duncan228
10-24-2009, 05:05 PM
Adding Powerful Talent, Top Teams Flex Muscles (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/sports/basketball/25nba.html?_r=1)
By Howard Beck
The New York Times
Money does not always buy happiness or success in the N.B.A., but the right transaction can occasionally deliver a slice of nirvana.
On June 23, Richard Jefferson, a standout forward who averaged 19.6 points last season, was traded from Milwaukee to San Antonio for a package of nominal players. The Bucks’ decision was mostly financial — they had to shed Jefferson’s $14.2 million salary to avoid paying the luxury tax. The Spurs’ decision was purely competitive — they needed Jefferson’s talents to help win a championship.
When the accounting was complete, Jefferson found himself surrounded by All-Stars and championship rings, nestled in a lineup featuring Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
“Basketball heaven,” Jefferson said after practice last week in San Antonio.
The deal energized Jefferson and instantly revitalized the Spurs dynasty, which had grown creaky. It served as another stinging setback for the Bucks. And it symbolized a potentially troubling new trend for the N.B.A., which opens its season Tuesday night.
This is the year the rich got richer, while nearly everyone else gave up. Six elite teams, all recent finals contenders, added top talent this summer:
¶The Los Angeles Lakers, just weeks after winning the championship, signed Ron Artest, one of the fiercest two-way players in the league.
¶The Orlando Magic, winner of the Eastern Conference, acquired Vince Carter, a dynamic shooting guard, from the Nets.
¶The Cleveland Cavaliers, who made the Eastern Conference finals, acquired Shaquille O’Neal, an almost certain Hall of Famer, from Phoenix.
¶The Boston Celtics, who won the championship in 2008, signed Rasheed Wallace, who at 35 remains a superior defender and versatile scorer.
¶The Dallas Mavericks, who made the finals in 2007, acquired Shawn Marion, a four-time All-Star and multidimensional forward, from Toronto.
¶Having obtained Jefferson, the Spurs then signed Antonio McDyess, Keith Bogans and Theo Ratliff, giving them a fantastically deep bench.
None of those teams gave up much. O’Neal, Carter and Jefferson were acquired for spare parts, from teams that were solely looking to cut payroll. Artest and Wallace signed below-market contracts.
Team executives said they could not recall a summer quite like this, as every elite team added elite talent. “I don’t think it’s good,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “The league has to look at it, because there’s not parity.”
The executive asked for anonymity because the N.B.A. and its players were engaged in labor negotiations. Teams are subject to heavy fines for speaking publicly on anything that affects the process.
No one doubts the significance of the trend, the Spurs included. “I think it’s something that the powers that be in the league have noticed,” said Gregg Popovich, the Spurs’ coach and team president.
The most important statistic this season may not be shooting efficiency or rebounding rate but payroll size. Fourteen teams are on pace to exceed the luxury-tax threshold of $69.9 million. Eleven were playoff teams last season. Six of the eight highest payrolls belong to the Lakers, Mavericks, Spurs, Magic, Cavaliers and Celtics — and all are at least $10 million over the threshold. The Utah Jazz and Knicks are the other teams in the bracket. Among the bottom 10 teams in payroll, only one — the Portland Trail Blazers — had a winning record last season.
Stratification of the classes has long been a problem in Major League Baseball, but it’s a relatively new concern for the N.B.A., whose entire system is set up to promote parity.
The league has a salary cap and a luxury tax and dozens of other mechanisms to distribute talent and contain spending. The best teams draft low and rarely have cap room. In a normal year, the best teams fill in around the edges with low-cost free agents and hope their core unit holds up.
But these are abnormal times. The recession has forced many teams, in markets large and small, to cut payroll. Several other franchises are hording cap space for the free agent class of 2010. The result is a market where saving has trumped spending.
The Suns gave up O’Neal, a future Hall of Famer, for the cap-friendly contracts of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic, then waived both players. The Bucks swapped Jefferson for three aging role players and kept only one, 37-year-old Kurt Thomas. Milwaukee let two other starters, Ramon Sessions and Charlie Villanueva, leave as free agents.
“I’m aware of what you’re seeing, and we see it,” Commissioner David Stern said, while playing down the trend as temporary. “There are movements season to season, and we have a suspicion that there will be a countercyclical movement to that in the coming season.”
Nevertheless, Stern acknowledged the issue was certain to be discussed in collective bargaining negotiations, which are in the early stages.
