NBA Pay Scale 2006- The Middlings

The Middlings

This section of the Pay Scale accounts for those ballers who have definite value, just not tons of it. Make no mistake most of these cats can play, and a lot of them have a touch of star level marketability too. In fact, I pretty much based the cut off for this list at those players who are no worse than an NBA 6^th man. However whatever skills these players possess and whatever marquee value their name may carry, none of them are worth top level, possible All-Star, money. Some of these players have been overpaid; some have been underpaid. All of them are worth at least a decent offer from their team.

Just a reminder the rules are here, and be sure to read up on the Lowlights, too.

180. Mehmet Okur:

What he earned- $10.69 Million

What he was paid- $8.3 Million

What he’s worth- $1 Million

For a few years I thought Okur was undervalued as a basketball player, and the stats from 82games.com, seem to indicate as much. As much as I like the fact that a bulk, awkward white guy with a unibrow is holding his own in the Association, it’s become clear that he’s quickly losing market value. His physical prowess may have already peaked. Though he’s developed a better offensive skill set since moving to Utah, he still was clearly worth more as a big defensive body back when the rules favored a more physical game. Now that light, quick shooters who can penetrate the paint are more valuable with the current rules, it’s very likely that Mehmet will find himself spending more time on the bench as teams start picking up the new Euro players who are designed for this kind of play. It’s sad really Okur came into the NBA just as style of play changed from something he was suited for to a game that fits him about as well as Dancing with the Stars suited Tucker Carlson. Still every once in awhile teams need a big body to get some defensive stops. So I imagine Okur is still worth at least a cool mill, which is like 5.7 trillion in Turkish lira.

178. Andre Miller:

What he earned- $9.55 Million

What he was paid- $8.1 Million

What he’s worth- $1.25 Million

As a relatively productive starter, the Nuggets won’t want to part with him or offend him, for fear of upsetting the delicate nucleus they’ve formed around Melo. However it’s become pretty clear that his best is behind him, and the Nuggets would rather be focusing their money on their underpaid center piece than some overpriced role player.

170. Gerald Wallace:

What he earned- $8.84 Million

What he was paid- $5 Million

What he’s worth- $1.5 Million

Here’s a hugely underrated player. He never got a fair chance back when he played for some crowded Sacramento Kings’ teams. Then he gets shipped to Charlotte where he may have become the Bobcats’ best player. A knee injury last season hid the fact that he was blossoming both offensively and defensively. Now the Bobcats will have a hard time relying on him to make significant contributions, especially when they want to give their more marketable young stars more minutes (and money). This guy has demonstrated Scottie Pippen level promise, but he may never get a chance to fulfill it. Gerald Wallace is underpaid and underappreciated in the NBA , sadly I don’t see that changing any time soon. This is a tough pay cut for a man who deserves better.

(P.S. Keep this on the DL, but here’s hoping the Cavaliers find a way to land him, and he and LeBron get a chance to take things to that next level.)

165. Zach Randolph:

What he earned- $6.5 Million

What he was paid- $10.7 Million

What he’s worth- $1.63 Million

Randolph does still have the potential to become a gritty, tough forward. The kind of reliable vet teams can keep on the bench and depend on to eat up some minutes. At this point Portland has made it clear that’s all they expect out of him anymore. With the Trailblazers’ youth movement on the horizon, it’s clear they want a lot less of their money sunk into Randolph. Plus you have to believe that starting your career for the Jailblazers these last few years has to have been the basketball equivalent of starting high school in remedial classes. You can go onto become a decent student and that’s considered a success, but you can probably kiss your chances of becoming valedictorian goodbye.

