Taking the max contract vs winning

 you gotta draft in the late rounds elite

I don’t have an issue with this as it’s one of the ways to get parity in the league. If max guys take a discount, that means they can have more good players on that team. Then you get superstars joining up to make super teams that just run over everyone. Nobody likes that. Remember the out roar from the Heatles and Durant and Cousins to the Warriors? Gotta have balance and this is how you somewhat get it in the salary cap world.

I think players get pressured into taking the money. After that contract, They’ve already won in life. I don’t think we as fans realize how easy it is. There’s also the team dynamic.  players on the same team subconsciously compete for salary.

 If players truly want to win more than anything than sacrificing large amounts of money is undoubtedly a good way to make it happen. As you noted that’s not the most important thing for many players in truth. Teams also need to be smarter about who they give these supermax deals. John Wall for instance should have never been offered such a deal because of his injury history and less than superstar play. Only a few guys are good enough to take up so much salary cap space and help keep their team in championship contention.

When players take a huge max deal and then start putting out feelers for players to come in on vets minimum always amuses me. If a team wants legit depth and to round it out with a good veteran or two chasing a ring then I think the top guys have to leave a bit on the table to allow the better support players to be paid something above veteran’s minimum.

The salary cap structure is designed to promote competitive balance and prevent superteams from forming. Not saying it always works but that is the intention. When guys do take less money to allow teams to pursue other superstars (I.e lebron, Durant, draymond, Wade etc.) it’s not like we applaud them for being unselfish or anything. We just complain about how unfair it is that all the talent is on one team. So while taking the max deal might seem like a selfish decision to the average person, it’s really just the system working the way it was designed to. It’s easy to say “these guys are rich anyway, so what’s the difference in an extra 20-40-60 million dollars” but the truth is that’s a hell of a lot of money to walk away from, especially considering most have extravagant lifestyles and their window to earn that type of money is short. The truth is also that for the truly elite players, they can not actually be appropriately compensated under the CBA for the actual value they bring the franchise.

Teams just need to be smarter who they throw out max and super max deals to. For example, Kemba Walker is an outstanding player, but there is no way the hornets should throw 220 million at him this summer even though he is eligible for it and you could argue has earned it. But if they do and Walker takes it, and the team remains mediocre for the foreseeable future, there’s no way I’m blaming Walker for taking the money. That’s just bad decision making on the part of ownership. 

a) Just because you defer taking the max does not mean that your team will automatically spend your deferred money on talent. They can keep it in their pocket. These are still businesses, afterall, and keeping expenses low is a metric.

b) Your $150MM contract isn’t $150MM in your pocket. It’s most likely $45MM (50% in taxes takes it to 75MM, then you lose $30MM in agent and manager commissions, potentially) Not saying that isnt life changing money, but it might not be generational money.

c) The precedent…your Union does not want you to take less money. Your agent does not want you to take less money. And every player that takes less money becomes the poster child who is held up as an example at the next negotiation: "Why should we give Superstar A the max, Superstar B took less money, he’s a team player. Why can’t you be a guy like that? Do you think you’re better than Superstar B"? etc etc

The bottom line is, this is business. I wholeheartedly agree with looking at it from a team perspective and not as an individual at a certain point, BUT you need a very special, trusting relationship with management before you start giving money back.