Links To The Present: TV Deal Edition + Kyrie in a Walking Boot + Updates
2014-10-08
The NBA has announced their new media deal with Turner Sports and ESPN. From the 2015-2016 season all the way through the 2024-2025 season, the league will receive $24 billion. The last deal only paid $7.5 billion, and it was over eight years. The new deal means one thing for certain. The cap is going to go up a large amount at some point; however, it isn’t clear when. Larry Coon, the NBA salary cap professor, explained the new deal’s implications.
Since the salary cap is directly tied to revenues, this means we would expect the cap to increase significantly. The league sets the cap each year based on its projected revenues for the upcoming season. By the league’s convoluted salary-cap math, a $1.1 billion increase in national TV revenues would equate to a nearly $16 million jump in the 2015-16 salary cap, above and beyond its expected increase without the infusion of new TV money.
It is unlikely that the cap will jump all at once though.
The league has already thought of this contingency, and is hoping to smooth out the effects of the new TV deal by gradually phasing in the salary-cap increases over several years. For example, instead of letting the salary cap increase an extra $16 million in one year, the league might limit the increase from the new TV deal to $4 million per year, spread out over four years. Most if not all players — not just the 2016 free agents — would then be able to become free agents in an offseason in which the cap jumps significantly.
Zach Lowe also has an informative piece about the new TV deal. He raises interesting points about how the sudden expansion of the salary cap could hurt some guys’ feelings. Kyrie gets a mention.
Would the union want Davis making nearly $25 million per year on his max deal2 while Kyrie Irving’s max nets $16.5 million, simply because Davis entered the league one year later? How do you think the Pelicans might feel about that?
The expansion of the cap is going to help the Cavs remain a high functioning team. If the Cavs can re-sign Tristan Thompson to a long term extension before this season, his contract could be a bargain under a larger cap even if it looks pricey in the now. Dion’s extension next season might be easier to figure out with more money being available, since technically the Cavs may only have Kevin Love and LeBron James on true max contracts. Finally, Kyrie’s contract might end up being one of the best bargains in the league in the following years. And, to think, I actually doubted the Kyrie contract just three months ago because of its cost and Kyrie’s play. I feel nutty now.
The Cavs still need to make sure they use their picks correctly in the coming seasons. William Bohl of Fear The Sword rightfully states that this is going to keep the team from having too many stop gap pieces and allow the Cavs to have continued success. Role player free agents are nice, but special pickups like Matty D just feel so much better. They’re like a little house plant you can water by running through dribbling drills.
Brendan Bowers has another piece up for Slam Online. This time he got Shawn Marion, Brendan Haywood, and Joe Harris to talk about David Blatt’s offense.
Harris: “I played football growing up, but I never had that football-type playbook for basketball before. We have one here, and it really explains everything. His offense is really detail-oriented, each and every detail is really important. You have to read what’s happening on the floor, and understand exactly where you need to be. The difference for a wing player being at the top of the key, or in the corner in some cases, could be the difference in executing the play properly or not. I really enjoy the offense overall. It’s great for guys like myself and James and Mike Miller because it gives you spacing to knock down shots. Then that opens things up for our playmakers, LeBron, Kyrie, Dion, those guys can really attack the basket and create off the bounce with that spacing.”
Harris is going to need Blatt’s offense because it’s his route to an NBA career: hit threes and run. Harris has a great mentor on the coaching staff in James Posey. Jeff Kaslar profiled Posey for Waiting For Next Year, and I am convinced that Posey is the right man to work the Cavs young players hard. Posey has the most realistic quote about defense I have heard in a long time.
“I took great pride in being a tough defender. I didn’t like people scoring on me. If I matched up with you, you knew I was going to be there all game long. I took pride in that, and it gave me a mental edge.”
It’s simple, but if the entire Cavs team can be receptive to that attitude their defense is going to set up the fast break even more. Kevin Love’s Peyton passes and defensive stops means that there’s a possibility the Cavs are on the break over a third of the time.
