Good read about how the win now attitude has over leveraged several NBA teams.
Hollinger: In a suddenly win-now NBA, what happens later?
https://theathletic.com/2774991/2021/08/17/hollinger-in-a-suddenly-win-now-nba-what-happens-later/
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Imagine, if you will, the 2024-25 NBA season:
A 37-year-old Steph Curry is suited up for Golden State, making $52.6M, and still having a year left on his deal.
A 33-year-old Paul George is a Clipper, making $49 million. Lining up next to him, a 32-year-old Kawhi Leonard also making $49 million; by then there’s a good chance he will have inked a five-year extension that pays him 8 percent raises until age 35.
In Portland (OK, maybe not in Portland, but humor me), a 34-year-old Damian Lillard is raking in $49 million.
In Milwaukee, a 34-year-old Jrue Holiday is making $38 million with incentives that could take him to $40 million.
In Miami, a 35-year-old, balky-kneed Jimmy Butler will be making $48 million … and still having a year left on his deal.
The Lakers could very well be paying a 40-year-old LeBron James north of $50 million that season. L.A. can also look forward to a 2022-23 campaign where a 38-year-old James makes $45 million and a 34-year-old Russell Westbrook makes $47 million.
And in Brooklyn, a 36-year-old Kevin Durant is pulling down $51 million; if and when James Harden and Kyrie Irving extend their deals, they’ll take in about $100 million more between them. Those three will be a combined 104 years old and their contracts alone may be enough to put Brooklyn in the luxury tax.
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It’s not just the contracts either; most of the teams above have also surrendered most or all of their draft capital:
Brooklyn owes a first or a pick swap to Houston in the next six drafts.
The Clippers owe three firsts and two pick swaps to the Thunder.
The Lakers are out two firsts and a pick swap to New Orleans; devilishly, the Pels can defer an unprotected 2024 pick to 2025.
Miami owes a pick swap (likely with Brooklyn’s pick) in 2022, has no pick in 2023 and has traded virtually all its seconds too.
Golden State owes a very lightly protected first to Memphis in 2024, right at the time the Warriors may crater from their age and cap situation.
Milwaukee owes three firsts and two pick swaps as a result of two trades, plus they Bogdanned themselves out of a 2022 second.
Utah, who will have a 32-year-old Rudy Gobert making $43 million in that 2024-25 season, owes a 2022 first to Memphis and has burned through nearly all its seconds.
At least those teams are contenders who either already have rings or can reasonably claim to be positioned for it. But the same thing is happening further down the food chain. Teams like Chicago and Minnesota both surrendered 2021 lottery picks in a chase for maybe getting into the Play-In Tournament; New Orleans has lots of draft equity from trading Holiday and Anthony Davis, but seems intent on squandering a good chunk of it for their own pyrrhic chase for the eighth seed. New York and Sacramento have avoided this fate so far but are seemingly champing at the bit to join them.