Both Robert Bonnette and I have expressed our thoughts on the impact of some NBA players leaving for greener pastures in Europe. While our opinions on the impact of these defections vary somewhat, in my opinion, there is a root cause for these player's decisions. It is the teams' emphasis on fiscal responsibility.
Josh Childress signed a contract in the area of $7-10 million dollars a year to play for Olympiacos in Greece. Bostjan Nachbar signed a contract in Russia for 3 years, $14.3 million dollar (Bostjan Nachbar is a career 7.3ppg scorer). To further drive home the point, Carlos Delfino (5ppg career) signed for 3 years, $13.5 million and Juan Carlos Navarro signed a lucrative 5-year deal as well.
Those players, while solid relative to their roles, are not worth the same amount of money in the NBA. To paraphrase an Atlanta Hawks representative, if they were to pay Josh Childress the money that he getting in Greece, they would be ripped to shreds by the national media and would further handcuff themselves in making any other sensible moves.
It goes without saying that Carlos Delfino, a guy who struggled to beat out a Jason Kapono (solid but average NBA player) for minutes in Toronto, would never get (nor is he worth) a average of $10 million dollars a year in the NBA.
Free agents such as Josh Smith, Luol Deng, Andre Iguodala, Ben Gordon, and Emeka Okafor remain on the market and teams are being cautious with each of them. I do not blame them at all. It is fiscally responsible not to pay a guy for the sake of paying him. None of these remaining free agents are considered upper echelon players in the NBA.
In fact, if memory serves me correctly, none of these players has even made an all-star team or an all-NBA team of any sort. (Correct me if I'm wrong). Yet, their agents continue to push for upwards of $10 million dollars in annual salary.
Josh Smith, for all his talent, is not a guy for whom the Hawks should break the bank. He is a great athlete who had a good year on a 37-win team. Do you pay a guy $10 + million a year who isn't the go-to-guy on your team and who helped lead the Hawks to a 37 win season? I say no. But the Hawks have to balance: (a) overpaying a guy to keep him from other teams against; (b) offering him what they see is his market value and alienating the player.
Emeka Okafor is a solid big, but he is limited offensively and has been somewhat injury prone in his young career. Do you give him the money he is seeking? Overpaying Josh Smith or any of the other free agents means that you are stuck paying a guy who is a franchise level guy out of fear. It is a delicate balance but one that a team must assess appropriately. So I do not blame anyone for taking the money in Europe or for trying to get the money that they feel they deserve.
However, the great teams make smart fiscal decisions. For Charlotte, Chicago, and Philly; their decisions can have positive or negative ramifications for years to come. Let's hope they make the right decisions.
I am going next