The last days before the Trade Deadline started with a bang through the trade from Blake Griffin to Detroit. But was this possibly the last blockbuster trade or just the beginning? SPOX provides a little preview of the madness that could happen until 9 pm on Thursday.
What a wonderful time in the big NBA bubble! The salary ceiling rose by 24 million dollars in July of that year, and people were lying in each other’s arms, and money was finally piled up. The Los Angeles Lakers started at that time and signed Timofey Mozgov for 64 million dollars (four years under contract). It was the beginning of a long expenditure orgy, for which many teams now have to pay the bill.
There was only one winner when you take stock: the Golden State Warriors, who joined their existing superteam Kevin Durant. Others were less fortunate. The up-and-coming Blazers are deep in cap hell due to the contracts for Evan Turner (4 years, 70 million), Meyer’s Leonard (4 years, 41 million), Maurice Harkless (4 years, 42 million) and Allen Crabbe (4 years, 75 million), who is now playing in Brooklyn. Another example is Charlotte Hornets, who paid Nicolas Batum (5 years old, 120 million) and Marvin Williams (4 years old, 54.5 million) princely wages.
However, you shouldn’t point your finger at these teams, almost every team has such a rotten working paper. Who could have guessed that the cap would continue to rise? At the very least, warnings were given and the risks were addressed. The league initially wanted to put the money into circulation bit by bit and grow continuously, the players saw it differently and blocked the measure. It only benefited the Bismack Biyombos of this world, who became Free Agents at exactly the right time.
In the summer, on the other hand, the future unemployed will look around. Of course, they will compare themselves with the contracts of players from the past, but the circumstances were different. The huge dollar pond has dried up almost completely. It will, as it stands now, be only eight teams that are 20 million below the cap in the summer, including Chicago and Atlanta, who most likely won’t want to get a big free agent.
Who’s left over? It’s the Lakers, the Indiana Pacers, the Philadelphia 76ers, the Dallas Mavericks, the Phoenix Suns and the L. A. Clippers with cutbacks, DeAndre Jordan should not pull his player option. This is not really tempting and should make a player’s camp nervous.
The same applies to the teams. As many players’ contracts are staggered to such an extent that the salary increases or, for example, renewals that have already been signed only take effect in the summer, the organisations are under even more pressure. Five teams will pay the Luxury Tax this season, and in the coming season it could even be half, including smaller markets such as Milwaukee, New Orleans and Denver.
The Trade Deadline now offers the possibility of eliminating some of the mistakes of the past, even if this means, for example, that draftpicks must be surrendered and thus the own future must be cut back. On the other hand, it’s still a hot playoff race in the west – the east is as open as it has been for a long time due to the weakening cavs anyway. These are all important factors in the run-up to the deadline, which under these conditions could be as spectacular as in 2015, when 48 players (9.2 percent of the league) had to fill the boxes on the last day of the trade deadline.
Page 1: Summer 2016 and its consequences
Page 2: Players on the Trade Block
Page 3: These teams are sellers
Page 4: These teams are buyers
Page 5: What do the other Contenders do?