NBA Free Agency

I couldn't really wait any longer to blog about the NBA Free Agency period starting in roughly about 1 day and 6 hours from the time I finish this post. Like any good economics class I guess let's start with what will be what teams can spend. $56.1 million dollars, numerically $56,100,000 without going into the NBA luxury tax. Now we all know the teams in the past who have been reluctant to go into the tax so we really won't get into that. However, as you can see below the top five in total player payroll have at least been making the playoffs the last few seasons.




1. Dallas Mavericks $85,828,850
2. Los Angeles Lakers $83,938,202
3. Orlando Magic $79,677,182
4. Denver Nuggets $74,976,074
5. Cleveland Cavaliers $69,152,524
6. San Antonio Spurs $67,606,328
7. New Orleans Hornets $66,381,918
8. Indiana Pacers $65,558,674
9. Philadelphia 76ers $63,444,338
10. Boston Celtics $63,326,049
11. Phoenix Suns $60,754,630
12. Charlotte Bobcats $59,536,980
13. Houston Rockets $58,094,278
14. Golden State Warriors $55,404,765
15. Detroit Pistons $54,951,801
16. Utah Jazz $54,790,979
17. Portland Trail Blazers $49,595,378
18. Oklahoma City Thunder $49,063,550
19. Milwaukee Bucks $48,810,398
20. Atlanta Hawks $47,630,214
21. Memphis Grizzlies $47,295,900
22. Toronto Raptors $46,326,150
23. Sacramento Kings $35,599,100
24. Minnesota Timberwolves $35,710,205
25. Los Angeles Clippers $33,578,349
26. Chicago Bulls $31,861,826
27. Washington Wizards $29,183,101
28. Miami Heat $27,598,483
29. New Jersey Nets $22,711,940
30. New York Knicks $18,637,293

Now if we were to assume that many of these teams will relatively stay the same with their payroll, 13 of the 30 teams would be over the salary cap and would have to start paying the luxury tax. For those of you unfamiliar with that tax it is any dollar amount over the cap which if you take our $56.1 million dollars we started with is that cap.

According to the way things broke down in recent years the contracts for players can be as follows. The maximum amount of money a player can sign for is contingent on the number of years that player has played and the total of the salary cap. The maximum salary of a player with 6 or fewer years of experience is $9,000,000 or 25% of the total salary cap (2009-10: $14,472,500). For a player with 7–9 years of experience, the maximum is $11,000,000 or 30% of the cap (2009-10: $17,310,000), and for a player with 10+ years of experience, the maximum is $14,000,000 or 35% of the cap (2008-2009: $20,195,000).

So let's take a look at Lebron James, $63,000,000, is the total amount of money he made for the life of his previous contract, his salary for the 2008 season was just under 6 million, their entire payroll was just under 63 million that season, which means that the King commanded about a one-fifth of his teams' money. Now the Cavaliers if they were to sign Lebron would now have to pay at least the 9 million or 25% of the team's salary. Based on what the Cavaliers total salary was 2009-10, $69,152,524 that would mean Lebron would now be making according to the most recent data available $17,288,131 at the most.

Based on last years numbers the teams that have that kind of money to spend that James would want to go to are the Knicks, Nets, Bulls, Heat, and Clippers.

This would be no different for any other big name free agent coming up. Of course the team has to be willing to make the offer.


Now for those of you who live in my home state I will go ahead and break down the Jazz.

As you can see from the list above the Jazz spent $54,790,979 this past season. This next list is a list of everyone who has a current deal in place or who has been made an offer.

Deron Williams $14,940,152
Andrei Kirilekno $17,822,187
Mehmet Okur $9,450,000
Paul Millsap $6,200,000
CJ Miles $3,700,000

Ronnie Price $1,380,000
Kosta Koufos $1,298,640
*Kyrylo Fesenko $1,087,500
*Wes Matthews $937,195

*offers made to players

This now means that the Jazz payroll without re-signing Kyle Korver, Carlos Boozer or their current draft picks Gordon Hayward and Jeremy Evans is $59,315,674. Yes the offers to Matthews and Fes have not been signed yet, but this doesn't leave a whole lot of room for Boozer at least. Luckily under the current collective bargaining agreement a team is allowed to sign their rookies without it hurting the team's cap. The Jazz have traditionally not paid the luxury tax in extremes and I don't really see them doing it this year even for just Boozer. One factor though is Larry is gone and I think that Greg Miller realizes that in order to keep his fan base interested they need to stay competitive and signing their top scorer (Boozer) from last season might be the way to go, especially if Memo isn't ready.