158. Gary Payton:

What he earned- $1.02 Million

What he was paid- $1.1 Million

What he’s worth- $1.75 Million

Some of you may find this shocking, but I am calling for a pay increase for Gary Payton. That’s right. I think Gary over-the-hill, nothing-left-to-prove, bad-chemistry-guy Payton deserves more money. First remember that it’s not that much more money, only about 1/10^th of what the Knicks paid Jamal Crawford. Second, for all his supposed flaws last season he actually earned his keep and helped Miami win a championship. In my book that kind of player should get a little reward. Finally, now that Shaq’s proven all he needs to, Dwayne Wade has reached megastar status, and most of the other teammates have finally won the ring they’ve wanted for so long, complacency is bound to set in. That’s exactly why you need a cranky, unpredictable GP on your roster to keep everyone on their toes and the title defense alive.

147. Eddie Jones:

What he earned- $8.12 Million

What he was paid- $14.6 Million

What he’s worth- $2 Million

Eddie has been a useful swingman for multiple teams and can probably learn to work in a lot of different systems. However the market value for Eddie has never really matched his salary. Now that Memphis has his contract and they are absolutely swimming in capable players, I think they try and get a bargain out of a player with limited remaining shelf life and their for limited potential earning power.

132. Antoine Walker:

What he earned- $3.64 Million

What he was paid- $6.9 Million

What he’s worth- $2.25 Million

Once again I’m willing to bet the Miami Heat would agree with 82games.com that Walker has earned somewhere between $3-4 million. However I also think they will deduct serious cash for all of those bricks he throws up where even retirees in the Miami stands can tell have no prayer. Also, do you really want to cough up $4 mill for a guy who was such an after thought in the NBA finals.

99. Peja Stojakovic:

What he earned- $6.58 Million

What he was paid- $7.5 Million

What he’s worth- $2.8 Million

Here’s a player who hurt his value by moving in the off season. Peja proved his ability as a scoring threat with the Pacers then moved to New Orleans. The Hornets definitely won’t put too much money into Peja since they obviously want to focus on Chris Paul. Also, Peja could never really create his own shot, so he’ll have a hard time demonstrating his value to the team independent of Paul’s brilliant point guard play.

98. Mike James:

What he earned- $9.62 Million

What he was paid- $3.4 Million

What he’s worth- $2.85 Million

No NBA team will pay someone who’s already 31 years old and never was an All-Star caliber player, no matter how well they play. That’s the simple and sad truth that will keep Mike James from getting paid his due.

83. Delonte West:

What he earned- $7.73 Million

What he was paid- $1 Million

What he’s worth- $3.15 Million

If you’re surprised to see Delonte West rated so highly here, then that means two things. One, Bill Simmons has apparently not been endlessly piling on the love for this particular young Celtic –or, at least, I haven’t been the only one tuning him out when his Boston homerism kicks in. Second, that the Pay Scale method is doing its job by raising the profile of some players with hidden value. Here’s a great young player who’s starting to develop some killer scoring power, and only needs o improve his defense a little to become a true star. The Boston execs want to protect their promising young talent, so they’ll triple his pay, and still get him for a bargain.

80. Rashard Lewis:

What he earned- $8 Million

What he was paid- $8.6 Million

What he’s worth- $3.25 Million

This one feels a little odd placing Rashard at this point in the Pay Scale. Everything I know about statistical analysis of basketball tells me that Rashard, while dominating the traditional stats, definitely earns his keep. His skills, defense, rebounding, and presence on the court, subtly and certainly tilt many factors in favor of his team. I also know that the Seattle Sonics respect a player’s value outside of the traditional stats. They worked with the Godfather of Basketball Stats Dean Oliver after all. So I believe he deserves a higher slot. I know he won’t get a better deal because the Sonics realize most other teams won’t respect his value. They are always looking for a bargain and they’ll risk insulting Lewis to guarantee they have more money available for other players.

