re: Batum and . . . draft pick

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There shouldn't be two tiers of guys getting max money.

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Why not? There are already 3 tiers within the max structure, 25% for young guys like Barnes, 30% for vets like Batum, and 35% for old men that care more about money than winning like Kobe.

If KD does a 1 + 1 so he can sign a new deal next year, he'll be eligible for the Kobe Money 35% max in addition to the cap jumping another $20 million. That's about $10 million per year more if he wants it. So a max for KD next year and max for Batum this year are really not the same deals at all. They'll both labeled Max but they won't be getting paid the same.

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I'd rather spend $25 million on Bazemore and Crabbe than $20 on Batum.

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And you're free to do that if you were running a team. But enough teams will have enough money and want Batum enough that someone will offer him a max.

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I really would like to get Rudy Gay

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Mike Malone squeezed a lot out of Gay/Cousins, more than anyone else has ever gotten. I just don't see Uncle Al being able to do the same thing with Gay.

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Batum is not a superstar, nor can he or will ever be.

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His assist % this year in Charlotte was 26.9%, the previous 3 years in Portland it was a shade under 21% each year. Those are huge numbers for a SF that the offense isn't built around. Grant Hill during the Gentry years was averaging in the low to mid 30%. Batum fits what Gentry claimed he wants better than any non superstar FA on the market.

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when you're a SG/SF and you've never averaged more than 15ppg, you sure as hell aren't a max player.

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And in 2017 when the cap raises to $108 million he won't be. The same tier of max deal will make about $5 million more than what Batum would sign for this year. It'd kind of like how Middleton/Monroe/Harris weren't really worth the max, but with the escalating cap they all got near max money because in just a few years those "max" deals might end up being less than someone like Bazemore gets on the open market.