After ongoing amicable discussions between player and team, Clippers forward Tobias Harris has reportedly decided to turn down a contract extension offer worth approximately $80MM and play out the final season of his current deal in Los Angeles, according to David Aldridge of TNT.
Because the maximum amount the Clippers could have offered in the first season of an extension is only 120% of Harris’ 2018/19 salary, which equates to $17.76MM, and raises are limited to 8%, the maximum value of the extension offer was $79.56MM. Based upon the $80MM figure reported by Aldridge, it therefore appears as though the Clippers offered Harris the most money they possibly could under NBA rules.
Nevertheless, Harris, 26, will now play out the final year of his current deal and become an unrestricted free agent next summer. He will be eligible to sign a five-year, $189.7MM with the Clippers or a four-year, $140.6MM deal with another franchise, whereas as explained above, he could have only earned $94.4MM over the next five years if he had excepted the extension offer.
Still, it’s still a bit surprising to see Harris turn down such a lucrative offer when next year’s free agent crop is turning heads already and big deals like we saw in the summer of 2016 just aren’t coming around as often. Only time will tell whether Harris made the right call.
Bad gamble. Maybe Kawhi’s uncle is giving him advice too!
No chance he gets a max deal.
I think a lot of the free agents will stay with their teams. I don’t think Tobias is one of them.
No way someone gives him more. Unless he plans on ring chasing or really hates LA for some reason this is a bad move.
Clippers fans be like “We dont need him, we getting kawhi next year and kyrie”
Pretty sure the Lakers fans said the same thing this year, all you got was an old lebron.
Old Lebron is still the best player in the game
Kevin Durant has been the Finals MVP the last 2 seasons going head to head with LeBron.
Lakers fan be like; But kevin got Curry, Klay and others.
Kevin Durant be like he’ll beat Lakers with LeBron too. LeBron is a ball hog. Warriors play team ball.
Correct, LeBron has become a ball hog. And he’s seemingly gotten even more stingy with the ball ever since Westbrook started going apesh1t posting all those triple doubles..It seemed like that made LeBron focus more on getting triple doubles to try and keep up..
Sounds stupid, but it’s stupidly true..
Also, LeBron will come out every once in awhile and finally defer to his teammates, then when they fail, because they aren’t used to a free flowing offense, then LeBron uses that as an excuse to continue hogging the ball..
There’s a reason talented players seemingly instantly become worse when they team up with LeBron. The only players that don’t are ones that demand LeBron to share the ball, ie. Wade and Kyrie his last 2 seasons…
Those guys are/were PGs. It wasn’t about demanding the ball; they had it already.
The best offense was always James iso-ing. Should the Cavs have done something else less effective? Maybe other team’s fans would like him to give it up more often. TV announcers would complain that LeBron wasn’t taking over enough.
But now everyone can be dumb about someone else’s team and star. People will complain about the same fool things, except the Lakers will be playoff news and the Cavs probably drafting news.
ISO OFFENSE IS A TYPE OF OFFENSE. Look for the efforts to get an advantageous matchup.
Tobias is no superstar and will never be as good as Aaron Gordon who accepted $76M from Orlando … Wish him luck !!
Good comparison… Gordon signed quickly and set the market for that quality level. Harris should not have knocked it.
At the same time, you do have the Otto Porter contract to compare as well. And Harris has a year to put up some numbers.
Hmm read up on NBA rules Aaron Gordon signed the rookie scale max extension. He can’t sign for anymore. Tobias is not coming off his rookie deal he’s coming off rookie extension so he’s eligible for a higher payday.
IDK what rulebook you are referring to but Gordon could have gotten what Wiggins and Booker got, 5yrs/$148MM.
Gordon got about 4/76. What rule restricts him but not Wiggins and Booker? Where do you get $19 as Gordon’s max?
Harris is a nice player, but he probably was not worth as much as the Clips offered now, much less looking for more next offseason.
Magic overpaid him and got rid of him as soon as they had a chance…this ‘prima donna’ players abound in the NBA … Clippers don’t need him !!
Prima donna is about the last description I could think of for Tobias Harris. He is severely underrated, judging from the comments on this thread. Who knows if he can get the max, but he’ll certainly be in a position to improve on that deal with a solid 18-19 year.
Hope he doesn’t get injured like IT or Boogie, and finds himself having to rebuild value.
I know a lot of other people here have said it already, but there’s no way he gets more than that next summer. Bad idea.
I don’t see him getting more. If you think you are worth more I still say take the money. Boogie IT, Noel are all hurting.
Boogie isn’t even playing the entire season I don’t think any of those are comparable
Idiot
Not sure I understand the risk/reward from Harris’ perspective here. Realistically, he’s declined $80mil, in the hopes of pulling in maybe an extra $20mil if all goes well. But, injury or poor play means he has probably lost almost all of it.
Agreed. Big men can contract injury bug very easy like Boogie. One knee injury away from a MLE deal if lucky next season. I get betting on yourself in situations but when someone is offering 80 mill guaranteed this isn’t one of them. He is a good player but 80 mill seems like a really sweet deal more than he is worth. Surprised he got that kind of offer to tell the truth…Bird in hand better than two in bush. Translates to 80 mill in bank better than 100 million maybes next season.
I’m surprised they offered him that contract. They r kinda in rebuild mode and should b looking more towards a youth movement. I know he’s only 26. But they have 2 young PGs to groom at 19&21 and 2 young SGs at 21&23. Harris really doesn’t fit the timeline for the clippers to compete against the elite teams again.
A lot of people don’t realize how good harris was last year. He will easily surpass this next offseason if he has another year like last year. Not sure if it’s right for clippers, but someone will
Tobias …if you still have a chance ..reverse your decision, take the money and run !! …before the Clippers think twice about it. Even with good health you won’t make this kind of money ever again in your life.
Hit the road jack! He is not worth 17m……much less 80. Did his university have math class….or did he just skip class? Clippers would not win playoffs with Harris….good riddance.
Lot of haterade on this board. There are several clowns making as much or more than him now that he’s better than. And he is young enough. He isnt an Option 1 guy, more like 2 or 3, so if the cap increases next year you could see him get more, or at the very lease 1 extra year from the Clippers at a 20M rate.
Not hatorade to point out that if he gets hurt this year 18/19 playing out his deal, he could have no deal 19/20 to sign due to injury. If he can rehab he might get pocketchange to prove he is viable again. If he signed for 80 mill that is guaranteed cash. Life changing money for himself & multiple generations if done right. Cancel the hatorade card, injuries happen. Ask Boogie?
All of the “good leave then”. Injuries happen. “What if you get hit by a bus” at a certain point you need to stop worrying about the what if.
Good player but nowhere near worth 20MM/year. I thought clippers wanted Kawhi & another star, they won’t be able to do it if they pay that much for Harris. Can’t understand why on Earth would the clippers offer that much to him… & he turned it down SMH
He will be traded this year for a protected future first and expiring contracts.
Close call. He’s not in the same situation as guys like KI, Butler, KT, etc. who are max guys with a player option for security. But seeing that even in a market short on cap space clearly inferior players like RFAs Parker, Gordon or LeVine got paid more than the extension offer, it’s certainly rational for him to test the market as a UFA next year. He might do much better than the extension, and it’s hard to see him doing much worse (short of an injury).
His max next year would start at 32 mm (est), the extension would start next year at 17.75 mm. So, he doesn’t need to come close to max to better the extension.