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Before signing his one-year, $4.1 million qualifying offer, Nerlens Noel reportedly wanted a max contract, something that the Dallas Mavericks weren't willing to give him. As it turns out, both sides could have compromised and negotiated a multi-year deal for less than the max.
According to the latest report by Brad Townsend of The Dallas Morning News, Noel would have accepted a deal worth around $20 million a year. Townsend quoted Noel's mom, Dorcina, who also revealed that her son was initially asking a deal in the region of $22 million a year.
“He told me two weeks ago he's willing to sign for four years with Dallas, but they're not giving him much money for four years,” Dorcina said. “He told me he was asking for about $22 million a year, but Dallas refused to give it to him.
“He told me, ‘If Dallas gives me $20 million, I'm going to be there because they love me there. I said, ‘Yeah, I love it there, too.'”
A previous report by Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders mentioned that the Mavs offered Noel a contract around $17.5 million per year, and although Chris Haynes of ESPN.com said that such an offer was “non-existent in any form,” there was a large belief in the league that Dallas indeed made that offer.
Nerlens Noel clearly betting on himself with acceptance of $4.1M QO. He turned down 4-year, $70M Mavs offer made on July 1, sources say.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) August 26, 2017
It is unknown if Noel expressed directly to Mark Cuban and the Mavs that he was willing to take a little less than the max, or if his new agent Rich Paul was made aware of that and their previous negotiations. After all, there's no need for Noel's party to sign the qualifying offer immediately as it would have stood until Oct. 1, as per the collective bargaining rules.
However, with negotiations obviously failing and Noel taking the qualifying offer to become an unrestricted free agent next summer, it's clear that both parties are taking a gamble.
