However, one message seems to have stuck out the most from this entire move, and it's a BIG one. Dallas did not want to give Luka Doncic a supermax, and Luka Doncic will now be forced to play his prime out, not on a supermax.
The supermax has been one of those intriguing things since it was added. How often has it really resulted in fair value for a player?
I want to start off by naming the supermax contracts that eventually became negative assets or were viewed as "bad" at some point by the general community.
1. John Wall
2. Bradley Beal
3. Russell Westbrook
4. Rudy Gobert
5. Joel Embiid
Someone has called the above contracts "worst contract in the league". At times it has appeared that the above contracts have ruined teams. 2 of those contracts had to get bought out.
Now I want to go to the next tier of supermaxes, "these players got them, you forgot, and they aren't really worth the supermax"
1. Jaylen Brown
2. Devin Booker
3. Damian Lillard
4. Karl-Anthony Towns
All these guys extended on supermax contracts. None of them are legitimately worth a supermax and two of them have been traded on their supermax. It's important to note that the supermax is meant to be an incentive for loyalty, so when a franchise gives their player the supermax and moves on from them it shows that the supermax doesn't really seem to affect loyalty on both sides of the equation.
Now I want to go onto the final tier of supermaxes the "these guys got the supermax and were worth the supermax"
1. Giannis
2. Jokic
3. Curry
A couple things about these players above. First of all, only Curry has won a championship while being paid the "supermax". Jokic and Giannis inked their deals before going on to win their rings. Second of all, all of the players above are multiple time MVP winners and are regular 1st/2nd team All NBA players on their supermax. Third of all, Curry is not playing up to his supermax value today.
So basically of all the supermax contracts there are only 3 that truly lived up their value and of those 3 only 2 remain fair value for the player today.
Oh but there's one more supermax that I forgot to mention.
Luka Doncic is the only player to get a rookie supermax when he extended in Dallas. During his rookie supermax he won 0 MVPs, made the finals once, and was a 1st team All NBA regular with a scoring title. Now on his rookie supermax, Luka was 100% worth it, he's played up to the value of his contract, but here's the thing that the above really details.
The supermax is only worth it for a multiple time MVP winner, that's the only case where you really should give a player the supermax. Just because a player is "eligible" due to a singular All NBA selection does not indicate that the franchise owes them that supermax, and yet historically teams have been happy to give up that supermax for their players and then trade them out the door. These contracts are actually franchise damaging and have done more harm than good to both the reputation of GMs as well as the players that had them. It's only a matter of time before a guy like Jaylen Brown falls out of that "superstar" status and people start to question if he's worth it.
LeBron, KD, Kyrie, these guys would 100% be supermax players if they stuck around their franchises, but they've hopped around on maxes for the last few years and they've almost always been worth the money barring Kyrie for a brief period of time in Brooklyn.
Now Luka puts up amazing stats, the advanced stats say he's great, but his flaws have been overlooked by the good he's managed to do at such a young age. He seems almost "impervious" to criticism as of late, even though historically he's had a bad reputation with the refs, he's come into seasons out of shape, he's shown maturity issues plenty of times, and if you can tell he has these issues in the brief 48 mins of NBA play-time, you better bet they are amplified heavily off the court, in practice, behind the scenes, etc.
Imo Nico Harrison set a precedent to other GMs, which is that you have to be tighter with the supermax, you have to be tighter with your stars. The NBA has been a cash cow for teams and players, but ultimately the main goal of teams is to win championships, not sell jerseys. The Supermax needs to be reserved, it needs to be treated with more respect, it shouldn't be a desperation play by bad management. Good management recognizes it.
If you asked people 6 months ago to draft up a trade for Luka Doncic they'd come up with some incredibly unrealistic ideas "10 first round picks and every single amazing young player", "you could not trade Luka for any level of talent". Well Nico Harrison has proved all of you wrong, you can in fact trade Luka for another top 10 player in the NBA. A precedent has been set and it's time we all sit back and learn from a RealGM.
We need to be patient, but most important of all, we need to be grateful, grateful for a man that might have singlehandedly saved the future of the NBA and changed the way teambuilding is looked at for decades.
With great admiration and thanks.
Nico Harrison
