Once a team identifies it's core players, they should look to lock them in sooner. They are much more likely to negotiate a better deal, you prove to the player they're willing to step up and give them that security and the prices don't go down the longer you wait. Going on about taking hometown discounts, crying "poor" and saying that they need to prove more is not going to help negotiations. Jerry and Lil Jerry want to go in treating it as a business and then cry foul when the player does the same thing. Business may be business, but they can do these deals without it feeling adversarial.
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