An intriguing wrinkle appears on the offer sheet signed by restricted free agent Paul Reed.
Reed agreed to a three-year, $23 million contract with the Utah Jazz, which was matched by the Philadelphia 76ers. While matching an offer to keep a free agent isn’t unusual, one unique element in the contract specifications noted by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski certainly made 76ers president Daryl Morey grin.
Reed’s offer, devised by Jazz General Manager Justin Zanik, included a complete guarantee for the first year of the three-year contract. It does, however, include a clause that guarantees the remaining two years — at $15.7 million — if the team paying him makes the conference semifinals. Given where Utah is now in Year 2 of its recovery,
Philadelphia has reached the Eastern Conference semifinals in five of the last six seasons, while Utah is likely to be considered a postseason contender in a few years. The offer sheet was a clever strategy to make it less appealing for the Sixers to match without putting the Jazz in too much danger.
Morey, who has a reputation for being a smart front-office operator, waited until 90 minutes before the July 9 deadline to alert the Jazz that he was matching the deal.
The entire situation is reminiscent of a contract offer Morey made to Zanik in 2012. The current Jazz GM was the agent for Chicago Bulls free agent Omer Asik at the time. The Bulls refused to match Houston’s three-year, $24.3 million offer sheet, which was backloaded to pay more than 60% of the entire value in the final year. Morey signed one of those “poison pill” contracts with the Rockets.
Perhaps Zanik learned something from that ordeal, leading him to give Morey a taste of his own medicine.
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