There's still plenty of time for more players to feel scorned
and rejected. But as of now, three names stand out as the early
front-line casualties of the NBA's New Economy.
We know one of
them in Boston - Rodney Rogers. But there are two others whose destiny
is also a direct result of the dreaded luxury tax, and whose teams
simply let them go when they could have retained their services. Those
two presently unfortunate lads are Matt Harpring and Keon Clark.
Now, before we go any further, we should note that Rogers, Harpring,
and Clark should all find employment in the NBA next season. Once they
do, they will paid slightly more than the average per capita of
Bangladesh. But all three represent different ways in which the
apparently sure-to-come luxury tax has forced owners and management to
retool, rethink, and reconfigure on the fly.
We're all too familiar with the
Rogers saga. The
Celtics
thought so highly of his contribution last season that they offered him
a 62 percent pay cut. Sure, they would have liked to offer more. But
once they ran the numbers, especially after the lower salary-cap figures
came out, even a $1 million offer was about $1 million more than they
wanted to spend.
The
Celtics knew two things: Rogers could not accept their offer and he would not accept their offer. Without a luxury tax, he would have quickly re-signed and Vin Baker would still be in Seattle. But the Baker trade enabled the Celtics to jettison $15 million in salaries for this season while taking on $14 million. That's Paul Gaston's kind of math.
So Rogers,
arguably the fourth-best player on the team, is now shopping and, if he
hasn't signed anywhere by September, maybe that $1 million won't look
so bad. (Meanwhile, the dust has settled on the February deal with Phoenix: the Celtics dealt Joe Johnson, a No. 1 pick - Casey Jacobsen - Randy Brown, and Milt Palacio for Tony Delk.)
Clark and Harpring sort of fall into the same slot - players from the
draft class of 1998, the same class that produced Paul Pierce, Dirk
Nowitzki, Vince Carter, and Antawn Jamison. Clark went 13th to Orlando
(and was quickly shipped to Denver), while Harp ring went 15th, also to
Orlando.
Those two had completed four years of the five-year
rookie contract and their teams had the option to keep their rights for a
fifth year by making what's known as a tender offer. In the case of
Clark, that amounted to a 38.3 percent increase from his salary of last
year for an offer of around $2.5 million. Harpring got a little less,
around $2.3 million. The offer was good until Oct. 1 unless the team
rescinded it, which both Toronto (Clark) and Philadelphia (Harpring)
decided to do.
These guys are not scrubs. These were key
players on playoff teams. Clark played 81 games for the Raptors and was
fifth on the team in scoring, second in rebounding, and first in blocked
shots. Now an unrestricted free agent, he may be one of the more valued
players on the market. In any other market, he would be of enormous
value. But in any other market, the Raptors would have already re-signed
him.
Toronto general manager Glen Grunwald said his team
wanted to make a fair offer to Clark, but "fair" in Grunwald's book has a
different meaning than "fair" in Clark's book. Had Grunwald not signed
Michael Stewart and Hakeem Olajuwon to silly, pre-luxury tax contracts,
there'd be money to keep Clark. But now Clark is available to the
highest bidder and, theoretically, should get something greater than
$2.5 million. The Raptors may have something left over to sign a lesser
player, maybe someone like . . . Harpring.
Harpring merely
started 81 games for the 76ers and was one of the few to make it through
the season without some debilitating injury. "But, with the luxury
tax," Sixers GM Billy King said, "it's a different ballgame out there.
No one talks about the salary cap anymore. It's all luxury tax."
King made the tender offer to Harpring in late June. He rescinded it
July 23. You have to wonder: What was Harpring thinking in that
three-week stretch? Does he really think someone out there is going to
pay him more than $2.3 million this year? Maybe he knows something we
don't.
King said Friday that he's taken countless calls from
agents begging him to sign their player to the veteran minimum, which
tops off at $1.03 million. That's one reason he pulled the plug on the
Harpring tender. The other was that if it had been signed, King could
not have traded Harpring for a year and Harp ring would have been an
unrestricted free agent this time next year.
The Sixers
already have spent around half of their $4.5 million exception on Dallas
free agent Greg Buckner. The other half, or some portion of it, may be
offered to
Rogers. (King said there was nothing going on with
Rogers.) Given the way the summer has gone,
Rogers
should think long and hard about any offer, even if it's a big dropoff
from the $2.6 million he made last year. Given the way things are going,
with teams trimming payrolls and rosters, the next offer might be the
best one because it also might be the only one.
