Cade's projected career earnings if he's a Super Max player.

[bstein14]

Wiretap had an article that we'll soon have a player who makes $1 billion in career earnings. So I thought it'd be worth a look at what Cade projects to make over his NBA career if he ends up being a top 5 player, and he sticks with Detroit for a 17 year career. These numbers are rounded to the nearest half million, but you get the idea.

21-22: (20) $10.0 M
22-23: (21) $10.5 M
23-24: (22) $11.0 M
24-25: (23) $14.0 M
Rookie Contract = 4 years $45.5 Million
------------------------
25-26: (24) $50.0 M
26-27: (25) $54.0 M
27-28: (26) $58.0 M
28-29: (27) $62.0 M
29-30: (28) $66.0 M
5 Year Super Max Rookie Contract Extension = $290 Million
------------------------
30-31: (29) $70.0 M
31-32: (30) $75.5 M
32-33: (31) $81.0 M
33-34: (32) $86.5 M
34-35: (33) $92.0 M
2nd 5 year Max deal = $405 Million
-----------------------
35-36: (34) $100 M
36-37: (35) $100 M
37-38: (36) $100 M
Final Career 3 years deal = $300 Million
-----------
Total career earnings 17 years $1.04 Billion

[whitehops]

I suspect the first billion dollar earner isn’t in the league yet, someone from the last three rookie classes would have to be supermax players for a very long time which I’m not sure is likely.

Still crazy though and with the cap still climbing it will definitely happen. Lebron will “only” have made $435M in his career pretty much all the all stars from here on out will easily surpass that if they play like ten years.

[Snakebites]

That assumes he’ll have a Lebron-esque career arc where he’s still worth that max (at or near his peak form) into his mid 30s.

It could happen, but there’s a whole lot of other ways it could go down.

You’ve also got him signing 5 year deals, meaning you don’t have him really playing the FA market at all, ala Bradley Beal.

So this would require Cade to be an exception among modern stars in multiple ways. Possible but IMO unlikely.

[edmunder_prc]

That 3rd contract and beyond for most players turns out to be a bad deal for teams. Not sure how to handle that overall but you can see players in the Tobias Harris/Porzingis/Randle skill level, their later contracts are terrible.

Likely for Cade those 29-31 years will still be pretty good because he is so smart and using feints and counterfeints to get guys, instead of bull rushing and speed. Plus I predict he will be an excellent shooter when all is said and done.

Supermax deals should never be done unless its for a top 5-10 player, the kind you build a championship team out of. Lebron, Durant, Curry, Giannis, Jokic, Embiid. Maybe Tatum. But they need to be younger too. All the other ones out there are so bad, somehow WAS did three. Agent 0, Wall, Beal. Nightmare GMs.

Honestly Im more interested to see how the Pistons deal with Bey, Stewart, Diallo, Hayes.

[Invictus88]

Man so much can and will change in 15 years both in a player's career, the CBA, the economy, etc that I find it highly unlikely that the OP chain of events will occur; even if Cade were to consciously decide never to test the free agent market.

Props to the OP for posting something fun to look at during the offseason. I just personally won't spend any more effort than this post dwelling on it though.

[bstein14]

The good bad news is, if Cade hits all-nba in his 3rd or 4th season he gets bumped up to those super max numbers. The good news is, who cares if he hits super max if you have a top 15 player at age 22 or 23 in the league let him make $50+ million a year and not worry about the numbers.

Trae Young got that super max money.... and Tatum missed out on it.

[FloridaMan78]

Honestly Im more interested to see how the Pistons deal with Bey, Stewart, Diallo, Hayes.

Yea Bey, Stewart, Hayes contracts are going to be really important moving forward. I think Cades is a given, pay him whatever max he’s eligible for.

Their contracts are going to be really interesting with the salary cap sky rocketing right after their extensions kick in. That is if we extend them or let them go into restricted free agency. I could see a team giving Bey a max contract because of how affordable it would be with a new salary cap.

[Manocad]

Literally the first thing that popped into my head when I saw the thread title was "One BILLION dollars!"

[edmunder_prc]

Honestly Im more interested to see how the Pistons deal with Bey, Stewart, Diallo, Hayes.

Yea Bey, Stewart, Hayes contracts are going to be really important moving forward. I think Cades is a given, pay him whatever max he’s eligible for.

Their contracts are going to be really interesting with the salary cap sky rocketing right after their extensions kick in. That is if we extend them or let them go into restricted free agency. I could see a team giving Bey a max contract because of how affordable it would be with a new salary cap.

Bey is still far from a rookie max extension player - I dont care what people say or how they want to justify it.

