Teams are overpaying way too much

aamir543
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Teams are overpaying way too much 

Post#1 » by aamir543 » Thu Aug 2, 2012 2:20 am

There is an alarming trend going on around the league regarding the absurdity of the contracts being given out. Teams in sports have overpaid players for as long as we can remember, but this the NBA has taken that concept to a different level this off-season. Looking around the league there have been a plethora of a guys who have gotten flat out overpaid, guys who you look at and say, "He got that much?! Now I have nothing against guys getting their money, I want every player to go after every opportunity they can, as long as they do it with class. I hold nothing against Omer Asik or Jeremy Lin for signing huge contracts this off-season, they took advantage of the situation, and capitilized.

But at the same time, owners are handing out 8 figure yearly salaries like it's candy. There are so many guys that got ridiculous money, and the fact is that since these guys got the money they did, there's going to be several other players lining up to get their money. Eric Gordon, Brook Lopez, and Roy Hibbert each got Max deals. A 12 and 9 center, a 20 and 3 center that doesn't play injured, and an oft-injured guard that can drop 20 a night. Hibbert, Lopez and Gordon are all great players in their own right, don't get me wrong, but the fact that these guys got max deals will have several other guys in line for huge pay days of their own. Tyreke Evans has been dissapointing since his rookie season, but he still averaged 17 ppg, but he hasn't shown the imrpovement or any clear defined position. If he has the same year this year htat he did last season, he's still getting at least 50 million, whether he's worth it or not. DeMarcus Cousins has been a beast, and will certainly get a max deal when his time comes. James Harden is also getting a max unless he takes a discount to stay in OKC. Ibaka is going to get at least 10 mil per year, considering that DeAndre Jordan is getting 4 years 40 mil, Javale McGee is getting 5 years 50 mil, and Asik just got paid 3 years 25. If Ibaka shows even mroe offensive improvement this season, or he has a huge post-season, don't be surprised to see a crazy max deal either. If Eric Gordon got a max deal, than so will Brandon Jennings. Steph Curry is getting 40 mil+ and possibly even more if his ankle is fine. Some more names that will get big deals if only because players will similar production did: Jrue Holiday(He came out and said he wants one) Derrick Favors(He has potential, might not get to show much of it in Utah, but as long as he doesn't fall off, someone will give him big money) Greg Monroe(max) Ty Lawson, Kyle Lowry, Darren Collison(more like 25-30 mil, but still too much), and many more.

But the thing that's even more worrying is guys like Ersan Ilyasova getting 5 years 45 million, or Kris Humphris getting 2 years 24 million, or Jameer Nelson getting 3 years 20 million. All three of these guys are overpaid by at least 30%. Nelson is a 30 year old poin guard that has declined sharply over the past couple years, and averaged 11 and 5 this past season. You're gonna give an 11 and 5 guy almost 7 million per year?! No wonder Dwight wants out. Same with J-Rich last year, he's a shooting guard on the decline and they still gave him 6-7 mil per year, and just one year after they signed him they're trying to get rid of him. Humphries is a nice double-double guy, but 12 million!? I'd take 2006 Haslem over him every day of the week and he barely got half of the money Humphries just got. Ilyasova is anice stretch 4, whom we all know is really 28 or 29 years old but is listed at 25. He averaged 13 and 9, shows signs of some improvement, but 9 million for 5 years!!!?? Are you crazy?! You have to sign Jennings, and you give him the 5 year deal, and sign him for 5 whole years!? You're setting up averaged players for 8-10 million dollar per year deals, there will be dozens of guys clamoring for money like that over the next couple of years.

And the one that infuriates me is Jason Thompson. I like him, don't get me wrong, but 9 and 7, regressing after his first two seasons, and you give him 5 years 30 milllion?! Just because he had a nice run at the end of the season. If he didn't have that 10 game stretch where he went bonkers, we'd be looking at a 3 year 11 million dollar deal.

Let me reiterate that I have nothing against guys getting paid, I applaud guys for taking full advantage of their window of opportunity, but at the same time, do we realize that if GMs keep up this pace of signing ridiculous deals, that in 3-4 years that we're gonna be in a situation where 80% of the teams are strapped in the luxary cap, and the onwers are crying that they're losing money and we're gonna go through anohter lockout in 2017 all over again.

The salary cap isn't going to go up drastically, and the luxary tax is only going to get more punitive, and we're going to see more NY-Houston-Lin scenarios, and sooner or later almost every team is going to be in debt.

Now I'm very curious to see how things are going to be 3 years down the road, I predict we'll see a world where poor Ryan Anderson can't find anything more than the MLE because teams simply can't offer any more money. We'll see how it goes, but it'll definatly make it harder to sign free agents in 2k, lol.
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Re: Teams are overpaying way too much 

Post#2 » by DBoys » Thu Aug 2, 2012 3:18 am

I've heard this reaction, and I'm not buying the idea there's a problem.

Is it a problem for the players? Perhaps some players got overpaid, relative to some sort of objective standard. But the goal of every employee (not just basketball players) is to be paid more than you're worth, not less. So it's not a problem for the players.

Is it a problem for the teams? I'm having a hard team seeing it. The vast majority of the big money being given is by teams that are far below the cap. While they may have spent their wad on the wrong players, it's hard to argue they didn't have it to spend when their payroll was so low.

In addition, when free agency is over, few teams are going to be taxpayers. Teams with the financial wherewithal to spend, are paying tax ...and those without, are not. How is that new, or alarming?

What should create worry would be to see a sizable number of teams burying themselves in so much payroll that they'll be huge taxpayers for years, and we're not seeing that. Indeed, lots of teams are showing restraint. The contracts of Lin and Asik, for example, are great examples of teams showing restraint, as NYK and CHI let those players walk rather than bury themselves in extra payroll. And the players ended up on the roster of a team that is far below the cap and had plenty of budget room. I see the tax having it's desired deterrent effect, and fail to see a problem in any way with those results.

Your complaint seems to be about contracts that have yet to be offered. Based on what we've seen, it's pretty likely to take care of itself when the time comes - - if teams don't have the money for the guy they want, I'm guessing they'll either get rid of lesser players to free up spending room, or they'll offer less.
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Re: Teams are overpaying way too much 

Post#3 » by Ditchweed » Fri Aug 3, 2012 7:10 pm

Keep in mind that they raised the minimum a team must pay with the last CBA. If a team has a lot of new draftees on their team and no superstar and as such are still quite a bit under the minimum, they have nothing to lose by paying a player more to get him.
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Re: Teams are overpaying way too much 

Post#4 » by d-train » Mon Aug 6, 2012 11:12 pm

The problem is the max salary is too low. The low max salary gives players like LeBron and Howard control over how teams manage, because superstar players have freedom to move and chose who the successful teams will be. If teams could pay LeBron, Howard, D-wade, Bosh, D-will, and Carmelo what those players are worth, there wouldn't be any money to overpay lesser players because teams are placating underpaid superstars. And, players would willingly surrender their ability to move in exchange for money.

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