Right, it's definitely possible... 4 YEARS OUT. But it should definitely be noted that because of the incremental nature of the penalty, EVERY dollar saved is pretty meaningful. Which is again why these guys taking say $5 million pay cuts would be huge. Also, one has to factor in increases to the luxury tax $ amount. It jumped from $85 million to $113 million and projected $121 million next year. Shouldn't keep jumping like that, but some jump... I assumed $135 million a few years out.
I didn't realize that the tax made such drastic incremental increases. If GSW does have 4 players signed to $35m contracts, wouldn't the rest Ofc the roster have to be filled out with players making around league minimum? Thanks to you and JayZ750 for the input!
The Warriors are not going to be able to keep Iguodala, Livingston, McGee, and Pachulia who are all free agents this summer. Every dollar overspent now will cost a fortune in taxes later. The future is basically the Big 4 and ring-chasing veteran minimums.
How can you fix grown (rich) men deciding winning is more important to them than having (even more) money? If you want to blame anyone, blame us and everyone else that makes it seem like guys without rings are utter failures.
Easy, allow max players to take up more of the cap. It is really that simple. Kevin Durant wouldn't turn down 50 million for 25 million, I guarantee you.
Why wouldn't he, with a shoe contract paying him more than his NBA salary? You can't stop someone for valuing winning over $$. Didn't we just see David West turn down millions, that he can never recoup (and he doesn't have that outside income)?
Because guys aren't turning down 25 million. It would be extremely rare and the NBA needs to maximize that. Pay these guys what they are really worth and you won't see Draymond Green passing up 20-30 million dollars. These guys have families and they are employed until they are 35-38 If they are lucky. No way you would ever see 4 guys taking massive pay cuts like that.
OK let it happen. For every one David West there are 1000 Chandler Parsons. in the long run, the shoe companies will get in trouble when they get caught or it becomes more obvious to the fans. even if the NBA doesn't do anything about it because they are friends of the nba, as long as the fans know and find out, they will hate and boycott that shoe company. That is the last thing they want.
It is much easier to fill your team with vets when you have your core, many vets would be willing to take a big paycut to get a ring, these are guys who have the money already, they just want a ring.
I think this is where the numbers are coming from. People aren't planning on an average of 2 million a year for everybody not named Durant, Steph, Klay or Dray. Iggy and Livingston have been a very big part of what they do and they're free agents. With the numbers players are getting these days, don't be surprised if either of those guys gets more than 10 million per year. Hell, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if somebody was willing to give one of those guys a stupid number just to give the Warriors the finger. I also don't think Klay and Draymond will combine for 35 million. I think they're each going to get max contracts somewhere. I think it's more reasonable to expect Durant or Curry to take less money than those guys. Those guys don't get the endorsements that Durant and Curry get. Though I doubt Curry will accept anything less than the max because he's been on a bargain contract for years. But what's more; these are the only guys guaranteed to be there next season (barring trade). Klay, Draymond, Kevon Looney, Damian Jones, Patrick McCaw and Jason Thompson. Everybody else is or can be a free agent. Curry, Iggy, Zaza, Livingston, David West, Javale McGee, Ian Clark, McAdoo, and Durant (if he opts out) are all free agents this off season. Curry is probably going to get that 5 year 205 million deal. Who knows with Durant but I don't believe he'll be willing to take a pay cut. Of the rest of those guys Iggy and Livingston have been the most important. And obviously Zaza and McGee get minutes too. I don't know, man. That's a lot of players to have to pay or replace. And replacing players in the modern market ain't cheap. Eric Gordon is the new MLE deal. So either they're going to have to fill their whole team with bottom of the barrel scrubs or vet minimum ring chasing vets, or they're going to have to spend big. The only good news for the Warriors is they have two more years of Klay and Dray at less than 20 million each.
