Teams getting the most (and least) bang for the buck

[BDodgers at aol.com]

Weekly Countdown
Teams getting the most (and least) bang for the buck
This season alone, players are  receiving more than $2 billion in league 
salaries (the exact total being  $2,048,860,079, according to official NBA payroll 
 figures).

 
This money is dispersed among 469 players (including 18  who didn't play in a 
game this season), from the $23,751,934 million that  the Celtics are paying 
to Kevin Garnett, to the $8,088 the  Cavaliers paid to Hassan Adams and Darius 
Rice before  waiving them in the preseason. In total, the players' earnings 
are greater  than the gross domestic product of Liechtenstein ($1.79 billion), 
Liberia  ($1.49 billion), Monaco ($976 million) and 42 other known countries,  
republics or regions, according to the 2008 CIA World Factbook. 
Here are a few ways of looking at how that money is being  spent: 
5 Most efficient franchises
What is the price of winning? Try dividing each team's  payroll by the number 
of wins. 
Many teams perform this exercise at the end of the regular  season to see if 
they spent their money efficiently. With two weeks left  in the season, I have 
forecast the final win total for each team based on  its winning percentage 
as of Wednesday morning. This isn't a perfect  formula -- it doesn't account 
for luxury-tax payments, for example -- but  it gives a sense for the different 
strategies of each team and how those  plans paid off this season. 
5. Boston Celtics, $1.15 million per win. The  Celtics took on a huge 
financial risk when they committed to paying  Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen a 
combined $56 million  this season. Their $74.5 million payroll hikes them over 
the luxury-tax  threshold of $67.9 million, but the resulting increase in 
ticket sales and  the extra home dates in the playoffs will more than compensate. 
As you'll  see from other teams detailed in this week's Countdown, it's not 
enough to  lay out big piles of cash -- the Celtics have also spent  wisely. 
T-4. Orlando Magic, $1.14 million per win. Their  six-year, $112 million 
gamble on Rashard Lewis (18.4 points, 5.4  rebounds) won't create pressure on 
their overall payroll until next  season, when Dwight Howard's salary more than 
doubles to $13  million. For this season the Magic ($58.1 million payroll) are 
cashing in  on the surprising improvement of Hedo Turkoglu (a relative bargain  
at $6.4 million) and the cost-effective play of point guard Jameer  Nelson, 
though the perspective on him will change next year when his  salary jumps to 
$7.6 million from its current $2 million. 
T-4. Detroit Pistons, $1.14 million per win. The  Spurs of the East continue 
to benefit from financial discipline. The best  players make the most money, 
there isn't a bad contract on the roster, and  they remain under the luxury tax 
at $67.1 million. The Pistons are  preparing for the future by developing an 
inexpensive, young bench led by  Rodney Stuckey, Jason Maxiell, Arron Afflalo 
and  Amir Johnson, who are making a total of $7.2 million this season.  The 
next big decision won't come up until 2009, when Rasheed  Wallace (currently 
getting $12.5 million) will be a free agent as a  34-year-old. 
2. Utah Jazz, $1.12 million per win. Maybe  Andrei Kirilenko is overpaid at 
$13.7 million, but he's also a  full-court game-changer capable of making the 
big defensive plays in the  postseason. Carlos Boozer ($11.6 million) and 
Mehmet Okur  ($9 million) have turned out to be worthy of their salaries, and the 
Jazz  ($60.7 million payroll) get important contributions from Matt  Harpring 
($6 million) and Kyle Korver ($4.6 million). Issues  will arise by 2009 when 
Utah must contemplate new deals for Deron  Williams, Ronnie Brewer and Paul 
Millsap, who are  working on relatively cheap rookie contracts. 
1. New Orleans Hornets, $1.11 million per win.  Owner George Shinn has made 
big investments over the last two years  and look how they've paid off: David 
West ($10.7 million) has  turned into an All-Star while Peja Stojakovic ($11.7 
million) has  recovered from back surgery to join Tyson Chandler ($10.3 
million)  as key contributors to the Western Conference front-runners. The  
short-term beauty of the payroll is the $3.6 million rookie-contract  salary of team 
leader and MVP candidate Chris Paul. His command of  a maximum salary within 
two years may force the Hornets to unload one of  their big contracts. But who 
knows the future for Paul or the Hornets  themselves in New Orleans? Much can 
change in two years, but for the time  being no team is realizing more 
production from its payroll ($63.1  million) than the Hornets. 
