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Early in camp Darren Woodson Jersey , after Odell Beckham surrendered most of his leverage by not holding out, his agent leaked that the Giants had offered Beckham less per year than the $16 million per year Sammy Watkins received from the Chiefs. For many, the immediate reaction was, “How is Sammy Watkins relevant to Odell Beckham?”

The answer was that Beckham’s camp was evaluating the team’s offer not in terms of “new money” (where Steelers receiver Antonio Brown currently has the best deal, at $17 million annually) but by looking at total value. Under that metric, Watkins had set the highest bar at $16 million per year.

Ultimately, Beckham beat both metrics. In new money, it’s $18 million per year. In total value, it’s $16.4 million per year. But although reasonable minds can (and will) differ on this, total value really is the more accurate way to analyze a contract. Rarely if ever do contract extensions represent actual “extensions” to a contract; typically, the old contract gets ripped up and the new contract takes its place.

That’s what happened with Beckham. He has a new six-year, $98.459 million deal, not a one-year Devin Hester Jersey , $8.459 million deal with a five-year, $90 million package that begins in 2019.

So, apples to apples, Beckham gets $400,000 more per year on average than Watkins. But Watkins has the better deal.

Here’s why: Beckham has signed for six years, and Watkins is under contract for only three. So after Beckham has reportedly earned $60 million and enters the back nine (three) of his commitment, Watkins will have made $48 million and will be taking another trip to the open market.

Yes, Beckham will have made $60 million over those three years. But he’ll be committed to only $38 million over the final three years, and unless he suddenly becomes willing to hold out (which he wasn’t willing to do this year), the Giants won’t surrender their ability to enjoy three lower-cost seasons after enduring three high-rent campaigns that mesh with the three relatively cheap years under running back Saquon Barkley‘s rookie contract.

And so when Beckham sees Watkins, who has more than 120 fewer catches, nearly 1,400 fewer yards Brian Dawkins Jersey , 13 fewer touchdowns, and three fewer Pro Bowl appearances in the same number of seasons, get another big contract on the open market at the age of 28 while Beckham remains tied to the Giants through his 31st birthday at an average at that point of $12.6 million per year, Beckham will have only himself to blame for neither insisting on a shorter-term deal nor buying insurance against a career-ending injury nor opting to go year-to-year until hitting the open market — and the jackpot that would go along with it — in 2021, when he’ll be 28.
Toronto Raptors President Masai Ujiri hasn’t forgotten the first time he met Nick Nurse.

It was 1995 and Ujiri, now president of the Toronto Raptors, was playing for the Derby Storm of the British Basketball League. Nurse was coach of the rival Birmingham Bullets. Not yet 30, Nurse had already been on the bench for six years, quickly establishing himself as a coach on the rise.

”His teams were tough,” Ujiri said Thursday as the Raptors officially introduced Nurse as their coach. ”There was always something about the Birmingham team that was different from the whole league. People talked about them that way.”

More than two decades on from that initial introduction, Ujiri is hoping Nurse has what it takes to turn Toronto into the talk of the NBA.

The ninth head coach in Raptors history, Nurse replaces his former boss, Dwane Casey – under whom he spent the past five seasons as a Toronto assistant. Casey was fired after the Raptors were swept out of the second round of this year’s playoffs by Cleveland Marcus Martin Jersey , their third straight playoff defeat at the hands of LeBron James and the Cavs.

Ujiri called Nurse ”everything you want in a candidate” and said his new coach, the first he has hired as an NBA executive, is someone who ”thinks the game differently.”

”He was outstanding,” Ujiri said. ”He really came out on top. Trying new stuff, being innovative, is who Nick is. You can tell he’s a tactician who really thinks the game.”

Nurse called it ”a long month” of waiting for a decision following Casey’s dismissal but said he understood why Ujiri needed to take his time.

”Even though I’ve been across the gym from him for five years, there’s a lot of detail to go through,” Nurse said.

Nurse also gave credit to Casey, who was hired as Detroit’s head coach this week.

”We shared a lot of winning together,” Nurse said. ”He’s a competitive guy, a great professional. I learned a lot from him. You can’t take away the five years we shared.”

Toronto went 59-23 this season, the best record in the Eastern Conference and second-best in the NBA behind Houston. Nurse was in charge of the offense, led by All-Star guards DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry. He also engineered a successful overhaul of the game plan before last season as Toronto put increased emphasis on ball movement and 3-point shooting.

For the coming season Rod Smith Jersey , Nurse said he wants to inject more defensive creativity ”so we can try to be ready for more things in the playoffs.”

Rex Kalamian, a Raptors assistant alongside Nurse last season, is expected to join the Los Angeles Clippers, leaving Nurse multiple spots to fill on his staff. Nurse said Thursday he has a good idea of what he’s looking for.

”I think it’s really important that we get an experienced staff,” he said. ”Guys that have been head coaches at some level is important to me. It’s good to know what it’s like to be the decision maker.”

There’s also the possibility of new players, with Ujiri acknowledging Toronto has ”work to do” with its roster.

Nurse graduated from Northern Iowa and got his first head coaching position at Grand View College when he was only 23. He spent more than a decade in Europe and was an assistant coach for Britain at the 2012 London Olympics. A past G League coach of the year, he’s the only coach to lead two teams to an NBA G League Championship, winning with Iowa in 2011 and Rio Grande in 2013.

Nurse’s career has seen its share of stops and opponents, but he still recalls facing Ujiri while with Birmingham.

”I remember,” Nurse said, smiling. ”He played really hard.”
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