[bigrangy]

I have done some math in order to come up with what I believe to be the right numbers.

For year one of the contract, he has no rights and really has no ability to ask for more than his QO. Let's say that year is worth 3 million, just because we're negotiating in good faith.

For years two through 5, he's an RFA with full rights. Let's say he's the best player in the league, so he deserves to have the highest paid RFA years. Nobody has ever gotten 6 million/year on a bridge, so let's go for that.

Years 6, 7, and 8, he's still the best player in the league. UFA years, so let's go straight to 11 million, which would be the highest AAV in the league.

So, you get 3+6+6+6+6+11+11+11=60 million over 8 years, or 49 million over 7 years.

So this comes out to 7.5x8 or 7x7. It's not that Johnny isn't worth 8 million, it's that his contract situation simply works against him, with one year of no rights, and the extra RFA year versus most long term 2nd contracts. Treliving better stick to his guns, but if 8 million is the magic number for 8 years then so be it. Hopefully it will inflate the contracts of players on other teams.