MONEY AND CHAMPIONSHIP

by matrix7 on Jun 2, 2010 4:28 AM MST

Two of the highest payroll teams in the league are Lakers and Celtics. What does this mean? Is necesary to spend a lot money to have any chance of being champion? Probably yes, but you have to spend well, not like the Knicks.

I believe that when a businessman or a business group buys a team, do it because: a) is a fan 2) have much money 3) wants to win a championship. I don’t think they are thinking about making money; although I may be wrong.

What are the sources of revenue for the teams? Ticket sales, advertising, merchandising, etc. One of the most important sources of income during a season has to be playoff games.

This season the Suns have played eight home playoff games. If they had made the finals, it would be 10-11 games. How much money are we talking about? 20 m $? 30 m $? 40 m $? I do not know, if anybody knows, be free to say it.

What do I mean by this? I mean that teams can have a payroll above the salary cap and pay luxury tax, because they will have extra income in playoff and thus may balance the books and not have deficits.

Following this line of argument the Suns should sign a quality free agent to have a serious chance of being champion, regardless of the money spent.

What free agents the Suns might be interested? Wade and Bosh. Wade for obvious reasons and Bosh if we cann’t reach an agreement to extend Amare.

How much worth Stat? 5-6 years / 100-110 m $?

How much worth Bosh? 5-6 years / 90-100 m $?

We currently have eight players under contract: JRich-Nash-Barbosa-Hill-Clark-Dragic-Robin-Dudley. Their payroll is $ 42,984,529 m

We must try to trade Barbosa to any team for a 1st round pick. Minnesota? Raptors?

We can also make an effort to sign Frye. 4 years / 15 to 16 m $?

Then we have: 42984529 m$ - Barbosa + Frye = 39.884.529 m$ in 8 players.

+ Amare or Bosh (18-20 m$) + Wade (18-20 m$) = 75.884.529 or 79.884.529 m$ in 10 players.

+ Dwayne Jones in the place of Lou (100.000 $) + the 1st pick get in the trade of Barbosa = 12 players and a payroll of 76-80 m$ .

And what is more important: a real great team

Starters: Nash-Wade-Hill-Amare/Bosh-Robin

Off the bench: Dragic-JRich-Dudley-Frye-Jones

+ Clark + 1st pick

Thinking that the payroll this year was 75.3 million m $, doesn’t seem a bad operation to try to sign two free agents (Amare / Bosh and Wade).

We can also use JRich to strengthen the team with a pivot: someone tall and good rebounder and a bench player for the SG position. In short, there are many possibilities, but it all starts with wanting to spend money.

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Comments

The problem is that we're not allowed to do what you suggest

There is a Collective Bargaining Agreement in place that prevents it.

The Suns have 2 options:
1) resign Amare, and then have ONLY $5 to spend on players not already under contract. That’s 5 total million to re-sign (if they choose) Frye and Lou. That’s it. The system doesn’t allow them to go further
2) Sign-and-trade Amare for similar contract. This could get us Wade or Bosh, but that would only be IN PLACE OF Amare
3) Let Amare go. Because of the contracts on this team, we would only have about 7 million to spend. Once you are below the salary cap, you are ONLY allowed to spend up to the cap. You cannot go over. Teams can only go over when re-signing their own players, or using the MLE ($5 mill) and every-other-year $2 mill exceptions.

Really, this is why more teams aren’t signing players like crazy, because they’re not allowed. The league tried to limit monopolies.

The way around this is to draft well, and re-sign your own players to whatever you want. The Lakers got to the cap with other teams’ players (Gasol, Fisher), then re-signed a number of current players to bigger contracts which blew their salary up as high as it is (Vujacic, Odom, Kobe, Bynum, etc).

Again, the key is drafting well and acquiring the right players before you have to extend those good young stars. Kerr is on his way by drafting well. By the time he needs to extend Lopez/Dragic/Clark, he will have the rest of the team in stable position for many years of contention.

Twitter: @dahking
Too late to change the stupid twitter name. Did it as a joke to my teenager, but now I'm hooked on the news-feed aspect of twitter.

by Alex Laugan on Jun 2, 2010 6:42 AM MST reply actions

I guess I meant 3 options. LOL

Twitter: @dahking
Too late to change the stupid twitter name. Did it as a joke to my teenager, but now I'm hooked on the news-feed aspect of twitter.

by Alex Laugan on Jun 2, 2010 6:43 AM MST up reply actions

However, if I remember correctly

There is a provision of some sort that allows the team to go over the salary cap if they are spending that money on their own free agents. So according to your numbers, we would have 5 mil to spend on other free agents, but could go over the salary cap restrictions to resign Lou and/or Frye.

That’s why people always talk about exchanging Amare for someone else wouldn’t work because we couldn’t go over the cap to sign them since they are our own free agent. And it’s the reason that we could go over to resign Amare.

by NVSunsFan on Jun 2, 2010 2:06 PM MST up reply actions

I don't think so (regarding Lou and Frye specifically)

I know we can spend whatever on Amare, but there’s something diff about Lou and Frye.

We had to use some of the $5 MLE to resign Grant Hill last year. I think it has to do with length of service (the Bird rule?). not really sure, but I was surprised at the time that some of the MLE had to go to our own resigning of Grant.

Twitter: @dahking
Too late to change the stupid twitter name. Did it as a joke to my teenager, but now I'm hooked on the news-feed aspect of twitter.

by Alex Laugan on Jun 2, 2010 6:36 PM MST up reply actions

by the way

The Suns don’t need huge improvement to make the Finals. The Lakers have a dominant players and excellent supporting cast and are in their 3rd Finals in a row. Yet the Suns very nearly took them down. Game 5 was that pivotal.

Next year, we can count on improvement from Dragic, Lopez and Clark which will make the team better already. Count in some minor roster tweaks, and I think Kerr will have us in better position – which bodes very well for the playoffs.

Twitter: @dahking
Too late to change the stupid twitter name. Did it as a joke to my teenager, but now I'm hooked on the news-feed aspect of twitter.

by Alex Laugan on Jun 2, 2010 6:46 AM MST reply actions 1 recs

Unless we lose STAT to free agency, then all bets are off...

We would need a force to replace him..With the dynamics of the NBA landscape, I am not sure we could make that happen…David Lee would probably be the best we could get, assuming we could pawn LB off on someone and we flip a coin over who we keep between Frye & Amundson….

"The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can and slap the crap out of him before he figures out you are there...."

- me into a mental stupor after forgetting the rest of Ulysses S. Grant's speech....

by Daryl Ray on Jun 2, 2010 7:53 AM MST up reply actions

Trade LB for a draft pick (13-24)

Resign Lou, drop Frye and draft someone who can play D and shoot the three or draft a raw 7 footer. Have Dudley play some minutes at SG too, so Clark can play.
C – RoLo, (Pick?)
PF – Amare?, Lou
SF – Hill?, Clark
SG – JRich, Dudley(Pick?)
PG – Nash, Dragic

R U ORNG?

by Suns R Us on Jun 2, 2010 6:53 PM MST reply actions

If barbosa can get us a first rounder we could be ok..then trade the first rounder and J-rich to move up..minnesota needs a 2 and j-rich raised his trade value..that clears 20mil right there..plus we could get another young player and have money to sign someone…is this possible???

by marques m on Jun 2, 2010 8:18 PM MST reply actions

not really

Minnesota is never going to go for it. They do need a two but they are building for the future not for next season. Having one year of J-Rich is going to do nothing for them

by jvvenez on Jun 4, 2010 8:43 AM MST up reply actions