Retaining Faried won’t come cheap for Nuggets
The finances of retaining Kenneth Faried, should the Nuggets want to, aren’t nearly as daunting as they could be.
Faried is headed toward the final year of his rookie-scale contract and will be a restricted free agent in the summer of 2015. Keeping Faried in the fold will cost theNuggets, but figuring out where he falls might be tougher. Some of the best players in the NBA are power forwards, and it is a high-paying position.
Faried isn’t a LaMarcus Aldridge orKevin Love or Blake Griffin, all big names with even bigger contracts, but his player efficiency rating ranks right up there with them. Taking New Orleans’ AnthonyDavis into account aswell, it could be argued that Faried is about the seventhor eighth-best player at his position in the NBA. And he’s getting better. So, right this minute, that’s under the $14 million to $22 million the top power forwards make but more than the $9.5 million of a player such as Atlanta’s Paul Millsap. Add in his standing on the Nuggets’ roster — he’s the team’s second-best player— and his exploding boxoffice appeal, and the price tag could fall right in that $10 million to $11 million per-year range. Modestly. He will be in search for more, no doubt.
It might be difficult for the Nuggets to justify to themselves shelling out a contract to Faried worth more than Ty Lawson’s $12 million average, however.
Taking the current roster and projecting it out over the next fewyears, in the summer of 2015 the Nuggets could have wiggle room. There is currently roughly $59million in salaries, including qualifying offers. Cap holds present another challenge. But the contracts of Darrell Arthur, Nate Robinson and Anthony Randolph expire after next season and Wilson Chandler’s $7.1 million salary for 2015-16 isn’t fully guaranteed.
If that’s the route theywant to go, the Nuggets can figure out the finances and broach the subject of extension talks with Faried’s agent after the July moratorium this summer.
Faried said he’s not worried about any of that. But he’s also not sure if he’ll be around at the start of next season.
“I don’t know, honestly,” Faried said. “I just don’t know. It’s the NBA. You can’t be too secure anywhere. I thought Nene was going to be a Nugget for the rest of his life, and he just got traded out of nowhere. That was thefirst bigtrade I ever saw in my life, and it baffled me because hewas a great player here and hewas here a long time. He finally bought his house out here and the next thing you knowhewas gone. You can never be too secure.”