The Real Geniuses of the NBA

The NBA trade deadline is less than 2 days away and the rumors are fast and furious.

Amare Stoudemire to the Cavs?  To the Heat?

Antwan Jamison to the Cavs?

T-Mac to the Knicks or the Bulls?

Andre Iguodala to the Cavs?  Suns, maybe?  Celtics?

But the buzz word here is expiring contracts, not the big names involved.  The NBA's trade deadline always brings alot more excitement than the NFL but most trades are made for financial reasons.  The teams that have control of their cap space can essentially leverage their good standing and exploit the have nots.  Every year at this time, teams that want to improve their finances--whether it be positioning for free agency or avoiding the luxury tax, attempt to pick up expiring contracts--money that won't be on the books after the season's end.  For example, the Knicks are trying to pick up expiring contracts so at the end of the year, they have less and less financial obligations so they can lure in Lebron James & Co.  Likewise, the Suns do this charade all the time to avoid luxury taxes.  Teams in position to win like the Cavaliers, Celtics, etc--who have their books in order, can exploit the situation and pick up some talent.  That's why the trades are so lopsided--talent has alot less to do with it than cash money.

The real interesting part is that the owners who trade for the expiring contracts to clear up cap space--always end up using their newfound financial flexibility to overpay players. Whether it is giant maximum contracts like $20M/yr to Rashard Lewis or $5.5M/yr to fringe players like Luke Walton.  The owners are their own worst enemies.  They give away talent thinking they will get better value in the future, and then almost always end up making things even worse.  The classic example is Detroit, who hustled out All-Star Chauncey Billups for AI's expiring contract, and then ended up paying $95M to Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva--2 bench players.  Detroit screwed themselves for a long time and in a few years will undoubtedly be heavily shopping Gordon and Villaneuva's expiring contracts. 

It is not a stretch to say that the GMs and owners throwing around the cash have no clue what they are doing, otherwise Desagana Diop wouldn't be making over $6.5M/yr.  But I am very happy for the players--they are absolutely within their right to milk the system, as long as it lasts.  They are shopped around like chattel and canned at the convenience of the owners.  After all, Gilbert Arenas's weapons charges are conveniently being used by the Washington Wizards in attempts to terminate his $96M contract.  I don't think the Pollin family (owners of the Wizards) could have dreamed of a better scenario than Arenas pulling out his six-shooter in the MCI Arena locker room.