Jrue Holiday and 76ers "miles apart" on contract extension

The 76ers and Jrue Holiday appear to be far apart in their efforts to have a contract extension for the 4th year guard in place before Wednesday's deadline, reports HoopsWorld's Steve Kyler.

Sources close to the process say Holiday has been offered a deal in the $9 million per year range and his camp has turned that away. The belief is that with so few impact guards available in free agency and the way money was thrown around this summer that if Jrue can make the big jump the 76ers expect he can get his free agent value significantly higher than $9 million per season.

After the season, the 76ers would offer Jrue a qualifying offer, which would make him a restricted free agent and give the 76ers the right of first refusal, giving them an opportunity to match an offer made to Holiday.

While getting Holiday locked up before the season would be advantageous for the 76ers, as it would give them cost certainty and lock him into a rate before his potential break-out year, it would not be the end of the world if an agreement is not reached. While the restricted free agency status is not as big of a deterrent as it was in years past, primarily because teams now only have 3 days to match rather than 7, which kept cap space in limbo while other free agents were grabbed off the market, having the ability to match any offer gives the 76ers some comfort that the final decision will be theirs.

I wrote earlier this month about the terms of a contract the team could offer Jrue as an exception, which I've quoted below.

With the new CBA, the maximum Holiday can get on an extension this fall would be 25% of the salary cap. This is the maximum a player with 0-6 years of experience in the league can command, and would be roughly $13.6 million. The maximum salary for players with 7-9 years of experience would be 30% of the cap, and for players with 10+ million it would be 35% of the cap.

It is possible for a player with 0-6 years of experience to get the 30% of the salary cap available to players with 7-9 years of experience, but that player would have to have won an MVP award, been named to an All-NBA team twice, or been voted as an All-Star starter twice, none of which Jrue Holiday has accomplished.

Holiday can then receive annual raises each year of up to 7.5% of the salary of the first year of the new contract. The contract would be limited to either a 4 or 5 year extension beyond the 1 year remaining on his current deal. In order to make it a 5 year extension, they would have to use the "designated player" exception on Holiday. A team can only have one player they have used the designated player exception with on the roster at any time. In order to use the designated player exception again, Holiday would have to be moved or signed to a new contract. They can also only have one player on their roster whom they trade for who has had a designated player exception used on them by a previous team.

In short, if they use the designated player exception on Jrue Holiday to give him a five year extension, they can only offer Evan Turner a four year extension, unless they move Holiday.

H/T to the700level.