Donavan Mitchell Signs 4 Years/$273 Million Extension With Cleveland Cavaliers

Yup, it's already an albatross. If they try to trade him or he asks out in a year or 2 it'll be the brown situation all over again.

 

Cavs saw the Brunson and the Knicks win a chip and thought they can do the same with Donovan

Problem is Brunson sacrificed actually took less so a championship team can be built

 

Everyone agrees with you except players (and agents) who are eligible for these pre-determined, max contracts.

Years ago, Daryl Morey said max player contracts should be done away with and I agree, particularly now that the 2nd apron is legitimately "hard" enough. The players union would never agree to this.

 

Sure better hope the cap keeps going up a lot. Way too much to pay to field a competitive team.

 

The supermax is one of the most stupid rules. It forces teams to be stuck with an overpaid player or lose him for much less.

 

I would argue that it forces teams to be smarter about negotiations and who they hand out money too. Is Donovan really worth the supermax? Absolutely not and now Cleveland will have to be more careful when building the rest of the team. I would argue this affects mid tier players that would be considered "overpaid" in the previous era but now there is "less" money available and they are getting paid much "cheaper".

 

For players and agents, the predetermined max and supermax contract levels are like 3-point lines: If you are anywhere near them, always step back and take the 3 instead settling for the long 2.

 

When you become eligible for the supermax -- because of some voted status rather than objective impact measurement -- you are empowered to negotiate for a much higher salary and the team have to either meet that or trade the player for a much lower return. Look at what Boston got from getting rid of Brown. The corpse of PG13 and an arguably even more toxic contract.

It is pretty much like the max. Some player are clearly not worth the max but the team has to give because of the prospect of losing them for a low return. But the max is a much less toxic than the supermax.

 

They need to make a rule that allows you to use get some sort of cap relief (another MLE ) when you sign someone you drafted to the max or if they have spent "X years" on your team.

I was interested in both Mitchell and Brown but that extension just seems so debilitating.

 

QUICK QUESTION: Who are the players you feel would be worth that contract?

Rocket River

 

Dillan Harper

 

Maybe with both LeBron and Harden, Mitchell will be OK with playing off the ball more often while the other two initiate.

 

This is team building though.

A player worth $60M on a $60M contract is worth nothing in a trade. There are a lot of teams that are willing to pay $70M for a $60M-valued player. This is just a bad decision.

The max contract and super max contract make team building complicated in that a team needs to be able to get a player worth $60M, but also get him at a contract under $60M. Paying a guy more than he's worth only works if a team has a ton of players providing way over their salaries in value, and there was not a way available to get good bang for the buck at that time.

There are times that a team doesn't care about $/value because they don't have an avenue to get players on a good $/value. They have a certain amount they can spend, and they are limited on the players that they can spend it on. They should still get the best $/value they can get, but it might be much worse than league average $/value due to limitations. Puffing up salary a lot of times is more valuable than being the best $/value as more $ at inefficient $/value often is better than good $/value, but just at the salary cap. Trading draft picks and inefficient $/value players at the deadline can turn an inefficient $/value and high $ team to an efficient $/value on high $. It is hard to add salary midseason such that a good $/value on low $ has a hard time getting to good $/value on high $ midseason.

To complicate matters even further, the Spurs and OKC are getting about twice the value per dollar than league average. You spend $70M on a $60M-valued player, and they get $140M in value out of that same $70M. Mostly, this is because truly great players are worth so much more than even the Supermax, and guys on rookie and rookie extensions tend to outperform their salaries. Wemby is probably worth about $120M a season based on what the average team pays in $/value.

I wish the NBA would get rid of supermax, max contracts for guys with 8 years experience or more. Force teams to actually negotiate with good players.

Caveat: This is a little oversimplified and ignores things like Bird rights.