The Golden State Warriors are the reigning NBA champions as they beat the Boston Celtics 4-2 in a hard-fought series. Do you want to know how much it cost the Warriors to keep their ‘HOMEGROWN’ championship core together? Over $340M dollars ($170M of that as a luxury tax). Yeah, Joe Lacob is telling the truth when he says the current luxury tax system is “very unfair”.
Recently, on the Point Forward podcast (hosted by Andre Iguodala and Evan Turner), Golden State’s owner rightfully stated how unfair the NBA’s luxury tax system is on NBA teams that prioritize drafting and developing talent. Now, with a new CBA (collective bargaining agreement) drawing ever closer, what do you think Adam Silver and the NBA did when they heard these comments?
If you guess they fined Lacob $500k, you’d be right.
It’s absolutely ridiculous, right? First, why is the NBA allowed to fine the owners when they criticize unfair rules? Silencing critical (rational, I might add) thought should not be accepted in any profession, especially in sports leagues. Second, why are NBA teams that ‘buy’ their super-teams looked on more favorably than NBA teams that ‘develop’ them?
The Golden State Warriors have been the best team in the 2010’s decade and have started the 2020’s just as successfully. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, James Wiseman, Jonathan Kuminga, and Kevon Looney were all drafted and developed into stars by the Warriors management and coaching staff. Thus, when these championship-winning players ask for well-earned max deals, they should be rightfully paid.
Yet, the NBA punishes the Warriors for paying their stars by imposing the daunting luxury tax on the team. In fact, the Warriors had the highest luxury tax penalty in the league last season.
I realize there must be a salary cap to keep league competitiveness for the smaller markets in the NBA. And I know it is unreasonable to think that an NBA team can keep all the stars it drafts. But the NBA is making it impossible for these model organizations to even keep two. With the “soft” salary cap set at $112M last season, the Warriors were only able to sign Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Andrew Wiggins and stay under it. That’s it.
Draymond Green, Jordan Poole, Jonathan Kuminga, James Wiseman, and the rest of the roster were luxury cap signings that the Warriors paid taxes on. Does this seem fair that a championship-winning team can’t even resign their starting 5?
Comparatively, the Los Angeles Clippers (2nd), the Brooklyn Nets (3rd), Milwaukee Bucks (4th), and Los Angeles Lakers (5th) rounded out the rest of the Top 5 in luxury tax penalties last year. Both Los Angeles teams and the Brooklyn Nets ‘bought” their roster by making huge trades and big free agent signings, which put them into the luxury tax.
Their punishment for shifting the fabric of the NBA (in particular, the Nets and Lakers) so drastically to assemble their, respective, super-teams is well-deserved. But why should Golden State be punished in the same way as the Lakers and Nets when they “followed the model” and drafted well?
In this next CBA, the NBA owners need to dissolve the silly “soft” cap threshold, implement a “harder” cap for all teams, and punish ‘bought’ super-teams that go over the harder more harshly. Therefore, it would it easier for drafted and developed teams to stay together, while keeping the leagues competitiveness afloat.
(PS: Adam Silver, don’t fine owners when they are actually speaking some sense. It just makes you and the league’s salary cap system look archaic.)
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