79. Cuttino Mobley:

What he earned- $7.62 Million

What he was paid- $7.2 Million

What he’s worth- $3.3 Million

We’ve reached kind of a sad stretch here. Mobley will be one more player I value at significantly less than both his current earnings and their objective earnings from last season, and he won’t be the last. I blame this on a few things. First, you have to remember that ownership considers current salaries to be greatly exaggerated as a result of several (in their opinion) regrettable collective bargaining agreements. Second, front offices would rather overpay top talent -because they know everyone else would shell out a lot of money for them too, if given the chance- and underpay the rest -because they know the other teams only pay top dollar for role players when they’re forced too. A lot of front office execs have a sense of how valuable these players truly are, but for many of them they couldn’t demonstrate that value with enough certainty to justify the cost to ownership. This also makes it hard for background players to demand much more during contract negotiations. Third, keep in mind the marquee players whose names sell merchandise and boost season ticket sales are going to draw bigger paychecks, because their marketability pays for a portion of their contract. If you can’t recognize a player’s face from a commercial you might as well cut $3 million off their current salary, because as far as ownership is concerned it would just be money wasted on a bad investment. Fourth, the old adage of past performance being no indicator of future success is in play here. These players may have done remarkably well last season and they’ll try and raise expectations that they can do it again next season, if the price is right. The teams however are conditioned to always limit their expectations, and lowball the offered money accordingly. After all, a great season could be the sign of a blossoming star or a fluke. Finally, this is still a zero sum game. Now team can afford to dump endless piles of money on their entire roster. So they will hold back the big money from their supporting players to save some up for the stars. Sorry to take such a detour, but I thought it was important I clarify why my Pay Scale ratings seem to devalue so many players. Anyways. . .

Cuttino Mobley has found himself on a suddenly successful team –the Los Angeles Clippers- who are trying to find ways to improve themselves that don’t seem to focus on him very much –give more minutes to young players, shy away from score first players with some habits that make them a bit unreliable. Basically Elgin Baylor has spent the last several months sending Cuttino the signal “We like you and you’re great, but we aren’t married to you or anything.” Basically they want to keep him but only at half his current capacity, so they’ll try to get him at about half price.

77. Rasheed Wallace:

What he earned- $13.59 Million

What he was paid- $10.9 Million

What he’s worth- $3.5 Million

Rasheed’s stock as a player has slowly declined after suddenly peaking with the Pistons’ championship season. His production last year largely derived from the fact that Detroit’s energy, focus, and chemistry as a team were off the charts, up until the playoffs that is. The starting rotation was playing the best team basketball Rasheed could ever hope to play in. Of course now that the Ben Wallace has left, that unit is a shell of it’s former self. I don’t know how anyone can expect ‘Sheed to replicate his performance of the last few year when he will draw the attention of the opponent’s toughest big man, and has to create space for himself in the low post. Plus, you have to consider the fact that the new rule banning players from complaining about the officials on court is sure to limit ‘Sheed’s value. He may give up as much as a third of the points he produces in cheap technicals this season. So with all these factors working against him, count on Detroit offering Rasheed a serious pay cut.

72. Caron Butler:

What he earned- $7.88 Million

What he was paid- $2.5 Million

What he’s worth- $4 Million

Butler’s one of those players who made the most of his situation and should be rightly rewarded. Forced to start the season on the bench by the Wizards, Butler really turned a corner in his career. He finally established himself as a reliable scorer and positive court presence. Since he still has multiple good years in him, he could provide Washington with a sold piece in their Gilbert Arenas fueled machine especially as Antwan Jamison and Antonio Daniels. This is another fine young player capable of serving his team well into the future that the Wizards will definitely find worthy of more money.

64. Wally Szczerbiak:

What he earned- $9.23 Million

What he was paid- $10 Million

What he’s worth- $4.5 Million

Wally’s major weakness is his lack of marketability. Normally when a player has been consistently productive whenever he plays, everyone would be okay with him drawing big money. In this case Wally has to shoulder the unenviable cross of being labeled a “white stiff”, plus he has to convince everyone he’s gotten over the injury bug that limited him in the past. Those are two big factors that will normally limit your contract. Worst of all though nobody wants to buy a jersey with “Szczerbiak” written on the back.

60. Shane Battier:

What he earned- $10.54 Million

What he was paid- $4.9 Million

What he’s worth- $5 Million

Battier is one of my favorite players and has proven he’s a reliable swingman with many underappreciated skills. Even on a team full of reliable swingmen with underappreciated skills, Shane has stood out as one of the major reasons for Memphis’s success. Let’s boost his pay a little, because he has certainly earned it.

58. Lamar Odom:

What he earned- $12.09 Million

What he was paid- $11.5 Million

What he’s worth- $6 Million

Odom has the odd habit of performing his best when Kobe Bryant is out of the Lakers’ lineup. This is great since he’s clearly demonstrating his value as L.A.’s second banana. Though in the eyes of Jerry Buss and the Lakers’ front office I can see how that’s not so great. Why should a team designed around feeding Kobe the ball pay top dollar for a player who plays worse when he has to support No. 8 No. 24. In his efforts to prove himself as a star in his own right, Lamar may have just hustled himself out of a bigger contract. (Not that anyone in the purple and gold could have worked themselves into a better deal, since Jerry will take ever opportunity he gets to give Kobe more money.)

55. Antwan Jamison:

What he earned- $15.15 Million

What he was paid- $13.8 Million

What he’s worth- $7 Million

Antwan Jamison is another player of which I’m a fan. As a journey man who takes more of a workman like approach to the game, he often gets undervalued. He’ll likely be undervalued once again, as the Wizards assume he’s 1) past his prime, and 2) not an essential member of Gilbert Arenas’ supporting cast. After all if he doesn’t like the offer he can just move to another teams, by now he should be used to it.

53. Ben Gordon:

What he earned- $6.79 Million

What he was paid- $3.6 Million

What he’s worth- $7.5 Million

Here’s player who has to draw top dollar, not just on potential, but because he is just the sort of weapon most NBA teams lack. Since Pat Riley and the Knicks turned each basketball game into a 3-hour-long-grind fest, most franchises have focused on big guys, and bangers who slow down the game and suck all the energy out of the arena by the second half. Now the Chicago Bulls finally have a response to reverse all that. With Ben Gordon you can give your team boost , force the tempo up a little and pour in an additional points in the half to push your team to the next level. Let me put it this way Gordon had, by general consensus, a sophomore slump last season. Yet even at a reduced value he played well enough to earn nearly twice his current salary. The Pay Scale rewards hot young players with a strong future in front of them, because they are the players owners love to market and build teams around. Gordon is just their kind of guy.

51. Ben Wallace:

What he earned- $14.26 Million

What he was paid- $7.5 Million

What he’s worth- $8 Million

I had a great argument prepared about Ben Wallace and why teams should avoid overpaying him. I had a lot of stats to show that he could improve a team but not as much as a max money player. I would have explained the same thing I did in my comment on Rasheed Wallace, how the Piston’s system last year greatly boosted the starting five’s value past a point you could ever get them to play at again. I was going to show that no team could risk taking on a center with his limited offense on, especially as he leaves his prime, unless they know they can surround him with four other above average scorers. Then the Chicago Bulls went and paid him a boatload of money. I have nothing more to say about this, except that in a sane and rational basketball market Ben Wallace would never belong with the players in the Top Tier.

NBA Pay Scale 2006- The Lowlights

The following players represent some of the league’s embarrassments. These are players who have either lucked their way into highly undeserved contracts or who have turned into disturbing disappointments on the court. In any case their respective teams would show VERY little interest in bringing them back. I don’t think that means they would just let them go. After all you never know when one of these players could turn the corner. Plus, there’s always something to be said for saving face. However, just because the teams make them an offer doesn’t mean it will be a good one as you will see.
Just in case you need them, the rules are here.

465. Anfernee Hardaway:
What he earned (according to 82games.com)- $180,000
What he was paid (his actual salary for 2005-2006)- $15.8 Million
What he’s worth (my own Pay Scale rating)- −$5 Million
After years of disappointment, I predict the Knicks would use this opportunity to try and finally get a little of their sunk losses back from Hardaway. Anfernee has spent season after season of living off the Knicks’ dime while contributing nothing to almost nothing on the court and has racked up quite a debt to the ownership over this time. If given the chance to name their price for Hardaway the Knicks will probably ask for some of their money back (When did we stop calling him “Penny” by the way? Was it around about the same time he started sucking so hard Chris Rock refused to associate his name with Lil’ Penny?) I know it may seem cruel but before you accuse me of trying to reinstate indentured servitude ask yourself the following questions. Have you seen any game that Hardaway played in during the last six years, that didn’t make you want to demand your money back, even if you didn’t pay to see it? And, how else to propose the Knicks raise the money to buy out the remainder of Larry Brown’s regrettable contract.

464. Stevie Francis:
What he earned- $4.26 Million
What he was paid- $13.7 Million
What he’s worth- − $4.05 Million
Here’s another player that’s become more risk than reward. Francis has become an absolute chemistry killer wherever he goes, second only to Terrell Owens in major American sports. What’s the average life expectancy of a coach’s career when Francis is involved, eight months? Six? Since Isaiah Thomas made this mess you can bet he wouldn’t put his coaching career on the line without taking a bite out of Stevie Frantic first; he may be crazy and incompetent but he isn’t suicidal. Now’s the time for New York to tell Francis to pony up if he wants to continue to have the privilege of living in New York, playing basketball in the biggest media market, getting great seats at Madison Square Garden while he slowly nurses an injury, and being able to put “NBA player” on his W-2’s.
(Random aside: What do you think NBA player’s put on their W-2’s, do they write “professional athlete” or “basketball player”? Do some of them get creative, like does Rip Hamilton write “baller” and Kobe Bryant write “The Mamba”? If Shaq wrote “Most dominant basketball player of the new millennium” on an IRS form would anyone argue? I realize that since all of these guys have accountants and that probably makes the issue moot, but still you find yourself wondering these things some times. Anyways …)

460. Stephon Marbuy:
What he earned- $5.67 Million
What he was paid- $16.5 Million
What he’s worth- $0
Does it surprise anyone that I have listed three Knicks as being among the players least deserving of their current paycheck? I think that slams the Knicks organization as much as I need to for the rest of this piece. I pretty much base Starbury’s $0 salary on one fact. Near the end of last season he claimed he loved the Knicks so much he wanted to retire as a Knick and have his ashes scattered at Madison Square Garden. Fine, I will take him at his word. If this son of New York really cares so much about this team then let him play for it for free. Prove you love this game, by playing like you would on the playground and not like a show boat trying to earn a few extra dollars in his next contract or endorsement deal.

402. Carlos Boozer:
What he earned- $2.31 Million
What he was paid- $11.6 Million
What he’s worth- $50,000
If anyone doubts that LeBron James is the child of destiny sent to lead the NBA to the promised land just look at all the bad karma that came down on Carlos Boozer as soon as he betrayed the King. Boozer was a promising young player who looked like he might become the much needed reliable second banana for LeBron, then he pulled out of his negotiations with Cleveland to land a sweeter deal at Utah. Ever since he has fought off multiple injuries and quickly become another disappointing and overpriced vet. The Jazz take this opportunity to pay him like a promising young player again, just to see if that makes him hungry again.

401. Grant Hill:
What he earned- $1.71 Million
What he was paid- $15.7 Million
What he’s worth- $60,000
Since coming into the NBA Grant Hill has seen it all, he’s lived the “Next Big Thing” story, the “Superstar on the Verge of Greatness” story, the “Tragic Setbacks that will Only Make for a Better Ghostwritten Autobiography” story, the “When’s He Coming Back?” story, the “Seriously Dawg He Better Get Back in the Game Soon” story, the “He’s Still Around?” story, the “Feel Good Almost Meaningful Comeback” story, the “Why’s He Saying Other Player’s Are Racist for Questioning J.J. Redick’s Ability?” story, and finally the “Yes, His Contract is Almost Up and We’ll Have Cap Room Again!” story. The Magic want his salary off their books, but they’ll pay him a pittance in the hopes he pulls a Tiki Barber, and they sell a few extra tickets and jerseys during his farewell tour.