The Spurs are a fascinating, and revealing, case study. They are renowned as smart spenders, winning four titles since 1999 with a payroll that generally fell in the middle of the pack. They have exceeded the tax threshold three times, but by less than $1 million in each case. The Spurs built a dynasty by surrounding their stars with low-wage role players.
But the model no longer seemed viable after the Spurs — with injuries to Duncan and Ginobili — lost in the first round last spring. Team officials faced the realization that, even healthy, they no longer had enough talent to contend.
The Lakers have five legitimate stars: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Artest. The Celtics have five: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Wallace. The Cavaliers have two megastars, O’Neal and LeBron James, and an All-Star guard, Mo Williams. The Magic has Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson and Carter. The Mavericks have Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard and Marion.
The trend perhaps began two seasons ago, when the Celtics obtained Garnett and Allen and the Lakers obtained Gasol. All were acquired in financially driven transactions. “All of a sudden, you couldn’t compete with two or three significant players anymore,” said R. C. Buford, the Spurs’ general manager. “You had to have a roster with at least four very significant players to even be competitive.”
Duncan is 33, and the franchise is determined to maximize his remaining years as an elite player. So the conservative Spurs joined the arms race.
“It’s out of character for us,” Duncan said. “But what is in character is them wanting to put a team together that’s going to have a chance to win.”
So Jefferson became a Spur, Shaq joined LeBron, Vince joined Dwight, and the gap between the talent-rich and the talent-poor grew into a grand canyon, almost overnight.
There are a few teams with great talent and more moderate payrolls: Portland, Atlanta and Denver. “But when you talk championship or bust, there’s only those five elite teams,” the ESPN commentator Jalen Rose said in reference to the Lakers, the Spurs, the Cavaliers, the Celtics and the Magic.
Is it a sign of things to come? A dangerous trend? Perhaps not. The Spurs, like the Magic and Cavaliers, are a small-market team. Popovich is the first to say that the new model is not sustainable.
“I don’t know if it’s a problem for the league,” he said, “but I think for a certain number of teams it’s going to be a flash in the pan.”
In the meantime, Jefferson will enjoy his little slice of heaven and go to sleep dreaming of championship rallies on the Riverwalk.
By Howard Beck
The New York Times
Money does not always buy happiness or success in the N.B.A., but the right transaction can occasionally deliver a slice of nirvana.
On June 23, Richard Jefferson, a standout forward who averaged 19.6 points last season, was traded from Milwaukee to San Antonio for a package of nominal players. The Bucks’ decision was mostly financial — they had to shed Jefferson’s $14.2 million salary to avoid paying the luxury tax. The Spurs’ decision was purely competitive — they needed Jefferson’s talents to help win a championship.
When the accounting was complete, Jefferson found himself surrounded by All-Stars and championship rings, nestled in a lineup featuring Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili.
“Basketball heaven,” Jefferson said after practice last week in San Antonio.
The deal energized Jefferson and instantly revitalized the Spurs dynasty, which had grown creaky. It served as another stinging setback for the Bucks. And it symbolized a potentially troubling new trend for the N.B.A., which opens its season Tuesday night.
This is the year the rich got richer, while nearly everyone else gave up. Six elite teams, all recent finals contenders, added top talent this summer:
¶The Los Angeles Lakers, just weeks after winning the championship, signed Ron Artest, one of the fiercest two-way players in the league.
¶The Orlando Magic, winner of the Eastern Conference, acquired Vince Carter, a dynamic shooting guard, from the Nets.
¶The Cleveland Cavaliers, who made the Eastern Conference finals, acquired Shaquille O’Neal, an almost certain Hall of Famer, from Phoenix.
¶The Boston Celtics, who won the championship in 2008, signed Rasheed Wallace, who at 35 remains a superior defender and versatile scorer.
¶The Dallas Mavericks, who made the finals in 2007, acquired Shawn Marion, a four-time All-Star and multidimensional forward, from Toronto.
¶Having obtained Jefferson, the Spurs then signed Antonio McDyess, Keith Bogans and Theo Ratliff, giving them a fantastically deep bench.
None of those teams gave up much. O’Neal, Carter and Jefferson were acquired for spare parts, from teams that were solely looking to cut payroll. Artest and Wallace signed below-market contracts.
Team executives said they could not recall a summer quite like this, as every elite team added elite talent. “I don’t think it’s good,” an Eastern Conference executive said. “The league has to look at it, because there’s not parity.”