4 Most wasteful franchises
4. Minnesota Timberwolves, $3.05 million per win.  In their post-KG makeover, 
the Wolves ($64.1 million payroll) this season  are accountable for $24 
million in salaries to a half-dozen players who  are no longer with the franchise 
(including Eddie Griffin, who died  in August at age 25). Though Minnesota 
negotiated buyout reductions on  some of those contracts, they are examples of a 
franchise that has wasted  a lot of money over the years. They can, however, 
realize plenty of cap  space in 2009 after the commitments to Antoine Walker 
($9.1 million  next season) and Greg Buckner ($4 million) expire along with the  
phantom contracts of Juwan Howard and Troy Hudson. One more  year of 
reclamation before the new era can begin.  
3. Seattle SuperSonics, $3.18 million per win.  Disagree with their methods, 
but at least the Sonics have a plan. They  have dealt away assets and taken on 
short-term salary while accruing a  pair of No. 1 picks in each of the next 
three NBA drafts. The goal is to  build a winning program from the ground up 
around Kevin Durant.  Their $60.4 million payroll drops to $48.4 million next 
season (not  including their upcoming rookie salaries) and in 2009 they could 
have  space to sign a max free agent. At which time we'll learn if a star can be 
 recruited to live and play in Oklahoma City. 
2. New York Knicks, $4.33 million per win. The big  surprise is that the 
Knicks are no longer the league's most profligate  franchise. Their payroll is 
$10.1 million less than the league-leading  $105.4 million of the Dallas 
Mavericks, and in 2009-10 the Knicks'  commitments drop to a manageable $63 million as 
Stephon Marbury  comes off the books. There is still plenty of waste in the 
redundant  salaries paid to low-post scorers Eddy Curry ($8.9 million this  
season) and Zach Randolph ($13.3 million), along with Quentin  Richardson ($8.1 
million), Malik Rose ($7.1 million), Jared  Jeffries ($5.6 million) and 
especially Jerome James ($5.8  million), who is in a useless category of his own. New 
team president  Donnie Walsh doesn't need to get rid of all of them; if he 
can  clear out some of the fat while rebuilding around a rookie like Derrick  
Rose or Michael Beasley, the Knicks can show quick improvement  without having 
to start over from scratch. 
1. Miami Heat, $5.39 million per win. The Heat are  paying $75.5 million in 
payroll for this? Of course, things would look  more promising if Dwyane Wade 
and Alonzo Mourning were  healthy in combination with Shawn Marion, who arrived 
in the  midseason trade that dislodged Shaquille O'Neal's contract ($21  
million annually through 2009-10). If you view their current disaster as a  
consequence of their all-out investment to win the 2006 championship, then  this 
season is a small price to pay. The question is whether they can  limit the 
damage to one year. Next season they'll owe more than $40  million alone to Wade, 
Marion and Mark Blount. They must turn their  high draft pick into a star and 
bring Wade back to good health in order to  show big improvement in 2008-09. 
Depending on how they deal with Marion's  expiring $17.8 million salary next 
season (assuming he doesn't opt out  this summer), they could have major cap 
space in 2009. But it's not like  Pat Riley to wait so long. Expect an aggressive 
strategy  ASAP. 
3 Questions rescued from the spam
Taking a break from the money issue for our weekly  response to reader 
concerns. 
3. I think it's abhorrent how Pat Riley has bailed on  his team AGAIN this 
year to go on his prolonged "scouting trip." First he  steals the coaching job 
from Stan Van Gundy to grab a title, then when the  Heat wither and age and 
start to lose, he gets hip surgery in the middle  of the season to avoid facing 
up to his personnel decisions. Now this.  Riley should be held accountable. At 
this point he doesn't even seem to  care how slimy and underhanded he appears.
-- Chris, Claremont,  N.H. 
A lot of people share your feelings about Riley's recent  meanderings. The 
most common complaint is that Riley as a coach complains  loudly when he doesn't 
get full effort from his players, yet he also finds  ways to refresh his 
energy by leaving his team during the  season. 
On the other hand, he has turned Miami into a winner over  the last decade, 
and there are many franchises that would put up with his  occasional absences 
in exchange for the championship he delivered two  years ago. 
A note of warning about Riley's scouting trips: Some of  the biggest mistakes 
in the draft are made when a team depends on the  judgments of a top-level 
executive who doesn't start paying attention  until the NCAA tournament. It 
makes no sense to make decisions based on a  couple of performances, whether good 
or bad. Riley should be wise enough  to avoid this blunder, but if he 
ultimately relies on a few personal  observations to overrule the judgments of his 
scouting staff that has been  following these young players for several years, 
then his decision to  attend the college tournaments could imperil, rather than 
enhance, his  team's future. 
2. I keep hearing the Knicks need to unload Eddy Curry  and Zach Randolph to 
clear cap space, but why would any sane GM take  either of those guys and 
their blotted contracts? I doubt any team is  looking to do them any favors.
-- Cameron, West Covina,  Calif. 
