Foil in the Oven: Disorder and Disarray

I just want to go on record now as saying that I want no part of Cory Maggette. There are reports out there that the Celtics have offered contracts to both Maggette and James Posey, but that they will only be able to afford one. The Spurs and Magic have also reportedly offered a deal to Maggette, and San Antonio is especially interested. Well, they can have him. When I wrote my post last week saying that the Celtics would be smart to let Posey walk rather than offering him the mid-level exemption deal, I can assure that offering that same contract to Maggette instead was the furthest thing from my mind.

If the Celtics are set on giving that deal to one of these guys, it has to be Posey. Now, you can certainly make an argument for Maggette. He's about two years younger than Posey. He averaged 22 points and 5 boards last year (compare to Poseys 7 and 4). He says that he's hungry to get back to the playoffs and win. Throw in his impressive athleticism, his nose for the basket, and his ability to get to the line, and you certainly have a talented player that could help any team.

But, think about it. What does Maggette do well? Get to the rim. Get to the line. Shoot from the outside. It's all about offense, which the Celtics have plenty of. The Celtics are LOADED on offense. Now, I have to admit that I don't watch the Clippers ALL THAT OFTEN, but everything that I've seen and all the scouting reports that I have read tell me that Maggette's greatest shortcomings are on the defensive end. He doesn't always give great effort on defense, and even when he does he is an average defender at best.

But, what would really help the Celtics? Energy off the bench. Guys that work on defense. Versatile players that can lock down another team's best scorer, therefore allowing the big three to expend more energy on offense. It's hard to really put it into words, but all the things that the Celtics need are the things that James Posey does. As far as I can tell, Maggette does none of these things. On top of that, Posey has learned to relish the role of sixth man. This would be a change for Maggette, and it's hard to know how he would handle it.

I'll end this segment with a final thought. (and, feel free to call bullshit on this). I'm very wary of taking on players that have played well for perpetually mediocre teams. Maggette epitomizes this type of player. How many years have you looked at the Clippers roster heading into the season and thought "Wow, they have a lot of talent. I bet they'll be the surprise team this year." A lot of people have. I'd parallel it to the way that everyone has picked the Arizona Cardinals to be the surprise team of the NFL in each of the past 6 seasons or so. Well, the Clippers never deliver. Sure, they made it to the second round in 06, but it was the first time they had done so in 30 years!

The point here is that guys like Maggette, who has been a pretty consistent 20 point per night guy for this bad team, start to take on a certain aura after a while. Let's call it a cloak of mediocrity. Once saddled with this cloak, very few guys are ever able to free themselves from its clutches. Not all players on bad teams end up wearing the cloak, because some players are too great to ever reach that level of mediocrity. Kevin Garnett never wore the cloak in Minnesota. Ray Allen wore a cloak of obscurity, which is much easier to shed. Strangely, the Celtics star that came to the closest to dawning the COM was Paul Pierce (see ejection and bandaged press conference in round one of the playoffs, 2005. We still love you Paul, it seems funny now.) Maggette has been wearing the cloak for some time, and I just don't know if he can provide the Celtics with what they need. Sure, he's a great shooter, but do you really want him taking big shots for us? I don't, and I think his defensive shortcomings could show up in the most pressing of circumstances (a signature of a player wearing the cloak of mediocrity).

Sadly, I think Big Al is destined to wear the cloak

James Posey, on the other hand, wears a full suit of championship armor. Now sporting two rings from different franchises, this armor helps him provide teams with all the intangible qualities that they will need to win in the playoffs. I've stated my position. I'm not willing to risk the future on Posey. But, if the Celtics are hell-bent on signing one of these guys with that mid-level exemption, Posey has to be the guy.

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I was shocked to read about the Baron Davis signing. I never thought that Donald Sterling would shell out the money to land such a talent. It's clearly the right move. If I lived in LA, I'd be on the phone right now ordering season tickets. The Celtics are proof that if you want to really increase your revenue, you have to be willing to spend. This could be the turning point for the Clippers franchise. I think a lot of that will depend on whether or not the Davis signing will convince Elton Brand to re-sign with the Clips rather than going with the max offer from Golden State.

It won't be an easy decision for Brand. At this point, he must feel like the Clippers are a doomed franchise. But, if nobody floors him with an offer, I'm sure the prospect of playing with Davis and seeing this thing in LA through will be very tempting.

I'd like to echo some of the sentiments of sadness that I have read all over the Internet today about Davis leaving Golden State. I stated in my playoff preview that I took on the Warriors as my temporary team during the playoffs of 2007. I have never had so much fun watching an NBA team that wasn't the Celtics. They were so loose, and they played with such abandon, it was incredible to watch. It certainly wasn't fundamental, and I have a hard time believing that a team built like them would ever win a championship. But, their aesthetic quality was through the roof. Seeing the Jazz knock them out of the second round affirmed everything I know to be true about the NBA and yet temporarily shredded a part of my soul at the same time. I loved watching that team.

On a final Clippers note, I just want to say that I really would love to see Shaun Livingston come back and play well this year. I'll never put a clip of that injury up on this site. It was just too gruesome.


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The most appropriate picture of all time?

