If there was ever a time to do a remake of the classic movie ‘Jerry Maguire’, the NBA summers of 2016 and 2017 would be the perfect time frame for the movie to get a reboot.
There will be agents and players aplenty clamoring for teams to ‘show them the money’.
Two players that can command some money without really doing much of anything in their careers to this point could be two big men who have different styles of play in the NBA.
Festus Ezeli from the Golden State Warriors is a big man who has some interior defensive skill but his offensive abilities are questionable. He’s reluctant to catch a crisp pass from Stephen Curry and he has yet to develop any kind of serious post moves to speak of. He can finish right at the rim and he does provide some great rim protection but that’s about it.
Meyers Leonard from the Portland Trail Blazers differs from Ezeli in the sense that while his offensive game is diverse, his defense has a ton of question marks around it. Leonard is a seven-footer that can stretch out and shoot the three and he’s pretty talented on the pick and roll. He can catch a pass and use a post move or two to finish around the basket. On the flipside, his rim protection and interior defense is lacking despite the amount of effort he puts into it. He likes to go downlow and fight for boards and tries to defend the rim but something just isn’t working and he’s a negative on the defensive end.
So two players who are clearly still developing and trying to find their niche in the league are possibly going to command some big money this summer.
Zach Lowe of Grantland says that contract extensions for both Leonard and Ezeli could be higher than what their market value may have been in the past.
Don’t laugh when the Warriors re-sign Ezeli, participant in just 124 regular-season games over three injury-riddled seasons, to something like a four-year, $40 million extension this fall. Ezeli is an explosive leaper who protects the rim on defense, and his stone hands have softened just enough that he can at least catch the ball and dunk it when he’s wide open — and cram down offensive rebounds.
The Blazers have a clean cap sheet, and an extension that looks nutty now — something like three years, $21 million — might look genius in six months. Leonard’s new agents at CAA surely know this, which is why they could push for more until the Blazers just shrug and let Leonard test the market.
Then he said the following on his ‘Lowe Post’ podcast.
The execs I did talk to about Ezeli specifically talked me UP. They said four at $32 (million) is low for what’s going to happen. Now Ezeli has to prove he’s healthy and that he can stay healthy and that’s the primary obstacle to him getting that kind of extension. But those are the kind of numbers we’re going to see. Like I threw out three years, $21 million as a Meyers Leonard extension and I heard from a guy today saying ‘that might be low’, for a guy who has appeared clueless for 90% of his career.
The market value for guys like Leonard and Ezeli will go up for only one reason. The salary cap is going to sky-rocket. So players who might have made $3-4 million in the past might be doubling that salary for one reason or another.
The position they play, in this case the center position, might be so thin that the team needs the depth or a solid starter. Also, teams just need to spend their money to avoid being penalized by the NBA for not spending. If a team doesn’t hit the salary cap floor, the NBA will be penalizing them for it.
So teams like the Utah Jazz, Philadelphia 76ers who spent a majority of the season and offseason just hanging out with money to blow, they will have to somehow make up spending that money as the cap grows.
Prepare yourselves for some ridiculous contracts coming very soon.
