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The big thing, and it's a long-standing issue, is that the player should be working on reaching an agreement as well.
It should be something like:
Player offers: 1 year, $2 million.
I offer: 5 years, $15 million.
One of two things then happen: Rarely, the player is unwilling to sign for longer than a year, so he might come back with:
1 year, $1.9 million (because he wouldn't have opened with his bottom line, so he compromises a little because he's insisting on only one year).
Or, the second thing happens, and this should be more common, which is the player thinks, "Okay, the team wants a longer term contract, what do I want to take one?" So then perhaps he comes back with:
4 years, $20 million.
That sort of thing.
Never should he get angry that you offered something longer, even if he didn't want it, and just insist on his length but with the cost going up. At most, he insists on his length and almost as much money as his original offer.
If he comes back a couple of times with a 1 year after that with small money concessions and you keep bugging him with longer term deals, then eventually it should reach the point that it annoys him and his price starts going up...but it should take a while, so we can try to negotiate to see what a player is willing to accept.
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