AROUND the NBA: Pat Bev Suspended 4 Games Next Season| PHX Fires Vogel

[audiosway]

"The Warriors literally do not care about the luxury tax." .... While I agree with your general premise above (that the Warriors revenues make the tax less onerous to them), respectfully I don't think the specific statement here is accurate at all.

I would say they do care - at a certain level. And I would wager that the numbers we were envisioning earlier (HALF A BILLION in tax, and total player pay incl tax of about $750 MILLION) were FAR beyond their ability to stomach.

The growth in franchise value? That impresses on paper, but it isn't really the game-changer it seems, when the ownership isn't selling the team. They expect to also make the annual bottom line (revenues minus cost to generate it) work too, as a general rule, in order to allow the owners to personally profit year-to-year from their business's success (the huge revenue streams) AND keep the franchise. While they do want the franchise value to grow, they also want to be kings now, not merely create huge asset value for some heir to reap some day.

To that point, I do think that the AW contract at less-than-max will help to that end, but that they still will opt to shrink more.

While there is some truth to what you are saying I still don't think they care about the tax as much as people think. They know that right now they have a window to win. They know that more titles brings more money. The craziest part is that even with expenses they are still making a profit.

There is too much money in the bay area going toward the Warriors for that not to be the case. Current projection for team salary plus luxury tax for this coming season puts GS at $483 million total holding at 12 players signed. With them pulling in revenue last season at just over $700 million it will likely put them at $700-$800 million in revenue this season. There is a good chance they hit $500 million in payroll and taxes this season. They look like they are going for titles to close out Steph's career. Lacob's group bought the team in 2010 for $450 million. It's now worth $5.6 Billion. Pretty good investment I would say.

As far as the Mavs competing with the Warriors financially they just can't. Sure, Dallas can still sell out the arena and all that. But, the fans in Dallas can't rabidly fork out thousands to go see games. In most cases it would be cheaper for me to fly to Dallas and watch them play GS. I would end up with better seats too. If I were to go I'd likely just drive to Sacramento and watch the Mavs there. Those tickets are cheaper also.

The Warriors are just tied in with all of that Silicon Valley money. It's similar to NY and LA. I'm sure Cuban can spend more than he is. But, not like the Warriors can. He wouldn't be able to keep the team for long if he did. I think he figured that out after spending so much early on as an owner.