Quote Originally Posted by run pMc View Post
I do wonder what changed from Gute saying he "absolutely" wanted Jones back to him being released... unless it was unspoken and assumed that Gute "absolutely" wanted Jones back at a specific price point.
Who says anything changed? Language like "I absolutely want Jones back this year", or "I absolutely expect Jones back this year", is totally meaningless. It's ambiguous, completely noncomittal "GM speak" for "he may be back, he may not, too early to make any promises". I think it's just implied that it would entirely depend on how negotiations went, because everyone knew that he would be asked to restructure.

Gutekunst may be a lot of things, but he's no fool. He knows how to speak the language. He knew damned well that in a couple of weeks he was going to ask Jones to take a huge pay cut, and he's not dumb enough to think Jones was just going to take it without (at best) some serious pushback. And he's smart enough to know there was a good chance Jones would refuse it altogether. Saying things like "we really want Aaron back, we love him, Aaron's the heart and soul of our team, we definitely expect him back" makes the fans happy because they think the team is committed to keeping him, and then when the negotiations go bad and he gets released, Gutekunst looks like hey, at least he really tried. Not his fault. It just didn't work out.