It all seems counter-intuitive and counter-productive, but that's the system we have at the moment. The Celtics, for example, could trade for Anthony Davis in July, but they won't have to pay him what the Bucks will pay Antetokounmpo. If Giannis Antetokounmpo decides to sign a supermax extension with the Bucks next summer, he'll spend his prime on a capped out Bucks team with less room to operate than most Eastern Conference counterparts. Assuming the Blazers are forced to offer Damian Lillard his own supermax extension this summer, Lillard will be left with a similar set of choices and limitations to confront as he approaches his 29th birthday. The stories are similar elsewhere, and the stakes are higher.
That outcome would be more depressing for fans who want to see Beal win than it would be for Wizards owners. If Beal signs for $200 million to play in Washington, the Wizards would spend a significant chunk of his prime paying 70% of the salary cap to two players, one of whom will probably never make another All-Star Game. Because really, who are we kidding? If Kemba were to sign a huge deal to stay in Charlotte, it would be clear on the day he signed the deal that he would probably never have enough help to win a championship. Teams are forced to spend huge amounts of money on stars who are unlikely to reward the investment with proportional production on the court, while players who sign the deals are suddenly marooned on teams that don't have the money or flexibility to pay for contender-quality sidekicks. What's interesting about the supermax era is that these deals almost always end with handicaps that make life more difficult for everyone involved. But that's true of any contract negotiation. Since the All-Star break, he's averaging 29.9 points, 6.5 assists and 5.9 rebounds per game.Īll of this is a complicated balance of pride, leverage, and long-term flexibility for both players and teams. Instead, Beal has spent the past two months playing the best basketball of his career. In Washington, meanwhile, outsiders were pushing for the Wizards to shut Beal down and tank in the wake of John Wall's season-ending injury earlier this year. But then, if the Hornets have to pay $200 million for the right to keep Kemba until he's 34 years old, that handicaps their ability to give him any hope of contending through the duration of that contract, and it all but guarantees the team will be paying progressively punitive luxury tax payments with a roster that probably tops out as a seventh seed. If Charlotte makes the playoffs this year, it will probably be enough to earn Kemba the All-NBA nod. No one will shed any tears if the Warriors become more expensive-and Klay may be willing to forego supermax raises and stay in Golden State on a traditional max deal-but consider teams like the Hornets or Wizards. That decision that made his departure even more dramatic. Ultimately, and in large part because the league and the players association failed to agree on a deal for cap-smoothing in advance of the 2016 offseason, Durant joined the best team in the league.
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Durant had left the Thunder the previous summer, and while Oklahoma City was technically able to offer him more long-term money than his free agent suitors, the difference was negligible over the course of a four-year deal.
When the NBA and the Players Association were working on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement during the 2016-17 season, they did so in the shadow of the Kevin Durant Warriors. This season, in particular, the failure has been punctuated like never before.įirst, for anyone who doesn't spend way too much time reading about basketball online, a quick refresher on the rule in question. Two years later, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which the first two years of this experiment could have played out any worse. In the winter of 2016 the NBA devised this rule to give teams an advantage in the endless battle to retain homegrown superstars.