I don't really have any speculation for any of these teams either way. We all know the teams that are willing to go over the cap range i.e. the Lakers, Knicks, Mavericks, Pacers, Heat, Bulls, Magic, and Nuggets. Certainly as I mentioned before we know who wants the services of Mr. James. As for the rest of the free agents well last time I checked we're still in a recession which means I will continue to steal NBA TV, FSN, and ESPN for as long as I still can.

What's Coming Up

Now a word about the World Cup in South Africa....



Okay enough of that! Now let's back to the major sports in the United States.




The NBA Draft is finally upon us. Yet I cannot help but NOT feel excited about this draft. There is really no reason to watch unless your team has a pick in the top ten. If you do end up watching this thing on the four letter sports network tomorrow night than kudos to you (starts at 7ET). It won't take long since there are only two rounds now unlike the wasted days of NFL Draft coverage that is almost as bad as Super Bowl pregame shows.

The draft order for the top ten are as follows just in case you don't know or don't care.

1. Washington Wizards
2. Philadelphia 76ers
3. New Jersey Nets
4. Minnesota Timberwolves
5. Sacramento Kings
6. Golden State Warriors
7. Detroit Pistons
8. Los Angeles Clippers
9. Utah Jazz (From New York via Phoenix)
10. Indiana Pacers

The Wizards pick first and as you can see they haven't had the best track record. Do you recognize any of these names? Well neither did I for the most part, but with no picks in 2009 and 2005 no wonder they have struggled. Even if you get a guy that the fans don't necessarily know about that doesn't mean he is a bust. Look at Devin Harris, pretty good numbers in Dallas and New Jersey. If it weren't for the fact he plays in New Jersey now we might actually be talking about him more.

2008		JaVale McGee
2007		Nick Young
2006		Oleksiy Pecherov
2004		Devin Harris
2003		Jarvis Hayes
2002		Juan Dixon
2002		Jared Jeffries
2001		Kwame Brown

The Philadelphia 76ers haven't had this high of a pick since 1997 and number one since 1997. Some guy named Allen Iverson who took more shots and missed than the cops who probably chased him as a kid. Realistically the only upside I can think of is that since Larry Brown they will finally have a legitimate coach who is not only a favorite amongst the 76er organization in Doug Collins, but Andre Iguodala when healthy along with teammate Elton Brand would be a good fit with Evan Turner from Ohio State if Philadelphia goes that route.

2008		Marreese Speights
2007		Daequan Cook
2007		Petteri Koponen
2007		Thaddeus Young
2006		Thabo Sefolosha
2004		Andre Iguodala
2002		John Salmons
2001		Samuel Dalembert
2000		Speedy Claxton
1998		Larry Hughes
1997		Keith Van Horn
1996		Allen Iverson

The Nets of course are still banking on Lebron so I don't really have much to say on them except they have been bad. So bad that I think that if you took the best of all the colleges in the area they could probably beat the Nets also. First time in 10 years that they have had a top five pick.

2008		Ryan Anderson
2008		Brook Lopez
2007		Sean Williams
2006		Marcus Williams
2006		Josh Boone
2005		Antoine Wright
2004		Viktor Khryapa
2003		Zoran Planinic
2002		Nenad Krstic
2001		Eddie Griffin
2000		Kenyon Martin

The rest I'll let you intelligent people figure out on your own. For those of you living in the Utah area and really want to know about what the Jazz are going to do they are picking ninth. More than likely I see them going with something they don't really need such as another small forward or a guard. Maybe they'll get lucky and draft Greg Monroe or Ed Davis. Both of those players would go well with Paul Millsap if he ends up being the starter. Even more of an issue is trying to bring back Carlos Boozer, Kyle Korver, and possibly bring back Fesenko. If they can't or won't resign Boozer than big man is where they need to go in the draft. We'll see tomorrow if they actually will.

On a lighter note here's Aiden playing with a light sabre.