As of now, Ray Allen is not signing with the Cavs. He isn’t signing with anyone else either according to his agent, Jim Tanner. The Cavs have shooting already, so I’m not as amped on a possible Allen signing as many fans. The team should focus on working Joe Harris in as a sharpshooter throughout the season to see what they have. The team has more than enough power to deal with a struggling rookie seeing the floor for a few minutes a game. If Harris can grow from limited minutes this season, the Cavs might have a man to replace Mike Miller next season if Miller’s career suddenly becomes a bench/cap warmer.
— UPDATE —
So this just happened. Great.
Ran into Cavs as they were going sightseeing in Rio. Kyrie Irving is in a walking boot on his right foot.,
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) October 8, 2014
Kyrie Irving tweaked foot in practice yesterday. All X-rays & MRI negative. Not serious. Cavs just taking extra precaution with treatment.
— Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) October 8, 2014
It's an ankle on Irving and his status for Saturday is TBD #Cavs
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) October 8, 2014
Well, that’s a relief… I think.
Question with PG Kyrie Irving is whether he'll play Saturday vs. Miami. #Cavs say that's TBD. If he doesn't, Matthew Dellavedova would start
— Bob Finnan (@BobCavsinsider) October 8, 2014
Further emphasis that Delly is important to the team.
This here. He won’t make anyone forget about any of our starters while he’s out there…but he’s a good hustle player who won’t stall the offense and will be a pest on defense. He’ll hit a fair percentage of his 3 pointers too. That’s exactly what we need from a backup PG.
For a second I though cols’ hubris had caught us out. Fortunately not, for now
I wonder what the cost of goods in America would be if not for pro sports over the last 40-50 years. With these insane dollar amounts being thrown about, the costs always get filtered down to the average joe. Obviously cable costs will be increasing as they always do. Ticket prices will go as they always do but even more quickly probably, now that salaries will be going up. Also, ABC, ESPN, TNT will charge more for advertising on their broadcasts so the beer companies, the restaurant chains, the car companies, the chef boyardee’s, proctor and gamble’s and all these… Read more »
Mentioned in Greg Easterbrook’s NFL column on ESPN yesterday is the fact that DC area taxpayers gave the Nationals more than $600 million to build their stadium, and the team won’t even cover a potential cost of $30,000 to keep the Metro mass transit system open late to provide fans a safe ride home after games like the recent 18-inning epic that went past midnight. These sort of things and worse happen all the time in sports. Per Easterbrook: “Socialized costs with private profit, the single-worst aspect of the American economy, is found across professional sports” Man speaks the truth.… Read more »
Wonky economics breakdown there. Marketing budgets won’t increase on the whole. There’s no ‘new’ market share to gain here. Beer companies might spend more on ads for basketball games, but it’s only because they aren’t spending as much during other TV shows people are watching commercial free later (or skipping commercials). Man-centered products aren’t going to magically become more expensive because of the NBA. The only reason ticket prices would rise substantially is because teams need to offer a higher quality product at the arena to make it worth your while to leave your comfortable couch and big ol TV.… Read more »
that isn’t gonna happen.
i don’t think anyone disagrees with this, but its important to note that the whole cycle starts with us. the average joe continues to fork over a good chunk of his disposable income on tickets, merchandise, etc. the reason the TV contracts are so high is because the advertising space on live sports is insanely valuable (sports are essentially the only live TV platform left where people are forced to watch commercials), and the reason that is the case is because we all stare at our TVs. i for one have no issues. i love sports and realize that my… Read more »
Is it just me, or does Windhorst take some sort of sick pleasure in pissing on the Cavs?
Kyrie will be fine, otherwise he wouldn’t be walking around.
It’s not just you. Definitely have noticed that Windy seems to take a certain satisfaction in taking shots (however thinly veiled) at the Cavs ever since he was left on the outside looking in with LBJ leaving Miami this summer. Certainly seems like sour grapes over no longer being privy to inside “sources” after years of gravy training LBJ and his la familia. Windy probably doesn’t get his big shot at ESPN without access in the early Cavs.
I agree. I love Windy, but he is clearly not well connected within the Cavs anymore, and the vibe around the whole situation is a bit weird.