSL career.

He was my 2nd best player in my 2022 finals playoff run and my 3rd best player in my 2021 finals playoff run. I dont play him last year and i lose in the 2nd round. he was also amazing for brooklynn and when they lost him they dropped off hard and were forced to rebuild.

You did not make the finals in 21. That was the Pistons.

[Silogical]

I know people are high on Layman, but he rotted on Miami's bench last year and this contract doesn't make any sense to me from their standpoint. I think hes an average player who just got paid a whole lot of money for never producing in his CSL career.

He was my 2nd best player in my 2022 finals playoff run and my 3rd best player in my 2021 finals playoff run. I dont play him last year and i lose in the 2nd round. he was also amazing for brooklynn and when they lost him they dropped off hard and were forced to rebuild.

You did not make the finals in 21. That was the Pistons.

Wasnt this year 2023?

2023 = CHI
2022 = MIA
2021 = MIA

[GreenBear]

This year was 23-24. I think they've been classifying it as when the season ended, so 24 this year.

Regardless, I'm just trolling you haha

[Silogical]

This year was 23-24. I think they've been classifying it as when the season ended, so 24 this year.

Regardless, I'm just trolling you haha

damn trolls

the game classifies this year as 2023

As for testing most of my tests were on the new ratings/stats, my findings for the most part are stuff you couldve just guessed without testing.

Mid range is more valuable because there is a defense that runs teams off the 3 pt line into the mid range.
STL is more valuable because zone is less valuable

TJ checks both of these
Layman checks both of these

based on these findings I also liked
Whitehead
Cordi

[GreenBear]

That makes sense. I've just been going by the title the admins gave me (CSL Champ 2021).

TJ was an underachiever in this engine, but maybe he'll play up to his ratings in the next one. I've always liked Layman. I was surprised more GMs weren't more aggressive in trying to sign him earlier since he was a renounced UFA that can do a bit of everything and has great range. I brought him up multiple times on my podcast as a guy teams should target.

But this begs the question: why did you play Layman so little last year if he's so critical to your team's success?

I like Whitehead but for probably different reasons. Yes he can shoot, but with him I can move Shaq all over the place in the new engine. Shaq won't need to be nailed down to the PG spot on offense anymore (although he will still play minutes there).

[Silogical]

I think the game hands out off years, and layman got an off year. If you take an event that happens 40% of the time and run it 122 times its insanely unlikely the average outcome will be under 30%. layman shot under 30% from 3 this year.

[Andrewu91]

Shame. Thunder could use some guys

[Rizzo]

I like Layman and had an offer out for him but I think it was something like $7m/year. He’s super versatile on offense and is a pretty sneaky good defender who I think would be a positive contributor in the new engine. With that said, we couldn’t afford to pay what he’s getting now and with our young wings I’m not sure it would have made sense for us to do so.

[Dennis]

I still remember Someone traded in for him by giving up theee first or so. Can’t remember who it was.