The executive asked for anonymity because the N.B.A. and its players were engaged in labor negotiations. Teams are subject to heavy fines for speaking publicly on anything that affects the process.
No one doubts the significance of the trend, the Spurs included. “I think it’s something that the powers that be in the league have noticed,” said Gregg Popovich, the Spurs’ coach and team president.
The most important statistic this season may not be shooting efficiency or rebounding rate but payroll size. Fourteen teams are on pace to exceed the luxury-tax threshold of $69.9 million. Eleven were playoff teams last season. Six of the eight highest payrolls belong to the Lakers, Mavericks, Spurs, Magic, Cavaliers and Celtics — and all are at least $10 million over the threshold. The Utah Jazz and Knicks are the other teams in the bracket. Among the bottom 10 teams in payroll, only one — the Portland Trail Blazers — had a winning record last season.
Stratification of the classes has long been a problem in Major League Baseball, but it’s a relatively new concern for the N.B.A., whose entire system is set up to promote parity.
The league has a salary cap and a luxury tax and dozens of other mechanisms to distribute talent and contain spending. The best teams draft low and rarely have cap room. In a normal year, the best teams fill in around the edges with low-cost free agents and hope their core unit holds up.
But these are abnormal times. The recession has forced many teams, in markets large and small, to cut payroll. Several other franchises are hording cap space for the free agent class of 2010. The result is a market where saving has trumped spending.
The Suns gave up O’Neal, a future Hall of Famer, for the cap-friendly contracts of Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic, then waived both players. The Bucks swapped Jefferson for three aging role players and kept only one, 37-year-old Kurt Thomas. Milwaukee let two other starters, Ramon Sessions and Charlie Villanueva, leave as free agents.
“I’m aware of what you’re seeing, and we see it,” Commissioner David Stern said, while playing down the trend as temporary. “There are movements season to season, and we have a suspicion that there will be a countercyclical movement to that in the coming season.”
Nevertheless, Stern acknowledged the issue was certain to be discussed in collective bargaining negotiations, which are in the early stages.
The Spurs are a fascinating, and revealing, case study. They are renowned as smart spenders, winning four titles since 1999 with a payroll that generally fell in the middle of the pack. They have exceeded the tax threshold three times, but by less than $1 million in each case. The Spurs built a dynasty by surrounding their stars with low-wage role players.
But the model no longer seemed viable after the Spurs — with injuries to Duncan and Ginobili — lost in the first round last spring. Team officials faced the realization that, even healthy, they no longer had enough talent to contend.
The Lakers have five legitimate stars: Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Lamar Odom, Andrew Bynum and Artest. The Celtics have five: Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo and Wallace. The Cavaliers have two megastars, O’Neal and LeBron James, and an All-Star guard, Mo Williams. The Magic has Dwight Howard, Rashard Lewis, Jameer Nelson and Carter. The Mavericks have Dirk Nowitzki, Jason Kidd, Josh Howard and Marion.
The trend perhaps began two seasons ago, when the Celtics obtained Garnett and Allen and the Lakers obtained Gasol. All were acquired in financially driven transactions. “All of a sudden, you couldn’t compete with two or three significant players anymore,” said R. C. Buford, the Spurs’ general manager. “You had to have a roster with at least four very significant players to even be competitive.”
Duncan is 33, and the franchise is determined to maximize his remaining years as an elite player. So the conservative Spurs joined the arms race.
“It’s out of character for us,” Duncan said. “But what is in character is them wanting to put a team together that’s going to have a chance to win.”
So Jefferson became a Spur, Shaq joined LeBron, Vince joined Dwight, and the gap between the talent-rich and the talent-poor grew into a grand canyon, almost overnight.
There are a few teams with great talent and more moderate payrolls: Portland, Atlanta and Denver. “But when you talk championship or bust, there’s only those five elite teams,” the ESPN commentator Jalen Rose said in reference to the Lakers, the Spurs, the Cavaliers, the Celtics and the Magic.
Is it a sign of things to come? A dangerous trend? Perhaps not. The Spurs, like the Magic and Cavaliers, are a small-market team. Popovich is the first to say that the new model is not sustainable.
“I don’t know if it’s a problem for the league,” he said, “but I think for a certain number of teams it’s going to be a flash in the pan.”
In the meantime, Jefferson will enjoy his little slice of heaven and go to sleep dreaming of championship rallies on the Riverwalk.