NBA Free Agency: Their Contracts Are Insane

The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over and expecting different results.

In 2009, Forbes reported that 12 NBA teams lost money, including Milwaukee, Memphis, and Atlanta. NBA attendance in 2010 went down about 500,000 paid people (and a lot more uncounted for in person), with Atlanta and Milwaukee losing people and Memphis going up about 700 paid per game.

In day one of NBA free agency, three teams announced big signings—and they were Milwaukee, Memphis, and Atlanta. With the signings of Drew Gooden, Rudy Gay, and Joe Johnson, the three teams combined to clarify their place in the NBA hierarchy.

That place is a combined one conference final in the last 20 years.

Free agency in the NBA is a crazy endeavor. The owners and GM’s who complain for 11 months of the year decide for one month to completely overspend, and then spend the next few years trying to get rid of the bad contracts they signed.

Free agency is also crazy because of the concept of the max contract. Below is a quote from John Hollinger from ESPN. Please take a moment in your head to figure out where this sentence becomes illogical.

“We have 10 players who are max-contract candidates: LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh, Dirk Nowitzki, Paul Pierce, Amar'e Stoudemire, Carlos Boozer, Joe Johnson, David Lee, and Rudy Gay.”

Franchises have sold their souls to attempt to get LeBron James, and his ceiling in terms of salary is compared equally to Joe Johnson and Carlos Boozer?

Nobody in their right mind even thinks that Johnson and Boozer are in the same stratosphere as James.

But obviously Atlanta management doesn’t agree, and with their long history of success, who can argue when they look up at Phillips Arena and see all of those banners.

Don’t mess with the 1994 Division Champions.

Last year, Joe Johnson averaged 21.3 points, good for 11th in the NBA. His 4.7 rebounds a game is solid for a shooting guard, and 4.9 assists is decent, although he went down almost an assist a game from the previous two years.

I give all the credit in the world for Johnson and his agent in getting a six-year, $119 million dollar contract since Johnson can score and his skills are very desired.

On a team like Dallas with Dirk Nowitzki or with Chicago and Derrick Rose, Johnson would be a great complementary player who would put up big numbers.

Unfortunately for Atlanta fans, the Hawks management panicked, and now the team has a guy who just turned 29 and hasn’t led the team anywhere in five years and will cause salary cap restraints for a long time.

Did anybody in the Hawks organization watch the playoffs last year? In Round One, Johnson averaged 20.9 points a game, shooting about 20 times a game. In Games Five, Six, and Seven—the key games against Milwaukee—Johnson shot a combined 18-54, with five foul shots.

In Round Two against Orlando, Johnson shot under 30 percent. The Hawks were terrible and quit, and the leader of that quitting team is now being rewarded.

To try to help build Johnson’s case, I went back to the 2009 playoffs. In the second round against Cleveland, Johnson shot a lot better, near 42 percent, but only averaged 15 points a game. Atlanta was swept in that series also.

Nothing in that paragraph provided any ammunition to justify Atlanta putting the same value on Joe Johnson as Dwyane Wade. Yet they did, and that’s why that 1994 banner is getting dusty and lonely.

Memphis gave Rudy Gay a max contract, because any team that trades Pau Gasol for nothing has to know what it is doing. I almost give Memphis a pass for its disorganization, since for a few years they had to compete with John Calipari to get the best pros in the city.

Just because the franchise has existed for 15 years and hasn’t won a playoff game doesn’t mean they don’t know what they are doing. At least Rudy Gay is 23, and when his max contract ends he will be close to his prime.

Gay is similar to Johnson in that he can score—but he’s not a superstar—and needs to improve his distribution skills, defense, and long range shooting. The Memphis franchise is losing money and in the process, Memphis management decides to max out a one dimensional player.

Gay could work in a system with a great point guard, but Memphis just hindered their cap, and in the process drafted a Rudy Gay copycat in Xavier Henry. Plus, they drafted Hasheem Thabeet last year. I swear that Memphis strives to be Atlanta, and clamors for just one division title banner.

Someday a witty basketball writer will write a War and Peace epic about NBA GM’s and Owners called “They Did What?” detailing the hundreds of crazy decisions made every year.

Drew Gooden got a 5 year $32 million contract from Milwaukee. Since 2008, Gooden has played for Cleveland, Chicago, Sacramento, San Antonio, Dallas, Washington, and the LA Clippers. Now multiply that list by two, and that means that Gooden may play for every franchise by the time the contract is up.

Gooden threw up some strong stats in his time with LA, scoring 14.8 points a game and 9.4 rebounds. If he can produce that in Milwaukee, the contract won’t be bad at all. But something tells me that with their history of relative success (when compared with Atlanta and Memphis), Gooden will be part of a contract dump in a year with some trade for nothing.

It’s almost like GM’s see they have a mid-level exception and have to spend it immediately.

Robert Sarver obsesses over the luxury tax, and then signs Channing Frye for 5 years and $30 million (and Hakim Warrick). Darko Milicic gets five million a year from Minnesota; the Darko trade watch has begun.

The great thing about this free agency period is that it’s one day in, and there are so many more regrettable decisions to be made. The teams that don’t get LeBron will have millions to spend and an angry fanbase that the owners will attempt to appease with confusing and wasteful decisions.

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