Trade & FA 2023-24: Stein-Ingram Trade Inevitable| LAL Want Lebron Back On Any Terms

[F Gump]

Most folks are presuming at minimum 4/55 or so.

That may be true. But if we get away from the rose-colored glasses on him, and look at players with his type of game, even 4/55 is incredibly rich. In relation to what he's worth, look at Thybulle (10.5M). Or Caruso at 9.5M. Batum at 11.7M. And so on.

The reality of the new CBA economics is forcing teams to abandon the "everyone half-good gets a max" mentality and take a hard look at how much a player really offers and how he can fit into a division of limited payroll. If he gives you 9M of production, you CAN'T pay him 14M or so, because you just can't afford it. Hello, loyal hard-working class citizen Powell at 4M, not the (obviously bloated) MLE+ numbers of before. Bye-bye to Theo the Cheerleader, soaking up 2-3M of payroll but adding nothing on the floor. "Most folks" assumed Kyrie wouldn't accept any deal under 200M, and we see how that ended up.

Once they hit the end of their first contract, I think the days of paying for what you only hope a player can do are probably over. It seems to me we are more likely to see teams paying for what they know he can do based on what he has done, and assess versus how it much will cost to sign someone different.