The Point-Fourward: Boston Be Dancing

Four points I’m thinking about the NBA…

1. It was not very pleasant to be a Cleveland sports fan living in Boston circa 2007-2008. I didn’t own a TV and those were the dark ages before one could adequately see a ball on a computer live stream. That meant I was forced to watch games with musician friends who didn’t really like sports, and/or trudge to some Boston bar to experience my misery buried among insufferable hometown fans.

That October, the Tribe managed a 3-1 series lead in the ALCS before getting absolutely destroyed over the the final three games. Boston fans are already a specific kind of horrible, but this was them at their apex of obnoxious glee. The Sox went on to win the World Series, the Patriots were Brady/Mossing their way to 16-0, and the Celtics had a new Big Three that was set to take over NBA.

The ALCS was already terrible to view in that setting, but it wasn’t nearly as painful as the subsequent 2008 Celtics/Cavaliers series. The games were defensive slug-fests. The Celtics surprised most NBA people by becoming one of the best defensive squads in NBA history with Thibs running that end of the floor. The Cavaliers had had a strange regular season after their 2007 Finals appearance. It led them to make a big mid-season trade for Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Delonte West, and Joe Smith. With Big Ben and West aboard, the Cavs became a defensive juggernaut in their own right.

What resulted was one of the greatest non-Finals series of all time. Neither team could win on the other teams’ home floor. The Cavs were the only squad to break 100 points in any one game when they decisively took Game 3. Cleveland won Game 6 with a seemingly ludicrous final score of 75-69. 

I loved it. Ben Wallace and Kevin Garnett killing each other under the rim was only slightly more entertaining than Delonte West and Rajon Rondo scrapping on the perimeter. Defense was the key and every possession was absolutely golden. Minus a few crazy Kobe fans, we already knew that LeBron was the greatest player on earth. It seemed he would take down this superteam on the way to winning his first championship.

Instead, Game 7 saw Paul Pierce play the best game of his life, and I had the sickening misfortune to watch Boston fans celebrate another Cleveland defeat.

2. With Gordon Hayward signing a max deal to join Brad Stevens in Boston, many people believe the Celtics have a legitimate chance to challenge the Cavaliers’ Eastern Conference supremacy. It’s not hard to see why. Gordon Hayward was one of the most efficient players in the NBA last season. He is one of the few guys in the league who has the size to match-up with LeBron James on a physical level. Hayward works well from all over the floor in a variety of roles offensively and defensively. He is absolutely a max-contract player who will likely be even better now that he is reunited with Stevens.

Isaiah Thomas is apparently very happy with Hayward’s decision to join the Celtics. If I were him, I wouldn’t be dancing. The diminutive point guard is set to make about $6 million next season in the last year of his deal.

“We need the best possible player that’s gonna help us win, and I’m with that,” Thomas said. “Anything Danny [Ainge] and this organization need me to do to help bring even more talent to this city, I’m all for that. I want to win a championship, and being so close to getting to the Finals, that makes you want it that much more.”

While some might see that as honorable, I see it as unfortunate for Thomas and his future earning potential. Readers of this space know I am not a fan of his play on the floor. He is a huge defensive liability that completely disrupts any normal defensive game-plan. Stevens has been hampered by Thomas’s lack of defensive talent, but has had to put up with it because the Celtics have needed the offensive production.

With Gordon Hayward on the roster, Stevens no longer has to sacrifice defense and size for play-making. Thomas might think he got “help” to make the Finals, but he really just got rendered irrelevant. I’d be surprised if he is on the Celtics’ roster in March and downright shocked if he is still in Boston a year from now.

From a Cavs’ perspective, I hope Danny Ainge keeps Thomas for the duration. The Celtics can’t beat LeBron James in a series with Isaiah getting big minutes. It would be good for Thomas’s checkbook and great for Cavs fans. Unfortunately, I just don’t see Ainge making that decision. The Celtics aren’t a threat yet, but they could be if Danny plays his cards right.

3. The Denver Nuggets are killing the tables right now. I absolutely love their acquisition of Paul Millsap. While Millsap’s game fits well in any system, it will be basketball nirvana to watch Nikola Jokic and Millsap move the rock. Paul is fantastic as an elbow distributor and Jokic may become the best passing big man we’ve seen in the modern era. Add in Millsap’s brilliant off-ball cutting, and the Nuggets will be a League Pass must watch.

Millsap will also greatly improve Denver’s defense. Jokic is good, but needs a quicker guy next to him on the frontline. Faried was quick last year, but was frequently out of position. Paul is almost never out of position. He will make $30 million a year, but the Nuggets did a masterful job of getting the third year as a team option. Huge win for coach Mike Malone.

4. A guy who isn’t making $30 million a year is the 2017 NBA Finals MVP, Kevin Durant. Sure, all the reasons in the linked article make sense, but it doesn’t mention the problem of having a soft team salary cap while maintaining a hard player maximum.

LeBron is absolutely right to question why there is a cap on individual player salaries. For all the complaining about parity during this era of Cavaliers/Warriors dominance, it’s surprising that more people are not promoting an abandonment of player maximums.

If the team soft salary cap were to remain exactly as it is currently constructed, eliminating max salaries would instantly help to disperse the star talent around the league. The true superstars of the NBA are worth far more than what they are currently being paid. That is absolute fact. A team could construct a roster with one legitimate superstar for about 85% percent of a its cap and fill out the rest with minimum deals. If enough teams do that, after a few years, presto, superstar dispersion.

There aren’t 30 guys worth that kind of cap percentage. Franchises that couldn’t score one true superstar could go “team route” to compete with a collection of solid to good players. Superteams wouldn’t be realistic in that environment unless the superstars were willing to turn the current $6 million dollar “haircuts” into $60 million “body-waxing” extravaganzas. Durant decided to go in for a trim. I think he’d pass on the latter.

So why doesn’t this happen? It would seem to make sense for the owners too. It won’t happen because the superstar players are in a union that is comprised mostly of non-superstars. Those other players(and probably some of the superstars) recognize that it is only possible to maintain a player “middle-class” if there is an individual salary max. That provides the possibility for mid-range deals that aren’t only at the league minimum. The players need some guys to be overpaid to maintain the shape and health of the union.

It mirrors an ubiquitous debate in America. Is the NBA an actual meritocracy or just celebrated as one? Once again, political and economic principles are illustrated through sports.