After all the articles and comments about the Spurs and everyone's thoughts on what they are doing, I thought it'd be nice to have a light-hearted look at some of the other teams out there and their issues. Then ESPN recently posted this article about how the Lakers will be paying the most luxury tax this year. Well there's nothing more fun than looking at the Lakers and making fun of them. Be sure to check out Stampler's take here.
According to ESPN, the Lakers will owe 29 million dollars in luxury taxes this year. That is easily the highest amount followed by the Heat at $13 million, the Nets at $12 million, the Knicks at $9 million and rounded out by the Bulls and Celtics. What amazes me about those numbers is outside of Miami all those other teams are not what I would consider title contenders. This is especially amusing when it comes to LA.
In somewhat related news, apparently the Lakers are going to amnesty Metta World Peace (tweet found via BleacherReport.com):
I guess the Spurs could sign him as a backup SF, right? So that would pay for the luxury tax right there. Ok, I know you're asking: So what's the problem then? Well let's take a gander at the Lake Show's current roster including the FA's and RFA's that are likely gone (info from Rotoworld.com):
- PG: Steve Nash, Steve Blake, Jordan Farmar
- SG: Kobe Bryant, Jodie Meeks, Nick Young.
- SF: None
- PF: Pau Gasol, Ryan Kelly
- C: Chris Kaman, Jordan Hill, Robert Sacre
UPDATE: The Lakers have now added Nick Young to their stable of all world talent.
That lineup is so much fun to look at. I'm sure the Lakers will make some more moves, I have a hard time believing that they will go into a season without a small forward, but why not? Live a little, LA. Of course we all know that the Lakers game plan will be to have a lot of cap space over the next couple of off-seasons and bring in several big name free-agents. That's their M.O. after all. Of course Kobe will probably demand to keep making $30 million and throw a wrench into their whole plan....which would also be hilarious.
Even with that plan in mind, it is something to behold to see LA with that type of lineup. It sure makes me feel better about where the Spurs are and where they're heading. Obviously things won't remain this way and the Lakers can surely afford to be paying luxury tax. I believe they signed a 3 Billion dollar TV deal recently. That will cover a lot of luxury tax sins.
As fun as it is to mock LA and their roster, this new luxury tax is going to bring several teams down to small market level as it get more and more punitive. That said, there are a handful of teams who will continue to wander in the luxury tax range with impunity. The top of that list is probably going to be the
Brooklyn Nets with their superduper rich owner who's willing to throw tons of money at his lousy basketball team. While this new luxury tax was meant to level the playing field I think that it's going to end up causing lots of teams to have to do what OKC did in the Harden deal and you're going to see a wider gap between the teams that can afford to pay luxury taxes and the ones that can't.
Of course that might mean big time players will be more readily available on the trade market. Maybe the Spurs will be able to trade Splitter's expiring contract in 3 years for the next Tim Duncan. One can dream...and laugh at the Lakers. So regardless of what you think of what PAFTO have been doing, or not doing. Be grateful that you are not a fan of the Lakers....or Kincks, poor saps.
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