Let's quickly recap three of the Oakland Raiders off-season acquisitions:

DeAngelo Hall- 7 years, 70 million, 24.5 million guaranteed

Gibril Wilson- 6 years, 39 million, 16 million guaranteed

Javon Walker- 6 years, 55 million, 16 million guaranteed

Let's remember that these contracts come one season after the Raiders inked JaMarcus Russell to a six year 61 million dollar deal with 32 million guaranteed. And, they also agreed to terms with Darren McFadden on a 6 year-60 million dollar deal with 26 million dollars guaranteed.

Those are a lot of numbers to take in. The Raiders current spending situation brings up many questions that will be at the core of the settlement of the NFL's next collective bargaining agreement. This article does a good job of summing up everything that you need to know.

The first issue, and I believe the most pressing, is whether or not the league will continue to operate with a salary cap. As the article states, Gene Upshaw has said that he is not going to push a salary cap on the players in any way. I've been extremely critical of Al Davis over the past year or so, but clearly he has reason to believe that the league's current salary cap restrictions are at this point nothing more than a temporary hindrance. The league's current agreement only lasts for three more seasons. If the salary cap is eliminated after that, Davis will have already have his franchise on the fast track to success.

Jerry Jones seems to be taking a route similar to Davis. His roster is already loaded up with big-name talent. On top of that, I scratched my head numerous times this off-season thinking to myself "How the hell could Dallas possibly be in the running for Randy Moss? There's no way they can afford him." I thought the same thing when I heard they had interest in Chad Johnson. You can assure yourself that if the salary cap is lifted, Jerry Jones is going to emerge as the George Steinbrenner of the NFL. Even during the salary cap era, he has kept America's Team loaded up with some of the league's biggest names.

I, for one, am a firm believer that having a salary cap is in the best interest of the league. I understand the argument that Dallas and Oakland and New England are bringing in huge amounts of revenue, and therefore their owners shouldn't be restricted in their spending. I understand that asking owners to curb the amount of money that they spend on talent seems counter-intuitive to the ultimate goal of the league, making money through marketing its stars. But, in my mind, you can't argue that the NFL and the NBA have not both been much more exciting since the salary cap was put into effect. You can look up and down the list of NFL teams, and it's virtually impossible to figure out who is going to emerge as the Super Bowl champion. In fact, in many cases, it's impossible to even figure out who is going to win their division. That's a great thing for this league. It brings in fans from all over the country. And, on top of that, it adds a whole nother (there it is again, nother)........... a whole new element to the league. Any stiff can step in to a GM's position and put together a great team if they have no limit on their spending. Managing the cap while you put together a competitive team is very challenging. And, for the hardcore sports fan, breaking down the cap can be very exciting.

As a world, we are facing a lot of issues in the future. Whether or not the NFL has a salary cap is certainly not of them. But, as an NFL fan, I think the lifting of the cap would be a cataclysmic event that would hurt the overall excitement of the league. And, once it's gone, I don't think it will ever be back. For now, it's still pretty far off, so I'll just hope for the best.

The second major issue that teams will face is the issue of rookie contracts. Now, I believe that the Raiders overpaid for all three of the veterans that I have listed. But, at least these guys have had success in the league. As a Giants fan, I know that Gibril Wilson's health is too much of an issue to warrant the money that he will get from the Raiders. But, he's a huge hitter, AND he's coming off a Super Bowl championship. And yet, you'll see that the two players making the most money of the five that I have listed are Russell and McFadden, both of whom were yet to play a single snap in the NFL at the time that they inked their deals.

When I first heard the rumblings about the issue of rookie contracts, I just sort of ignored it. "The game is changing, deal with it", I thought. But, the more I think about this issue, the more I think that something needs to change. The NBA has a rookie pay scale, which regulates the amount of money unproven players can make. I think that this system would work well for the NFL, but it would need some tweaking. For starters, I think that NFL rookies should make more than NBA rookies currently do. Rajon Rondo made less than 1 million dollars this season (in which he was the starting point guard for the world champs). Rondo was a late first round pick in 2006. He has played well enough to ensure that his second contract will be much larger, but NFL rookies have to have bigger deals than that. The risk that they will get hurt is just too great.

I'm not suggesting that top-level rookies should be making peanuts compared to their veteran equals. But, the fact that they are allowed to completely handcuff their teams' cap situations is absurd. Jake Long has 30 million dollars guaranteed coming to him from Miami. And, his contract is good for almost 58 million over 5 years. Now, he may be great. He certainly grades out well as a prospect. But, so did Robert Gallery, and I think we can all agree that he hasn't been worth the 70 million dollar deal that he signed. I want these guys to make their money. But, they also should have to prove themselves before they make top dollar. I hear fans criticize Alex Rodriguez all the time for hurting his team by having such a big contract. His sport doesn't have a salary cap. Take that same argument, and apply it to a league where there is a spending limit and the biggest contract goes to guys that are unproven. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense.


Gallery has been alright since being moved to guard, but at this point I think he has a better chance of joining the band Slipknot than he does of ever making it to Canton.

So, again, I realize that the short average duration of NFL careers makes it tough, but I'd like to see this issue fixed. And, I think it would help with the salary cap issue as well. A team that commits 10-11 million a year with 30 million guaranteed to a guy that turns out to be a bust has just completely fucked their cap situation. Eliminating this risk might make more teams open to keeping the cap.

Sick bass solo: