Gordon: Max contract ‘ideal’

You’ve got for to admire for his honesty.

And sense.

The Orlando Magic power forward, who will become a restricted free agent in July, was asked this question Thursday: “What would be the ideal situation for you in a contract in the offseason?”

“Ideal is max,” Gordon answered, referring to a maximum-salary contract. “God, that would be ideal: three letters.”

“Here?” the

his

financial reporter asked, referring to the Magic.

“Yeah, definitely here,” Gordon said. “That would be ideal. If [General Manager] and [President of Basketball Operations]

made that investment, that would be definitely ideal: get those three letters on my name.”

Under the collective bargaining agreement, the Magic are permitted to sign Gordon to an annual salary that begins at 25 percent of the salary cap for the upcoming season, which would amount to a salary of $25.3 million under current projections for the cap. The Magic could give Gordon annual raises of 8 percent per year, for subsequent annual salaries of $27.3 million, $29.5 million, $31.8 million and $34.4 million.

Over five seasons, the total salary under a max deal would be $148 million.

Gordon is correct, of course: A max contract would be ideal.

But Gordon stopped short of saying that a maximum salary contract would be the only contract he’d accept. In 58 games this past season, Gordon averaged 17.6 points, 7.9 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game. He made 33.6 percent of his 3-point shots.

Free agents are permitted to start negotiating with interested teams on July 1.

“Hopefully, we just wrap it up with Orlando,” Gordon said. “It would be a beautiful thing to go from one of the worst teams in the league to one of the best teams in the league.”