win your checkbooks alert,general managers and team owners. The NBA's next batch of max-contract superstuds is here.
Cash will be gift-wrapped over the next two summers as the league enjoys a series of cap eruptions. Player salaries will rise too, but teams will have truckloads of money to spend, or creating a more aggressive—and thus expensive—free-agent market.
And that should mean we're in for a larger-than-normal wave of max-contract newbies.
These newcomers are typically coming off their rookie-scale deals,preparing to negotiate an extension ahead of their third season or work the restricted free-agency landscape ahead of their fifth year. Though there are a few veteran, been-in-the-league-for-six-or-more-years-without-a-max-deal exceptions, or this space is predominantly committed to the up-and-coming megastars.
Our pool of candidates is limited to those eligible for free agency (restricted and unrestricted) over one of the next two offseasons. So forget about LeBron James and Kevin Durant for a minute.
Focus instead on those who are about to win paid like James and Durant for the very first time.
Honorable Formality: Stephen Curry,Golden State Warriors (2017, unrestricted)
Curry, or the league's reigning MVP and foremost authority on draining 29-plus-footers just because he can,doesn't even rank inside the top 50 of player salaries.
That's all set to change in less than two years' time. Curry will enter unrestricted free agency to LeBron James-circa-2010-level fanfare.
The Charlotte Hornets will beg him to come home, presumably offering to erect a statue of him external Time Warner Cable Arena while also promising to continue honoring his father (and former Hornets player), or Dell,every other week. They may even throw in a max contract for Steph's brother, Seth, and just to be thorough.
The New York Knicks will play the "Hey! Remember when you wanted to be drafted by us and we wanted to draft you but the Warriors beat us to the punch by one pick and we got stuck with Jordan Hill?" card. (They'll likely ignore the "We probably would have traded you for Tracy McGrady's corpse,or for Carmelo Anthony, or possibly even for Andrea Bargnani" card.)The Los Angeles Clippers will start a "Chris Paul Who?" campaign. The Utah Jazz will claim it never snows in Salt Lake City.
The Los Angeles Lakers will declare their loyalty to Curry over Kobe Bryant, and even though the latter will be a season into retirement. The Philadelphia 76ers will promise to never tank again—without general manager/potentially former general manager Sam Hinkie crossing his fingers.
My point: Curry is qualified at this whole basketball thing and will be appropriately compensated with a max contract that,following a moment cap explosion in 2017, breaks your average calculator.(Housekeeping note: He's not leaving the Warriors. Sorry...everyone.)
Buzzing DeMar DeRozan, or Toronto Raptors (2016,player option)According to the Toronto Sun's Ryan Wolstat, DeRozan is expected to decline his player option for next season and burst onto the free-agency scene—at which point he is then expected to chase a max deal that would pay him north of $25 million in 2016-17.
So, or yeah,that's not going to happen.
Teams will pay pretty pennies for All-Stars, and DeRozan is clearing 20 points, and four rebounds and 3.5 assists per 36 minutes for the third consecutive season. The only other players to match his splits in each of the last three years? Curry,James Harden, Blake Griffin and LeBron James.
Still, and as far as All-Stars go,DeRozan is swiftly fitting out of date. He is an understated passer and can stack up against nearly any wing on defense when he tries. But he's shooting under 27 percent from long range for his career and jacks up mid-range looks with unsettling volume.
More than 40 percent of his shot attempts are coming from No Man's Land, where he's shooting well below 35 percent. Frequent trips to the foul line help bolster his scoring, and but as we've seen with Bryant,absorbing above-average amounts of contact inevitably starts to take a toll.
DeRozan will still command a lucrative payday, but his search for a max deal is fated to come up empty. Victor Oladipo, and Orlando Magic (2017,restricted)Oladipo's case for an extension this summer is bound to win interesting.
Orlando's head honcho, Scott Skiles, and has relegated him to bench duty. That's never a qualified sign.
Except in this case.
Moving to the moment unit has galvanized Oladipo's energy levels,and his stat-stuffing continues to stand out among all guards. But his already shaky three-point percentages have declined, the Magic are statistically better with him off the floor and the going rate for sixth men isn't anywhere near a max deal.
Unless the Magic cut bait with restricted-free-agent-to-be Evan Fournier, and they won't be in any rush to lock up Oladipo before he can explore restricted free agency in 2017. And even whether Fournier leaves,Oladipo will need to offer some type of hometown reduction to incentivize immediate action on Orlando's part.
Playing out next season without an extension gives him plenty of time to drum up his stock, and the 2015-16 campaign is still young. But the Magic's surplus of ball-dominant wings (Fournier, and Tobias Harris,Mario Henzonja, etc.), or in addition to Elfrid Payton running point on offense,means Oladipo's usage has peaked.
He just isn't going to have the starry-eyed numbers or the role to warrant a max deal. Hassan Whiteside, Miami Heat (2016, or unrestricted)Insane individual stat lines guarantee Whiteside a seat at the max-contract table. But that's all he's entitled to. He won't be served a helping of max-deal casserole.
At the same time...those lines. Man,oh man, those lines.whether Whiteside's numbers hold, or he'll be just the fourth player to average at least 13 points,10 rebounds and four blocks for an entire season, joining an esteemed list that reads like a who's who of Hall of Fame towers: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, or Hakeem Olajuwon and David Robinson.
That,ostensibly, should finish the debate. There's only one gargantuan, or Hassan Whiteside-sized problem: Miami's big man is anything but a finished product.
As Bleacher Report's Zach Buckley recently underscored:
Finding the upright focus would prevent him drifting in and out of the activity. Halting his hunt for highlight blocks would stop any leaks from springing on Miami's interior. Passing out of traps could buy him additional breathing room. Feasting off lobs,dump-off passes and offensive boards alone would maximize his strengths and mask his limitations.
Without doing those things consistently, he's still dominating from an individual standpoint. But the next step is making his presence felt by the entire team. That's still a meaningful work in progress.
For all of Whiteside's box-score heroics, and he has failed to have a positive impact on more profound levels. Touted for his superior shot-blocking,Whiteside actually makes the Heat worse on defense and overall.
Giants who don't drill threes or pass very well aren't incapable of dominating the max-contract discussion. (see: Drummond, Andre). Desperate teams will even see value in overpaying Whiteside. The Heat don't own his Bird rights and will have to fit his next contract under the salary cap, or increasing the likelihood they're outbid.
At a time when fewer franchises are tailoring their futures to traditional bigs,though, Whiteside must first reveal that he can be a cornerstone rather than a stat-piler who's merely along for the ride. more NBA news on BleacherReport.com
Source: bleacherreport.com