When Luke Dončić was traded by Dallas Mavericks at Lakers, it was a great shock. Dončić, widely considered one of the best young players in the NBA, was expected to stay in Dallas, but the close cost of a $ 345 million -dollar contract – plus a network of restrictions on how many teams can pay to keep players – led to his departure.
“Being at that level of salary and investing in it comes with all these penalties in terms of what you can do with your list,” said Jordan Sargent, who wrote about the NBA funding for the Atlantic.
Marketplace host Kai Rysdal spoke with Sargent about his story. Below is a transcript of their conversation, capturing how the concept of “Moneyball” has influenced the NBA.
Jordan Sargent: NBA is a covered sport. It has a salary cap and a luxury tax and some other aspects that prevent, limit or stimulate teams to avoid spending as much money as possible. And so things can become very complicated, and you do not need to know more statistical basketball sports conditions. You need to understand the aspects of the salary lid and the aspects of the economy in ways you have simply made as a casual fan in previous sports ages.
Kai Rysdal: You talk about the collective negotiation agreement, the 676-page CBA-and what it has done for it, as you mentioned, the salary lid and everything. And she has made the draft of the type of kind of goods in today’s NBA. Talk a little about it.
Sargent: But you know, NBA, like all the main sports, artificially deflects rookies wages as teams pay their best players a lot of money. You know, you are playing a Lebron James, $ 50 million or $ 60 million a year. It becomes very valuable if you can have good players in artificially free contracts. You know, you see in many trade these days, five, six choices in a trade per player.
Rysdal: How did a boy of music and art come about with this story?
Sargent: I will tell you. I’m a basketball fan. I hear a lot of podcast, I read a lot about basketball, and I just noticed a change over the years how often you were listening to CBA and for which team could do what because of this salary cap, or they can’t trade this choice. You know, I’m a fan of Miami Heat. Can What Miami Heat Trade? This is not something I can just tell you from the top of the head.
Rysdal: You know, it’s so interesting. You said, “what” can trade instead of “who” can trade.
Sargent: Exactly, exactly. And this is because teams do not necessarily see it as “who”. These days, it’s more “what” what does it mean what choice you have, which wealth? One of the things they have created in their structure, you know that other sports is not this idea of paying salary-you mean, if you trade a player who makes $ 10 million and should return a player or group of players who are equal to that amount of money.
Rysdal: Is this rule, really? What a dumb rule.
Sargent: And they actually make it even closer this year. You know, you start to have these very tight ways of crossing for two teams to make a deal because you have to match all these things.
Rysdal: I would ask you, just like the dream, if there is a way for the connection to come out of this place where the project choices have become a commodity. But really, is this a bad thing for the league, and should they come out of it?
Sargent: I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing, though there are many concerns now about something that was recently created in the newest CBA that imposes even tougher penalties –
Rysdal: So wait, are they connecting with more nodes?
Sargent: 100%, yes. And, you know, the most shocking trade indeed, certainly in the history of NBA – which only recently developed when Luke Dončić was traded in Lakers – the reasoning Mavericks DHA was that they did not want to give Luke the most expensive contract in the history of NBA, which he would receive and would go because they were worried about his body. And being at that level of salary and investing in it comes with all these fines in terms of what you can do with your list. Otherwise, your choices are artificially sent to the end of the draft. There are all these penalties for spending the amount of money they thought they would have to spend to keep it. I think there is a lot of uncertainty from the perspective of fans, the media and the team for what it means to build a basketball team and keep the best players in sports when you know they are bringing the hammer in different ways in teams that spend a lot of money.
There are many things that happen in the world. Through all, the marketplace is here for you.
You rely on the market to disrupt the events of the world and show you how it affects you in a fact based on facts, approachable. We rely on your financial support to continue making it possible.
Your donation today empowers the independent journalism you rely on. For just $ 5 a month, you can help keep the market in order to continue reporting on things that matter.