I would agree with this but to me, this is really more about the agents then the players IMO. I mean, I just don't see Dak asking Jerry for 40 mil, on his own. Just like I don't see Zeke coming up with the idea to say that Dak is a bum. This, to me, is all about the agents. I mean, should Dak be smart enough to understand that he can't expect to get 40 mil and keep all the pieces around him that are necessary to try and give you the best chance to win a Championship? Yes, of course he should. It would be stupid not to but he's apparently not seeing it. He's probably listening to his agent saying, "The cap is going up this amount and it's going to be easy for the team to pay you. They just don't want to spend the money. Blah.... Blah... Blah..." On the other side, you got Zeke's agent trying to do anything and everything to prevent Jerry from getting anywhere near Zeke. Why do you think he's doing that? Why do you think Jerry and the team are doing this negotiation in public? It's because he knows that Jerry has more relationship with Zeke, then does he. Jerry understands this too, which is why he is probably trying to send messages using the media because he can't be sure what Zeke is hearing or what info he is receiving. Jerry knows that if he can get Zeke in front of him, a deal can be struck. He knows that he can tell Zeke that if he is patient, he will get his record deal but the agent doesn't want to hear that. In both cases, we are essentially dealing with kids who are trusting agents and is anybody really surprised that we are where we are with this whole thing?