Players can always be traded. The huge contracts of  Larry Hughes, Ben 
Wallace, Jason Kidd, Mike  Bibby, Shawn Marion, Pau Gasol and Shaquille  O'Neal were 
all traded before the February deadline. The Mavericks  found a way to trade 
Keith Van Horn and award him $4.2 million in  the process, and he wasn't even 
playing. There was a time when Juwan  Howard was seen as the most overpaid 
player in the league, and his  contract was moved more than once. 
The key for New York will be to raise the value of one or  both players 
before trading them. The best example of this came when  Portland temporarily 
salvaged the career of Isaiah Rider before  unloading him in 1999 to Atlanta, where 
he destroyed the Hawks like a worm  virus eating through a computer network. 
The Blazers received Steve  Smith, who helped lead them to the conference 
finals. 
1. Um, what year is your advance scout looking at when  he debates Chris Paul 
for MVP? The Cavs went 0-6 (not 6-2) without LeBron  James in the lineup this 
year, which would seem to invalidate every prior  word he made in regards to 
the Cavs being competitive without LeBron in  comparison to the Hornets 
without Paul. If that's the knowledge of an  advance scout, I fear for the team he 
works for.
-- Jonathan,  Queens, N.Y.  
That one is my fault. I was interviewing the scout by  phone while he was 
boarding an airplane. I could hear him handing his  boarding pass at the gate and 
squeezing down the aisle and trying to place  his luggage in the overhead bin 
all the while he was talking to me, nice  guy that he is. That misstatement 
about James' value was one sentence in  the middle of a 10-minute conversation, 
and I could tell he was distracted  at that moment. I made a note to myself 
to ignore that bit of erroneous  information -- then by accident I included it 
in the final  copy. 
Now somebody is going to write back and say that I  shouldn't be depending on 
information from people when they can't give  their full attention. The truth 
is, everybody is so busy that you take  conversations when you can get them. 
I've talked to players while they  wore headphones or were playing video 
games. I've talked to coaches on  their cell phones while they were driving. This 
is one of the top scouts  in the league and he was trying to do three things at 
once, and the fault  was mine for not properly editing out his mistake in a 
rare moment of  confusion. 
2 Vastly Different teams
2. All-Matt Geiger Team. In honor of the former  Philadelphia center, who 
played 154 games for the 76ers after they signed  him to a six-year, $48 million 
contract in 1999. Geiger retired because of  degenerative arthritis in both 
knees. These players didn't play a minute  for these teams this year, but their 
salaries remained on the salary-cap  books because they negotiated buyouts or 
they were waived outright as part  of the 2005 luxury-tax amnesty. 
C Adonal Foyle, Warriors $5,765,397 (buyout)
F  Chris Webber, 76ers $18,015,556 (buyout)
F Jerome  Williams, Knicks $7,639,400 (amnesty)
G Michael Finley,  Mavericks $17,363,124 (amnesty)
G Steve Francis, Trail Blazers  $13,300,333 (buyout)
Total: $62,083,810 
1. All-Grant Hill team. In honor of the Phoenix  forward, who at $1.8 million 
is one of the best bargains in the league  this season. 
So I wondered: Could I assemble a reputable lineup for  less than the Suns 
are paying Hill? I did -- thanks to inexpensive  midseason signings and rookie 
contracts for non-first-rounders. The savior  was Brent Barry's return to San 
Antonio on a short-term deal after  being waived by the Sonics. 
C Theo Ratliff, Pistons $199,452
F Paul  Millsap, Jazz $687,456
F Jamario Moon, Raptors $427,163
G  Brent Barry, Spurs $179,351
G Sam Cassell, Celtics  $203,985
Total: $1,697,407 
1 Costly comparison
1. The Rich vs The Poor. In this league you don't  necessarily get what you 
pay for ... 
Here are the five most expensive payrolls this season and  the anticipated 
win total for each of those teams. 
5. Miami Heat, $75.5 million, 14 wins
4. Cleveland  Cavaliers, $81.5 million, 45 wins
3. Denver Nuggets $82.7 million, 50  wins
2. New York Knicks $95.3 million, 22 wins
1. Dallas Mavericks  $105.4 million, 51 wins
Averages: $88.1 million, 36.4  wins 
Here are the five least expensive payrolls this season and  the anticipated 
win total for each of those teams. 
30. Memphis Grizzlies, $53.4 million, 21 wins
29.  Charlotte Bobcats, $54.2 million, 31 wins
28. Atlanta Hawks, $56.0  million, 38 wins
27. Orlando Magic, $58.1 million, 51 wins
26.  Golden State Warriors, $59.3 million, 50 wins
Averages: $56.2  million, 38.2  wins





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