I'm not in Jersey today, so I can't help with actual facts, so I'll substitute with fantasy.
What if Jermaine O'Neal made, say, $16-milllion this year and next and not $45-million?
This is a fantasy on so many levels beginning with if he made $8-million he would never have been traded to Toronto. But play along, K?
Even with his injury history the level of productivity he's been able to manage would make him a pretty decent value - these things being relative - at that price.
But anyway. If he's making $8-million, the Raptors would have been roughly $15-million under the luxury tax limit.
What can you get for that amount of money?
Well, what if you spent $8-million on a wing player. Who might be available?
Well, Gerald Wallace was dangled out there for a while, as an example. You could certainly re-sign Carlos Delfino for that kind of cash.
I mean, there are a lot of names you can throw around, but let's presume you can add another talented player one of those two positions.
You could use a little more to get an experience back up point guard for Calderon, right? That gives your $4-million to add another experienced big man for the front court.
All of a sudden you have a pretty interesting team. A solid front court rotation. Better production from the perimeter. Depth at the point. Maybe another banger off the bench. That's a team that could do some things.
I'm not even suggesting I'm making sense here, but as I look at the Raptors I don't see a horrible team. I see a team with some gaps. And the main reason they can't fill those gaps is because roughly 30 per cent of their available financial resources are being devoted to JO, and he doesn't produce at that level.
And don't blame JO. The fact is it's nearly impossible for a team with a player earning 30 per-cent of a $70-million payroll to get proper value.
Take a look at this list on Hoopshype. The teams that have big-ticket players that are having good seasons have done it by going over the luxury tax: Think Boston (KG, Pierce and Allen) and the Lakers (Kobe) and to a lesser extent Dallas (Dirk) and Houston (McGrady).
Cleveland is also well over the tax mark without having that single giant contract, but they have what is likely the most valuable contract in the NBA. LeBron is making just 15.8-million this year, but is so good that he makes up for the dead weight on that roster in the form of Ben Wallace ($14m); Wally ZZZZ (13m) and Eric Snow (7m). Think about it: They get next to nothing from $35-million and they still might win 68 games. LeBron is good.
Detroit is an interesting team and getting not much out of Iverson ($21m) but they get by without going too far over the tax mark because their best player, Tayshaun Prince, makes just $9.5-million and Rodney Stuckey and Jason Maxiell make just $3.2-million combined, which is spectacular value.
All of this to say that the Raptors problem isn't Jermaine O'Neal, just that he makes too much for what he delivers. Or that to get a proper return on that investment they'd need to be willing to spend another $10-million over the luxury limit and spend another $10-million in taxes to do so to add at least a player or two.
If only O'neal was okay with taking a salary cut that would be great but I would doubt it.
