That might work but I think he'll command a bit more.
If Mike can sustain his current level of play, I think he will command far more than that, closer to 3 years for $24 million total. I looked at comparable PFs and smaller centers aged 24-29 who signed new contracts in the offseason. They are listed below, along with their contracts and selected stats for the year immediately prior to signing the contract. (Mike's stats are for this year - since this is the year just prior to his new contract.)
Name.../... Contract.../.Height,Age /MPG/PPG/RPG/APG/PER./Win Shares
Mike Muscala/ . . ? . ? . . /6-11,25 /21.4/8.3/3.8/1.7/15.4//3-4 (est)
Miles Plumlee/4 yrs, $52M/6-11,28 /14.3/5.1/3.8/0.3/17.4/2.2
Jon Leuer/4 yrs, $42M/6-10,27 /18.7/8.5/5.6/1.1/16.2/2.7
M
eyers Leonard/4 yrs, $41M/7-0,24 /21.9/8.4/5.1/1.5/11.3/2.2
Dwight Powell/4 yrs, $37M/6-11,25 /21.3/7.6/4.8/0.9/16.8/3.1
Andrew Nicholson/4 yrs, $26M/6-9,27 /14.7/6.7/3.6/0.4/14.8/0.6
Darrell Arthur/3 yrs, $23M/6-9,28 /21.7/7.4/4.2/1.4/12.5/2.3
Cole Aldrich/ 3yrs, $22M/6-11, 28 /13.3/5.5/4.8/0.8/21.3/3.5
Tyler Zeller/2 yrs, $16M/7-0,26 /11.8/6.5/3.0/0.5/15.4/1.7
Tarik Black/2 yrs, $12.5/6-9,25 /12.9/3.6/4.0/0.4/12.3/0.7
Notes: PER is a metric that tries to incorporate every statistical category into one overall stat. Win shares attempts to measure how many wins each player is responsible for.
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Looking purely at the stats, Mike is clearly better than Nicholson, Arthur, Zeller, and Black. He is not far behind the others, with rebounding being the only issue. However Mike is a better shooter than any on the list - which should narrow the gap. Defense is an issue compared to some, but not all.
Opinions?
