David Pagnotta

He's still going to cash in heavily.

You know, he spoke the other day and was just saying, look, this is my second home.

I like it here.

Everybody knows I like it here.

There's plenty of time to figure this out.

Now, which leads me to believe one of two things.

One, maybe he's considering short term because he wants to see how this team does moving forward before committing to a full eight, which will eventually be a max of seven years.

Or maybe they are fighting for more dollars.

With the way that the salary cap is going up, it's projected to go up to $104 million.

It's at $95.5 million now.

Next season's cap is projected to go to $104 million, and the following year is projected to go to $113.5 million.

I keep saying projected because there's a good chance

that based on how revenues go over this season, that that may increase.

If that continues to increase and the numbers continue to go skyward, and with the prospect of the league expanding, which doesn't contribute to HRR, the expansion fees, but everything else does, the cap may jump significantly more

within a five-year period, within at least this next CBA.

So he may say, well, okay, I'm willing to commit long-term, but if I'm taking $16 million now, that's going to be equivalent to like $19 million in six or seven years.

So let's find a happy medium.

There's a possibility that that's part of the equation as well, and that's what his agent, Paul Theofanos, may be fighting for, to say, look, yeah, $16 million looks big now, but in a few years, not so much, given the caliber of player.

And if they believe...

him and the team believe he's going to be around a 100-point guy consistently.