You know, that's a good point. While its rarely discussed, there is an NBA minimum team payroll.
Larry Coon wrote: At the other end of the spectrum there is a minimum team salary, which is defined as 75% of the salary cap. Any team that doesn't spend at least that much is surcharged at the end of the season, and that money is given to the players. In practice, most teams' salaries will be higher than the salary cap amount
Slam thinks we'll see contraction
Slam wrote: they simply will not have the resources to make it the NBA. (The fact that the Kings are horrid, and will continue to be horrid for the near future, is another factor, but not nearly as important as the thousands of empty seats 41 times a year.)
In the past, the next step would have been pretty obvious. David Stern and the other owners sift through the list of big-money, big-ego types eager to get some NBA action, squeeze a new arena out of some politicians and developers, and move the Kings somewhere else. But right now, somewhere else looks a lot like nowhere, as there are no obvious candidates, either individual or civic, to take on the moribund franchise.
In short, what we may have is contraction. The Kings’ roster, such as it is, may simply be tossed into a dispersal draft (the WNBA knows just how to handle these, having administered many during its existence), and the ‘10-11 NBA may have one fewer team. The NHL has also been talking about contraction, for the same reasons, and there is a certain historical inevitability that the meteoric rise of professional sports in the United States must be followed by some kind of a fall.
Now a quick trade - most likely a deal with $3 mil in up front cash included, is something I don't consider "taking advantage" of the Maloofs. They need the money to meet their debts, and if their franchise is being contracted anyway, it would probably be greeted favorably (well, not by Kings fans). Imagine this as the "I'm going bankrupt tomorrow, so I'll sell what I can at 50% today."
As I've been saying all along, MIN needs to flex its financial muscle with teams that are hurting. At the trade deadline, HOU was wise to pick the two teams that both needed to move payroll, and we should follow that example.
