Max salaries are scaled. LeBron and Wade will still be making more money than the OKC guys because of their seniority.
Manu Ginobili might be a good comparison; he predominantly came off the bench while averaging 13/4/4, with 2 steals and 2 turnovers in around 30 minutes and shot a relatively poor 42% from the field. In the summer of 2004, at 26 years old, he signed a 6 year, $52M deal, that when prorated to the current salary cap, would be equivalent to 6 years and $68M. Along with the other comps that pmac posted, you can easily expect Harden to have a reasonable expectation of $11M as a salary floor. It's difficult to project what he'll want; $12M per would seem like a reasonable discount. As for Ibaka, you would have to think that his floor is DeAndre Jordan in terms of money per year, with Marc Gasol on the high end, so anywhere between $11-15M per. Can the Zombie Sonics reasonably pay everyone and still stay below the luxury tax? In 2013-14, the first year of Ibaka and Harden's extensions, the team salary breakdown will look something like this, Durant: $20M Westbrook: $15M Harden: $12M Ibaka: $11M Perkins: $8.5M Sefolosha: $3.9M Collison: $2.6M Jackson: $1.3M 5 minimum salaries: $4M Total: $78.3M assuming they do not resign Maynor, decline Aldrich's option, and trade away their draft picks/stash Europeans in 2012 and 2013. The current luxury tax is approximately $70M, and I doubt it will change much in the coming years (the whole reason for the lockout was to have years of cost certainty, right?). So assuming both Ibaka AND Harden get the absolute minimum they're likely to expect, the team is still $8.3M over the luxury tax. Let's assume that they want a capable backup PG, and spend the full taxpayer MLE ($3.2M), bringing their total salary to $80.5M. Then, their tax bill will be a staggering $16.25M for that season, for a total payroll of $96.75M! It gets even worse if we give Ibaka and Harden bigger salaries; if we put Ibaka at $15M, and give Harden the contract of Andre Iguodala ($13.3M), the team salary shoots up to $85.8M, and the tax bill becomes an incredible $29.7M, and the total team salary $115.6M! That's more than the Lakers paid last year. It seems patently obvious that someone's going to have to go; it's going to be very interesting what Presti chooses.
Actually, because he qualified for the Derrick Rose rule, Durant's extension makes him pretty much on the same level as Miami's trio; the difference over the remainder of the contracts is about a mil per season at most. I also need to amend my previous post; I over estimated Durant's extension by about $2.2M, and Westbrook's by $1M, as well as the maximum that Ibaka and Harden could get. By my calculations their tax situation goes from being utterly ridiculous to merely crazy, with their absolute worst case scenario with Harden AND Ibaka maxed out to only be around $14.7M in tax payments, and $93.8M in total salary. Might be worth it though; flags fly forever...
i'm sorry but who in their right mind will pay Harden a max. He is not a max player! He's a solid, borderline All-Star at most.
Ibaka won't get that much. You can't compare him to centers. Harden could be looking at that kind of money if he keeps this year's production up.
One of those games. But I have to say the Pistons effort-level on defense was beyond sorry. I don't believe this to be the case, but it appeared they quit on Lawrence Frank very early.
this is the kind of analysis I like. even if you disagree with the final figures of Harden and Ibakas projected salaries you can still form your own conclusion based on the current facts.
They are going to regret that Kendrick Perkins deal. They probably can't keep Perkins/Harden/Durant/Ibaka/Westbrook. I can't imagine any conceivable way.
Dude, he's playing with 2 all stars and still putting up nice stats. What I really like about his game is when the team needs a clutch basket he seems to give it to them. But yeah, I say we shed some salary, forget about Deron Williams and this years free agent class and go after him hard next year. If he gets a 50 mill to 65 deal then they will surely match. The only way to force their hand is by offering him the max. If they don't match it we get a frachise player if they do, they want be able to add important pieces in the furture.
The one piece HI Mana is missing is projected revenues. OKC might be able to remain profitable despite paying a luxury tax if they are contending for championships. Also consider that the franchise might be willing to operate at a loss for the opportunity to chase championships because (a) of the owner's ego and (b) having a championship buys some goodwill that is valuable for years thereafter, lending credibility to the franchise, nostalgia for the fans, etc. So, even with a big bill, I don't think it's a foregone conclusion that they'll trade somebody away.
I don't really see a problem with their finance structure. Harden won't get max nor near max. He's a good player, but he's not on the level of durant and westbrook. He will get signed in the summer to about 10m per. Ibaka will be around 7m based on his upside. They're not trading westbrooks until 4 yrs down the line and he's not progressed. After a slow start, he's back to where he was last year.
Bad? Are you serious? Did you see what he did to Greg Monroe last night? Monroe started the game 1/10 which is a big reason OKC was up 30 at halftime. Their defense (led by Perk) broke the will of Detroit's players early on. Don't let 0 points, 4 rebounds fool you. Perk is now exactly what OKC wanted him to be. His main problem so far this season is too many technical fouls.
it is a franchise defining decision. and the first real opportunity for the owner to show his true colors...hopefully he isn't buddies with Bob Sarver...
In the 12 games in January so far, WB is at 23/5/6 and shooting 50%. I don't expect him to regress the next 4 years.
you always have to be weary of players who rely completely upon athleticism. how has his game grown over the past 4 years?
