Links to the Present: Contracts Edition

These shoes may some day have Kyrie Irving’s name plastered all over them.

The NBA revolves around contracts.  Teams give players contracts to play, and companies give players contracts to endorse.  The Knicks even signed a contract with the devil to have a win streak for the rest of the season to make the playoffs.  The Cavs null and voided that contract, but I know it was there in some way.  Look at the roster they were winning with.

Kyrie Irving’s contract with Nike is done after this year.  It’s unlikely he will go anywhere else, and Joe Sherman even thinks Kyrie is the perfect point guard for Nike to design a shoe for.  Nike currently lacks a point guard signature shoe, so that is leaving them out of the market for the nations’ dribbling and driving shorties. 

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Tristan Thompson’s contract is up after next season.  Jason Lloyd at The Akron Beacon Journal tries to help out by giving some ideas of what Thompson is worth.

If Irving takes a max contract this summer and the Cavs extend Thompson at the going rate, they will have roughly $28 million tied up to those two players for the 2015-16 season — or about 45 percent of what you can expect the salary cap to be for that season.

When I think about Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving as 45 percent of the cap, I can’t think about the playoffs for a minimum of one week.  That is not a hopeful core for the price.

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Dion Waiters has been developing, since he returned to the starting line up.  Matthew Florjancic of WKYC has a flattering Dion article to start the day.   Look at this fact:

After playing 46 straight games in a reserve role, Waiters has scored 73 points on 28 of 64 shooting from the field since returning to the starting lineup against the Miami Heat last Tuesday.

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However, there’s truly no need to fear Dion, or even Tristan, getting big money when Jason Lloyd is able put out an article titled “Cavaliers notebook: Cavs struggling to finish around rim this season” about the pair.

The Cavs have three of the worst players in the league at converting around the basket. Dion Waiters is shooting 48.5 percent within 5 feet of the basket, which ties as the fourth-worst percentage in the league. Spencer Hawes’ 53.1 percent within 5 feet is second-worst among centers (only Indiana’s Roy Hibbert is worse) and Tristan Thompson’s 52.4 percent is sixth-worst among bigs.

I didn’t think that building a team around poor finishers was a theme until now.