Interesting stuff in here. NYK is unreal. http://blog.shamsports.com/2012/07/without-looking-guess-which-seven-teams.html<style type="text/css"> table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;} .tableizer-table th {background-color: #104E8B; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;} </style> <table class="tableizer-table"> <tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th></th><th>2002/03</th><th>2003/04</th><th>2005/06</th><th>2006/07</th><th>2007/08</th><th>2008/09</th><th>2009/10</th><th>2010/11</th><th>2011/12</th><th>TOTAL</th></tr> <tr><td>Atlanta</td><td>3,716,000</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>666,199</td><td>4,382,199</td></tr> <tr><td>Boston</td><td> </td><td>1,594,066</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>8,218,368</td><td>8,294,664</td><td>14,928,662</td><td>5,692,586</td><td>7,365,867</td><td>46,094,213</td></tr> <tr><td>Brooklyn/New Jersey</td><td>5,730,000</td><td>9,390,383</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>15,120,383</td></tr> <tr><td>Charlotte</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Chicago</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Cleveland</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>14,008,561</td><td>13,707,010</td><td>15,410,550</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>43,126,121</td></tr> <tr><td>Dallas</td><td>18,500,000</td><td>25,031,932</td><td>17,329,324</td><td>7,204,968</td><td>19,613,295</td><td>23,611,661</td><td>17,582,574</td><td>18,917,836</td><td>2,738,843</td><td>150,530,433</td></tr> <tr><td>Denver</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>2,022,418</td><td>13,572,079</td><td> </td><td>5,562,942</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>21,157,439</td></tr> <tr><td>Detroit</td><td> </td><td>756,627</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>756,627</td></tr> <tr><td>Golden State</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Houston</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>757,145</td><td> </td><td>757,145</td></tr> <tr><td>Indiana</td><td>892,000</td><td>3,323,059</td><td>4,674,028</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>8,889,087</td></tr> <tr><td>L.A. Clippers</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>L.A. Lakers</td><td>9,749,000</td><td>8,439,051</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>5,131,757</td><td>7,185,631</td><td>21,430,778</td><td>19,923,772</td><td>12,557,264</td><td>84,417,253</td></tr> <tr><td>Memphis</td><td>7,554,000</td><td> </td><td>3,743,452</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>11,297,452</td></tr> <tr><td>Miami</td><td>5,180,000</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>8,318,879</td><td> </td><td>3,039,769</td><td> </td><td>6,129,340</td><td>22,667,988</td></tr> <tr><td>Milwaukee</td><td>4,734,000</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>4,734,000</td></tr> <tr><td>Minnesota</td><td>6,026,000</td><td>17,633,006</td><td> </td><td>998,536</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>24,657,542</td></tr> <tr><td>New Orleans</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>New York</td><td>24,371,000</td><td>39,867,214</td><td>37,248,752</td><td>45,142,002</td><td>19,723,946</td><td>23,736,207</td><td>5,199,024</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>195,288,145</td></tr> <tr><td>Oklahoma City/Seattle</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td>Orlando</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>7,757,500</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>11,046,595</td><td>20,147,413</td><td> </td><td>38,951,508</td></tr> <tr><td>Philadelphia</td><td>12,759,000</td><td>5,098,635</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>17,857,635</td></tr> <tr><td>Phoenix</td><td>1,888,000</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>3,867,313</td><td>4,918,136</td><td>4,958,790</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>15,632,239</td></tr> <tr><td>Portland</td><td>51,971,000</td><td>28,846,436</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>5,899,356</td><td> </td><td>2,335,682</td><td> </td><td>89,052,474</td></tr> <tr><td>Sacramento</td><td>17,377,000</td><td>13,141,745</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>30,518,745</td></tr> <tr><td>San Antonio</td><td>187,000</td><td> </td><td>889,895</td><td>196,082</td><td> </td><td> </td><td>8,810,302</td><td> </td><td>2,514,275</td><td>12,597,554</td></tr> <tr><td>Toronto</td><td>2,681,000</td><td>4,090,836</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>6,771,836</td></tr> <tr><td>Utah</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>3,105,372</td><td>4,998,247</td><td> </td><td>8,103,619</td></tr> <tr><td>Washington</td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td>0</td></tr> <tr><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td><td> </td></tr> <tr><td>Total</td><td>173,315,000</td><td>157,212,990</td><td>71,642,951</td><td>55,564,006</td><td>92,454,198</td><td>87,352,665</td><td>111,075,358</td><td>72,772,681</td><td>31,971,788</td><td>853,361,637</td></tr></table>
Chicago? No 1 regular season for 2 straight seasons but never paid the tax. And LAC? Utah? OKC? SAS? All these teams having squads contending worthy at one time, yet paid next to none tax. I believe Alexander will pay if we have a legit contending squad. I would call him smart spending rather than being cheap. And lol at NY, all this money for one playoffs win in that span. At least Houston had one series.
Not to mention Chicago is a top 3 market and one of the most profitable franchises. Rose has like the best selling jersey. It's amazing how little they spent.
Thank you for this, now we can finally end the debate on Alexander being a great owner. He's average to good and calling him cheap is a legitimate argument, you only need these numbers to prove it.
OMG, Les is cheap! Look, Alexander may not be a big spender like Cuban, Dolan, Pau Allen or the Busses, but calling him cheap isn't appropriate IMO. Les just spends his money smartly. There aren't a whole lot of owners as aggressive as him when it purchasing draft picks and signing guys at the end of the season to basically serve no other purpose than be on the roster as a trade filler for the off-season. He just paid Scola a lot of money not to play basketball for him. You must understand that being in the luxury tax just isn't a smart investment if you can avoid it. There obviously are cases in which you want your owner to pay the tax, but I can't recall the Rockets being in such situation over the last few years. (The Thunder FWIW soon will be in that situation.)
How could this prove that Alexander is not a great owner? When is the last time he had a squad worthy to overspend? Please understand smart spending /= cheap. At least he's not as stupid as the Knicks owner.
Gotta love Clutchfans. Spending 200 mil on luxury tax = terrible owner; not paying luxury tax = terrible owner. We already knew who the big spenders were. The far more interesting part of the chart to me is how dramatically the total dipped this year. Maybe that's MOSTLY because of the amnesty, but also the new CBA has clearly changed the priorities at least a little.
What stuck out most to me was Portland's 02-03 team paid 51m in luxury tax. That was when they were at their downfall paying Pippen 19m for avg production at the tail end of his career. They still had Shawn Kemp on their payroll for 14m http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/POR/2003.html despite him not being on the roster. They were such a deep team when they still had Steve Smith though. Closest thing to the 04 Pistons team or vice versa rather.
Dallas had 1 title, 2 Finals and multiple WCF appearances and top regular season records for several seasons. While NY won a grand total of 1 game and the best regular season finish was a 7th seed in the same span. It's easy to know how gets praise and who gets criticism. Lol.