The NBA All-Hoover Team

Every year, players are signed to big deals, and every year a handful of them play poorly or age catches up with them.  Lately most of those players have been playing for the New York Knicks (sorry Knicks fans!).

I’m going to go through a few of these players that are sucking the life out of their teams’ finances. 

Cleveland Cavaliers – Wally Szczerbiak and Ben Wallace.

Szczerbiak has yet to score twenty points in a game since being brought over from Seattle.  He was supposed be a big contributor for Cleveland on offense to replace Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden.  He is only scoring 7.5 PPG since the trade and is entitled to just over $12 million this season.  Cleveland should try their best to move him this off-season if he isn’t going to produce.

Ben Wallace has really underachieved this season.  His rebounding numbers were low before the trade and have plummeted even more since.  The once dominant defensive and rebounding force is deteriorating right in front of Cleveland’s eyes. His contract entitles him to $15.5 million this season.

Cleveland has almost $28 million spent on two players averaging 14.3 PPG and 10.6 RPG combined.  The only other two players receiving over $10 million this season for the Cavs are LeBron James and Zyndrudas Ilgauskas. 

Portland Trailblazers – Darius Miles and Raef Lafrentz

Portland is on the path of getting rid of Miles with the news of his knee injury possibly being career-ending.  Miles was supposed to be the next KG but busted.  He did average 14 PPG in the 2005-06 season but injuries and an attitude problem have followed him since drafted 3^rd overall in 2000.  Miles salary for 2008 is 8.25 million.  Portland needs to get rid of his contract so they will be able to keep their nucleus of young talent around for the Oden-era. 

Raef Lafrentz is just washed up and beyond his prime.  At 31, the Kansas alum is putting up just 1.6 PPG and 1.8 RPG while playing only 7.5 MPG.  With Greg Oden set the return next season they won’t need Lafrentz’s big contract to suck the life out of their salary cap any longer.

New York Knicks – Stephon Marbury, Malik Rose, and Isiah Thomas

Marbury still has the talent to play in the NBA but not for $19 million a year.  Marbury makes more money than Tim Duncan, Tracy McGrady, Dirk Nowitzki, and countless others.  He hasn’t been the right fit in The Big Apple and the Knicks front office should get rid of his huge contract and look to the future.  They aren’t going to win with the core of players they have now so they should start doing some spring cleaning. 

All I’m going to say about Malik Rose is that he’s 33, averaging just over 3 PPG and makes $7 million a season. 

Isiah couldn’t hack it as a general manager and is doing an even worse job as a head coach.  It was a nice idea to try and follow suit with Larry Bird, but it’s just not working for him.  The Knicks need a change of direction and if they are able to land Derrick Rose in the draft, Marbury and Isiah need to be gone.

The three teams I have looked into in this article all have one thing in common:  They are all over the league's $67.865 million luxury-tax threshold. 

Other teams violating the luxury-tax threshold are:

Denver Nuggets - $16,044,119
Big Contracts – Marcus Camby ($11 Million), Allen Iverson ($19 Million), Carmelo Anthony ($13 Million), Kenyon Martin ($13 Million), Nene Hilario ($8.8 Million), Eduardo Najera ($5 Million).

Dallas Mavericks - $13,262,160
Big Contracts – Jason Kidd ($19.7 Million), Dirk Nowitzki ($16.3 Million), Erick Dampier ($10.6 Million), Josh Howard ($9.5 Million), Jason Terry ($8.9 Million), Jerry Stackhouse ($6.75 Million).

Miami Heat - $4,563,363
Big Contracts – Shawn Marion ($16.4 Million), Dwayne Wade ($13 Million), Jason Williams ($8.9 Million), Mark Blount ($7.9 Million), Ricky Davis ($6.8 Million), Udonis Haslem ($6 Million)

These teams need to do something to relieve some of their cap space before getting hit by the NBA’s luxury tax.