375. Paul Shirley:
What he earned- $0
What he was paid- $0
What he’s worth- $80,000
For those of you who don’t read many sarcastic, online columns that provide an cynical insider’s perspective on basketball, then you probably haven’t been following the writing career of Paul Shirley, professional benchwarmer an all around great guy. Since he began writing a blog for the Phoenix Suns’ website Paul has taken fans behind the curtain in the NBA, the shady basketball minor leagues, and onto the set of his never released pilot for a TV show based on his life. Now that the Timberwolves have foolishly cut him from their roster just before the season began, I am using this column as my outcry for justice. Some team in the NBA MUST put Shirley on their roster. I know he isn’t worth much as a basketball player (that sounds like a nasty thing to say about someone whose one of the 300 best basketball players on the planet, but you have to realize that that’s just on the edge of breaking into an NBA team’s core rotation), but you have to admit he has a loyal fan base how will surely buy enough merchandise and tickets that you could afford to support his writing career, at least for one more season.

373. Antonio Davis:
What he earned- $50,000
What he was paid- $3.5 Million
What he’s worth- $90,000
Quick check: Can you even remember who Antonio Davis is? I figure he deserves $1,000 for ever person who just said “yes”. Oh heck I’ll say he deserves an even $90k, just because he’ll feel hurt if he doesn’t make more than the guy who’s just in the NBA to blog about it.

360. Jalen Rose:
What he earned- $970,000
What he was paid- $15.7 Million
What he’s worth- $100,000
Rose is another player who got cut just before the season tipped off, despite the fact that he has a little game left in him and the team will still have to pay him millions of dollars even if he never appears on court. The true injustice of all of this, is that the team that currently holds his contract (who I’m not going to mention here because they get plenty of abuse elsewhere from me) is depriving us of the opportunity to watch one of the game’s natural comedians be interviewed by the press. Rose is just too entertaining to cut out of the picture. So you have to believe that some team might pay him a fraction of his current salary just to hang around the locker room and keep everyone else loose. That’s at least what I based my Pay Scale rating on.

301. Keith Van Horn:
What he earned- $730,000
What he was paid- $15.7 Million
What he’s worth- $150,000
How Keith Van Horn ever became a max money player is still a puzzle to most basketball fans. Sure he still has some definite value on the court but he’s never going to be a major player on a quality team again. The Mavs, who are as deep as any other team in the association, really don’t have any need for him. Still, Mark Cuban has enough money to spare that if given the chance, they’ll probably toss some cash his way just to keep their depth.

226. Chris Webber:
What he earned- $5.91 Million
What he was paid- $19.1 Million
What he’s worth- $200,000
Since all Philly teams are doomed to disappoint their fans and since C-Webb is doomed to always ruin every chance he has at greatness, it only seems right that the Sixers keep him on the roster just so he doesn’t disappoint the fans. At since the Webber jinx far outweighs any Webber production they will be the only ones offering him any money, so they can get him cheap.

207. Baron Davis:
What he earned- $6.11 Million
What he was paid- $13.7 Million
What he’s worth- $250,000
I fully accept that Baron Davis is worth $6 million dollars when playing a full season at full strength. The Warriors would probably agree too. However we both know that odds are you’ll only get him for a quarter of the season at full strength and he usually is only at a sixth of his strength. So take $6 million divide by 24 and you get what I feel is an accurate Pay Scale rating of $250,000, leaving Davis just shy of the cut off level to be one of the Middlings.

NBA Pay Scale 2006- Intro

The NBA Pay Scale: A New Method of Ranking NBA Players

For as much as I enjoy the National Basketball Association, it does pose a number of vexing problems to its fans. The league’s instance on marketing itself to white Baby Boomers when it clearly has stronger appeal with young people and African Americans stands out as a particularly questionable move. I personally would like to know how any commissioner as autocratic as David Stern allows so many billionaire owners to make such a hash of their franchises. Yet above all this stands a quandary whose simplicity belies its elusiveness. How do we measure the relative value of basketball players?

