re: Lonzo Ball's projection - 4 years/$100 million (John Hollinger)

I've been one of Lonzo's biggest supporters and been beating the drum to re-sign him, but $22 million is as high as I would possibly go and I know 90% of the fanbase thinks that would be a drastic overpay.

With Lonzo you're obviously paying on what you project him to be in 2-3 years, not who he is today. Dude is still 23 (younger than everyone's draft darling Chris Duarte), and has made drastic strides in his two years here under Vinson, with his shooting and overall game.

His fit and relationship with Zion is also something that can't be forgotten when making this decision. If you just let him walk out the door and get nothing for him, then he goes to a team like New York and starts playing elite level defense and shooting 40% from 3 at high volume with his IQ, you continue the trend of looking like a farm team for the big markets. We grow and develop young talent and then ship em off to big markets to win. That can NOT happen. Not if you want Zion to remain committed to the future of this team.

We can't have another Monty Williams situation where we have a young talent that improves each year and we let that talent walk out the door(player/coach so it's obviously different, but you see my point), especially when that player provides the main two things we need around Zion and BI, defense and shooting.

Even with all that said, $22 million per year is the limit for me and beyond that you just walk away and pray he doesn't reach that ceiling.