holy crap
I read this in the Daily Dime at espn.com, a wonderful little recap everyday of nba happenings.
Interest in Cleveland's Drew Gooden is understandable. Gooden's contract expires at season's end, his salary is lower than the league average at just over $4 million and he's averaging nearly a double-double (10.9 points and 8.8 boards) in less than 30 minutes per game.
However ...
The latest signals I'm hearing suggest that Gooden, a restricted free agent come July, will still be in Cleveland after the Feb. 23 trade deadline in spite of outside interest and the Cavs' ongoing search for another point guard.
Just over $4 million is less than the league average?!?!?
Wow. I had no idea. I mean, I knew they were overpaid, but sheesh. I mean, Drew Gooden sucks. He's made every team he's been on worse for having him, and he makes $4 million per year. So four nights per week, the owner of the Cavs pays Gooden $50K for the privilege of being more likely to lose that night.
Next someone is going to tell me Troy Murphy is guaranteed another $51 million. You can find out these and other interesting tidbits at http://www.hoopshype.com/salaries.htm. Like the Knicks, who have four of the largest fourteen contracts on their books and one of the top two paid coaches - I couldn't figure out quickly whether it was Brown or Jackson topping that list - pay $29 million more than any other team for players only, and still - still have the fewest wins in the league.
Did I mention Troy Murphy is guaranteed another $51 million?
America is a wonderful country.
posted by Curtis Ruder @ 3:07 PM
1 Comments:
It's interesting how bad some of the GMs in the NBA are. There is plenty of attention given to the incredibly awful job done by Isiah in New York (and deservedly so). But there are plenty of other teams that are complete train wrecks. (You can read just about any of Bill Simmons' articles to get a detail of how bad the Knicks future is... and if you want more, read any of John Hollinger's articles).
But the focus on the Knicks has probably saved Chris Mullin from the spotlight (and thusly saved his job). I mean, if Thomas weren't actively trying to destroy te Knicks, Mullin's disaster zone in the Golden State would be getting its due. He signed Adonal Foyle to a $40 million dollar contract. I think Foyle would have been happy to get the league minimum from any other team. He signed Derek Fisher to a $40M contract. He signed Troy Murphy to a $66M contract. I could write 17 pages about this signing. Troy Murphy?!?! Good God. But then, Mullin wasn't done. He inked Mike Dunleavy Jr to the a $40M contract extension. Dunleavy might be the worst #3 pick in the last 23 years. He's so bad, that Golden State recently benched him and he is quickly falling out of the rotation. It would be one thing to fall out of the rotation on a good team, but this is the Warriors. To put it nicely, they are veterans of the lottery process.
The only reasonably defensive signing he made was resigning Jason Richardson, but he paid him too much too. But Mullin still wasn't done. He traded for Baron Davis, possibly the worst fit for this team. When you have a core of young players, why not bring in a veteran PG that dribbles the ball for 20 seconds each possession than takes a contested 25 footer. Seems like a perfect fit. Ohh, and let's make sure that this PG is a max contract player. Brilliant. Take a look at the thinking of Mullin. Hmmm. I have a team that hasn't made the playoffs in over a decade, in a league where over half of the teams make the playoffs each year. I have no proven winners on my team. I think the best course of action is to take all of these proven losers and lock them up in long term contracts for the next six years. Let's kill all of my cap flexibility and then add a truly terrible player in Davis to the mix. Brilliant.
The problem is that NBA GMs are their own worst enemy. The structure of the cap and salary limitations should keep these things in check. But not when there is a GM willing to give a max contract to just about anyone that shows anything on the court. There should be maybe 15 fifteen guys in the league that get a max contract. Maybe. Unfortunately, there are about 50 guys in the league that get max contracts. When that many guys get paid that much, then other guys that suck just a little more than these guys suck have reason to demand just a little bit less than the max, and next thing you know, guys who completely suck (like Adonal Foyle, Jerome James, Troy Murphy, Brian Cardinal, Brian Scalabrine) end up making $10M a year. Right now, Troy Murphy makes more than Tony Parker or Manu Ginobili. Um, yeah, that seems like money well spent. I can't talk about this anymore because I am getting angry.
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