It doesn’t immediately seem that comparing the value of players would be more difficult than in other sports. Yet basketball players are many times harder to rank because the game lacks a clear hierarchy. In hockey everyone acknowledges the relative superiority of a quality goaltender over a quality defenseman. In baseball no general manager would equate a position player’s value with a pitcher’s value. Football has more hierarchies than any other sport, describing the various power schemes and structures on an average team would require enough multi-colored flow charts and computer models to fill an Office Depot. The hardship of ranking NBA players comes with the fact that they all perform the same basic tasks on the court, dribbling, passing, shooting, rebounding, etc.

How then do we distinguish one player’s performance from another’s? For years people relied on the “holy trinity” of basketball stats, scoring, assists, and rebounding. Recently new statistical measures have arisen, some of which I have pointed to on this site. Others have attempted to use more subjective measures. At the beginning of the last NBA season I wrote a column greatly aping Bill Simmons annual rankings of all players based on their trade value. At that time I thought the trade value system was a useful means to rank players, since it began with the only opinion in basketball that truly mattered, that of the association’s owners and general managers. However on further review the very idea of assessing a player’s worth based on how willing the team would be to trade him seems like a backhanded compliment. Really that column pointed out that save for one guy every player in the league is someone else’s second choice. That is a very misleading way to measure the players. No team looks at its starting lineup and says “Well, we have half a Kevin Garnett, three-fourths a Sam Cassell, 0.8234 of a Brad Miller, two percent of a Kobe, and one whole Carmelo Anthony.” In fact if you want to take the front office perspective, you should remember that front offices already have a pretty basic means of assessing a player’s value; it’s called their salary.

Naturally player salaries aren’t a perfect metric either, however they do represent a simple, practical, and real world method of assigning value to a player. Any well informed basketball fan can easily point to several players whose pay is disproportionate to their play one way or the other. It’s true that due to collective bargaining agreements, marketing value, flukes of fate, or plain old bad decisions most players’ salaries are loosely tied to their on the court value. However the fine people at 82games.com, have created a method of estimating what a player’s salary would be if he were paid proportionate to his direct impact on the team’s success. You can see their work here. I was inspired by this concept, to abandon trade values as my default player rating and instead attempt to forge a new ranking system. This system applies the statistical evidence collected by 82games.com and expresses it through a clear, absolute figure that of hypothetical “fair salary” dollars. Then it combines the objective evidence with the subjective, relative assessments that drove my early writings about trade values and drive the thinking of most executives when they write the checks for the player’s actual salaries. Now I can express a player’s value through a single metric that shows a combination of the value he earned on the court and his perceived value in the eyes of the front office.

The rules for measuring players on this new Pay Scale are simple. Imagine the association passed a new rule tonight that said in the next 48 hours teams can make one bid on all their players to lock them up for the next season. No previous contracts matter. No issues of seniority or time with a team matter. No salary cap ramifications are involved. If a player turns down his team’s offer, he becomes an unrestricted free agent with the likely outcome being their current team will lose them. Now estimate how much money any given team would be willing to pay for any of their players for one season of work. I’d imagine every team would do their best to estimate the absolute highest salary a player could demand and not pay them one cent more. (I’m just going to assume that all teams want to keep their current rosters in tact, but that doesn’t mean everyone will get a good offer.) From their on out you just run down every player of interest and measure them by what they earned on the court, and what the front office perceives his value to be based on two factors: how much money can they make from that player and how does he improve their chances to win more games and more championships. I have the players ranked from bottom to top based on how much the teams would offer them.

By taking this experiment and spending way more time on it than I have to spare I have reached the following conclusions. So please read along as I rank all players in the NBA according to where I think they fall on the Pay Scale, starting with the Lowlights.