Mikal Bridges signed a 4 year 90 million deal. Grant originally signed a 20 million a year deal. Bey is not as good - yet. He has time to become a smarter, more dependable, more efficient player.

And Bey is the best of the Bey/Stewart/Diallo/Hayes group.

The contracts should get smaller, something like 15 million a year for Stewart makes sense to me. No F-ing way should he be making even Mikal Bridges money or old Grant contract money. Again - it will be a long season for him to showcase why he deserves more.

EDIT

From the GB board someone was talking about what we learned from the season.

"One dimensional 3 point specialists don't deserve fat contract.

Duncan Robinson: 5yr/90m
Davis Bertans: 5yr/80m
Joe Harris: 4yr/75m"

[bstein14]

Honestly Im more interested to see how the Pistons deal with Bey, Stewart, Diallo, Hayes.

Yea Bey, Stewart, Hayes contracts are going to be really important moving forward. I think Cades is a given, pay him whatever max he’s eligible for.

Their contracts are going to be really interesting with the salary cap sky rocketing right after their extensions kick in. That is if we extend them or let them go into restricted free agency. I could see a team giving Bey a max contract because of how affordable it would be with a new salary cap.

Bey is still far from a rookie max extension player - I dont care what people say or how they want to justify it.

Mikal Bridges signed a 4 year 90 million deal. Grant originally signed a 20 million a year deal. Bey is not as good - yet. He has time to become a smarter, more dependable, more efficient player.

And Bey is the best of the Bey/Stewart/Diallo/Hayes group.

The contracts should get smaller, something like 15 million a year for Stewart makes sense to me. No F-ing way should he be making even Mikal Bridges money or old Grant contract money. Again - it will be a long season for him to showcase why he deserves more.

EDIT

From the GB board someone was talking about what we learned from the season.

"One dimensional 3 point specialists don't deserve fat contract.

Duncan Robinson: 5yr/90m
Davis Bertans: 5yr/80m
Joe Harris: 4yr/75m"

As of right now I'm expecting Bey to get between 4 years $80 and 4 years $90 million. I'm expecting Stewart to get between 4 years $60 million and and 4 years $76 million. Of course that could change depending on how this season goes.

The floor for Stewart is pretty much $15 million per year if Bagley got $12.5 million per Stewart is for sure getting more.

[tmorgan]

See, i don’t think Bey IS the best of the Bey/Stewart/Diallo/Killian group.

I think it’s Stewart, and I don’t even think it’s that close.

I know points get you paid, but Stewart is better at defense than Bey is at offense, and on the weak side, I think Stewart has more potential on offense than Bey does on defense.

But maybe thar’s just me. If the market thinks Bey is worth 20 and Stewart is worth 15, I’d be quite happy to get Stewart locked down long term and shop Bey.

[bstein14]

See, i don’t think Bey IS the best of the Bey/Stewart/Diallo/Killian group.

I think it’s Stewart, and I don’t even think it’s that close.

I know points get you paid, but Stewart is better at defense than Bey is at offense, and on the weak side, I think Stewart has more potential on offense than Bey does on defense.

But maybe thar’s just me. If the market thinks Bey is worth 20 and Stewart is worth 15, I’d be quite happy to get Stewart locked down long term and shop Bey.

I don't think that's unreasonable at all, when you look at overall impact on winning what we've seen from Stewart has been impressive IMO... and if he started taking and hitting 3s at a similar clip to Bey that would for sure increase his stock.

You could certainly make an argument that Bey is a bit of the SF version of Sexton... good scorer who lacks defensively.... Hard to say what Sexton's market would have looked like if he didn't get injured.

[edmunder_prc]

See, i don’t think Bey IS the best of the Bey/Stewart/Diallo/Killian group.

I think it’s Stewart, and I don’t even think it’s that close.

I know points get you paid, but Stewart is better at defense than Bey is at offense, and on the weak side, I think Stewart has more potential on offense than Bey does on defense.

But maybe thar’s just me. If the market thinks Bey is worth 20 and Stewart is worth 15, I’d be quite happy to get Stewart locked down long term and shop Bey.

Yeah this is a good take.

Bey might not be playable in an ECF type game. Can he guard Brown or Tatum? Will he put up enough points compared to how many he gives up?

He could be a great 6th man that can play SF or PF depending on matchups, but not an elite level SF/PF as a starter.

If Stewart became a better 3pt shooter, then he is a dependable starter. No one expects the C to score a lot of points, but they need to be strong defensively and cant be a negative on offense.

Centers dont get paid though, usually. Weaver did pay Plumlee, KO and Bagley now, so the floor is much higher for bigs on this team. Its a weird argument though - we gave out bad contracts before so now we have to pay more for someone who is actually good, right.