Chuck Texas wrote:Chinook wrote:Chuck Texas wrote:This is the cap world we live in. You don't have to like it, but you probably do want to understand it.
It's a little patronizing of you to assert I don't know how max contracts affect what players are worth. But no, Lillard isn't worth twice as much as Jackson in any world, and having a cap doesn't change that in the slightest (if anything, it makes it worse, since you seem to think Damien would get more if there wasn't a cap). There simply isn't enough of a difference between them.
Is Reggie overpaid? Yes, egregiously. But Lillard on a Davis deal would be absurdly overpaid, new cap or not. That's a toxic deal, while Jackson's is just burdensome.
Sorry. I didn't mean it like that, but re-reading my post it does sound quite condescending and I do apologize. No need for that on my part.
But yeah Lillard is worth more than twice Jackson because top 20 players are worth more than double top 100 players. There just aren't enough star type players to go around so when you have one, they are extraordinarily valuable.
Davis would be worth way way more than Lillard or Jackson, but he can't get it because of the artificial ceiling. He and Lebron and Curry and Harden and Durant would be worth a lot more if there was no max salary because with very few exceptions you can't win a title without one of these players. Take Timmy Duncan. For nearly 2 decades his presence has meant the Spurs are contenders. He's been that great and that important to the team. Him on a max today would still be a good deal for the Spurs--during his prime it was a joke how underpaid he was.
So its why overpaying role players is so devastating to a team. Take my Mavs. Nearly half our cap goes to Parsons/Matthews. That's putrid cap management. No 2 ways around it.
It's cool. I know you're not like that usually. Just didn't want you to look at my post and go "Well, this guy dosesn't understand the cap."
I understand the idea of holding onto star players at nearly any cost. And I know that my experience as a Spurs fan completely skews my perception of what players are really worth. Tim's the obvious example, but you even have Danny Green not going taking less, but being adamant how happy he is just to be back. It's crazy.
But I also feel that Lillard is a FAR way away from any of those guys. He's closer to Jackson in my opinion than he is to Lebron, Durant or even Curry. I don't think Lillard is worth 30 percent of the cap; he's simply not that irreplaceable. I think at his contract, he's near the bottom of the list of stable starting PGs I'd want on my team (and I'm counting folks like Beverly as one of those). I think had he somehow left Portland this off-season instead of LMA, the Blazers would have still been a decent playoff team.
That Matthews contract really makes Dallas' cap management look awful, but I don't think it was too bad before, especially considering they were going to be able to get Mathews and their main target before Cuban got Clipped. What was much worse was letting their role-players walk to save money for a star. They would have been in the same place now, probably, but they wouldn't have looked so awkward during the summers.
. I think they have a better bench than the Kings did and barring injury are better than Denver because I think they just had guys quit, which I don't see PDX doing.