I don't know about $10 million but certainly these guys will be getting solid deals, befitting their potential contribution, age and injury history. That said, even with Iggy getting $11 million this year and Shawn getting close to $6 million.. AND Jason Thomson still on their books at almost $7 million, all players other than the big 4 currently total about $36 million. So $22 may be low... but I contend if there are salary spending issues, the GSW are MUCH MUCH more likely to replace Iggy and Livingston with the vet minimum type players like they have done with Zaza ($3 million), Javale ($1.4 million), West ($1.5 million), etc. which when combined with young late round draft picks - which the Warriors are very adapt at doing, partly because they can draft so specific to their style and need to fit into their system - that they can get that $36 million "other" number down. Basically, I don't think Iggy and Livingston are there next year... UNLESS both players take massive paycuts, which they could do. The point was they're going to combine for $35 million next year. AND they'll still be on the books for "just" $36.5 million the following year. They are already locked in. It's not until the start of the 2019/2020 season that Klay's # will get bumped up to a max/near-max type. Dray will still be locked in that season at $18.5 million Could either of those guys demand full max? Absolutely. Especially in a league where other stars aren't just getting full maxes but in some cases are having their contracts voluntarily restructured by teams to get them even more money sooner. OTOH, might Klay and Dray say we'll take $30 each to start instead of $35? Sure. Yes, hence the rumblings about KD taking a bit less. I could envision Curry doing it as well. Endearing yourself to a community like that, especially a community like the Bay Area, where the opportunities are endless post basketball... there's plenty of even more money to be made for these guys. Not that Russell Westbrook can't go from OKC to the Bay Area in the offseason or have his financial guys make smart investments for him, but there's a difference between being in that ecosystem daily and being an outsider. I know Iggy for example has already done stuff like Techcrunch Disrupt (big annual startup type conference) because he is active in the startup space. Or look at Magic, and his post basketball career as a businessman, a return to the Lakers, and a clear man-about-town in LA. seems like they'll resign Curry and KD either at the absolute max or close to it depending on the discounts those players will take, will have to make harder decisions on Iggy/Livingston (I think the decision here is Iggy gets offered something like $6 million, Livingston is basically allowed to walk unless he is willing to take $3 or so), and fill the roster with vets chasing rings or McGee like redemption players. I mean what else would they do? Perhaps a little more thought will have to go into it if they lose to the Cavs, but even then. You absolutely push the bigger decisions down the road, keep the dynastic 4 together as long as possible.
Some are. West has been playing on minimum deals for the last two seasons. With the cap explosion, he easily could have made 20M or more in that span. He turned down over 10M to go to SA. Superstars leaving money on the table to join great teams is already super rare. You don't see four stars on GS doing that now. They got Durant because of a huge spike in the cap. Most of their studs make the max.
They make the current max, which is a current joke. David West is one outlier, and he is pretty garbage anyway. I don't buy that he would be getting 20 million or more, personally.
Durant is also an outlier. Ryan Anderson makes close to 20M. David West clearly passed on the type of money you are referencing. Zaza could arguably be making close to $10M per season. He signed for a small deal too.
Durant is, but Klay and Draymond are not. Kyrie and Kevin Love are not. Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan are not. ETC... If you got rid of the maximum contract ceiling, it would allow smaller market teams to pay stars significantly more money. If you think guys like Draymond Green would pass up 50 million dollars a year, well then we will just have to agree to disagree. If you want to bandwagon hop, it should hit your pocket way harder than it does now, especially for the elite players. No one gives a crap what David West does. It's about greatly incentivizing great players to have their own team. Making over 150 million more dollars over 4-5 years would certainly do the trick.
If Steph makes 75 million of a 100 million cap, Will Klay, Draymond, Durant be willing to split the rest? /Nope...
Durant is an outlier as far as what he chose to do. It appears that we are talking about different things. Green isn't leading teams to titles. Players like Durant make more $$ off the court than on, so yes, I can see them passing up $$ if they felt winning was more important. They already have a boatload of $$. We even see players without their off court revenue turning down 8 figures to win. No it shouldn't. A man should have a right to play where he wants at some point without having some huge penalty. A team drafts you and gets your rights for 4 years, and then can match any contract you get for a certain period of time. That's enough time for a guy to be forced to stay at whatever location happened to select him in the lottery. Players have spent decades fighting for free agency for a reason. That kind of incentivizing isn't necessary. The league's history is tied to teams with multiple star players. For whatever reason, folks only seem to have an issue with it when a player decides to put himself in that situation.
I'm not sure you responded to any of my points of interest, so maybe I am representing my thoughts incredibly poorly. The main point where we differ is that you think players will pass up tens of millions of dollars. I disagree. I can think of several teams that would offer Draymond and other stars absurd numbers If they were allowed to, which would allow stars to get paid what they are worth and spread talent throughout the league. If you don't think players will go to where the money is, there is a mountain of data that says otherwise. A free market with a hard cap would absolutely help smaller market teams compete, 100 percent. It works the exact same way in Economics, free citizens follow the money. Nothing groundbreaking here. The Player Association's fight for mid-level players is the source of the problem for multiple stars on few teams, leaving half the NBA to wallow in their own feces. To me, that is a crime to anyone that loves good basketball. I want to see Lebron and Durant go head to head with similar support and management creativity, because I am a basketball purist. I think the change would further the quality of the game.