Convinced about Vin
It's hard to find too many people around the league who think the
Celtics didn't swallow hoop cyanide by making the Baker deal. One league
observer said he thought GM Chris Wallace had "lost his mind" while
another offered this observation: "I'm more worried about (Baker) off
the court. But if he's not running around with (Gary) Payton anymore,
that should be OK." Yet another offered that Baker may not be the lug a
lot of people think he is. "There's a player in there and he doesn't
necessarily have to play down on the box. If he's used at center, he can
pop out on the wing and knock down the jumper, just like Rogers did."
Meanwhile, Baker's exit brought about some real tear-jerkers from the
Seattle media. Three columnists from the major papers that regularly
cover the Sonics gave Baker the pinata treatment after the deal went
through. From Blaine Newnham of the Seattle Times: "The Sonics found a
way to get rid of Vin Baker. Good for them . . . The real loss this week
was Earl Watson, not Vin Baker." From Frank Hughes of the Tacoma News
Tribune: "Now, the Celtics have relieved the basketball fans of the
Northwest of one of their biggest scapegoats and punching bags . . . And
the happiest man around? (Jim) McIlvaine, who is now firmly ensconced
in second place as the team's worst dollar-for-dollar experiment." From
Art Thiel of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer: "His mammoth contract is so
burdensome that the Sonics must accept the
Celtics' detritus and smile about it. If the
Celtics
wanted to throw in baked beans that expired four years ago, the Sonics
would be moved to suggest that a little microwaving will fix anything,
and would take a second bowl." Now you know why Baker used words like
"elated" and "ecstatic" to explain his feelings about the trade. In
terms of bad guys in Seattle history, he fell somewhere between Ted
Bundy and Brian Bosworth . . . The Sonics, meanwhile, may be in danger
of losing Rashard Lewis, their marquee free agent. He is said to be
furious with Seattle's offer, which was substantially less than what he
wanted (there's a shocker) because Seattle felt it had to commit $15
million over three years to center Jerome James. Lewis was so peeved he
agreed to visit Dallas for a tour of the Cuban Country Club. The
Mavericks could only offer Lewis the midlevel exception, but Cuban is
known for taking care of his players down the road. The loss of Lewis
would be a huge blow to Seattle, which also must deal with the
obligatory contract extension demand (for next season and beyond) from
Payton . . . King mentioned that the luxury tax, not the salary cap, is
the number that has everyone spooked. Not one team has meaningful cap
room. The Bulls? Even if they renounced Charles Oakley ($10.9 million)
and Travis Best ($6.7 million) they'd be at $39 million, or a little
more than $1 million under the cap. The Clippers won't have cap room as
long as restricted free agent Michael Olowokandi's $10 million is on the
books. . . . Nets assistant Eddie Jordan took full advantage of the few
teams that inquired about his services and wrangled a new deal with the
Nets which, sources say, is worth $1.5 million over two years, a
megadeal for an NBA assistant. Geez, maybe that's enough to convince
Byron Scott that it would be OK for Jordan to talk to the media next
season . . . Chauncey Billups got just about everything he wanted from
the Pistons: the promise of a starting job, a maximum salary out of the
midlevel slot ($4.5 million for the first year), and some security (six
years) for a guy who will be on his sixth team in six seasons. But one
thing he could not get: No. 4. The Pistons retired that in honor of the
man who arranged Billups's signing: basketball boss Joe Dumars. Billups
has worn No. 4 most of his career, but will instead settle for No. 1
with the Pistons. To give you an idea of how quickly and efficiently the
Pistons moved, Billups was contacted by 14 teams. He visited one - the
Pistons . . . As good as Billups's deal was, and in this climate, it's a
big one, you also have to like the five-year deal Pat Garrity got from
Orlando. Five years? My guess is he would have jumped at one year with a
team option . . . The Suns, who are young and rebuilding, dipped into
the veteran free agent pool for Scott Williams, in whom a lot of teams
expressed interest. One major reason for the Williams signing: his
experience and locker room demeanor. "It became very clear that Scott
stood above a lot of players out there with the same kind of experience
because of the type of person and character that he is," said Suns
honcho Bryan Colangelo. "There is not a person that I've talked to that
doesn't have something very positive to say about Scott and what kind of
influence he can have on a locker room and on a team." In a strange
twist, Williams and his wife had just bought a home in the Phoenix area,
following Williams's in-laws, who had retired to the area. They closed
on the house and then Williams took a veteran minimum offer (around $1
million) to stay at home and play for the Suns.
