MOOD #05 - Can't buy me love: hating on the buyout market

But you said it meant nothing without a ring didn't you?
You said players should be chasing titles not money!
It is not their fault they got overpaid!
Not their fault their franchises failed them and didn't build a winning team around them!

That's what I would say if I hated sports or if I was a Brooklyn Nets fan.

Buyouts are not new, neither is ring chasing. But the recent years  (months) brought a lot of higher profile players and a lot more controversy. The power of attraction of some teams (Lakers, Clippers, Nets...) lead us to a few very disappointing moves in the buyout market. 

So, let's be clear. I hate it. I am a romantic (see article: This is why we suffer) and I want every player to be the next coming of Dirk, I hated Lebron for The Decision and celebrated the Clippers' debacle in the bubble. This is completely subjective and as everything else, is based only on my own perception of the league.

Mutliple personal points here:

• It kills the sheer concept of cap space and the financial model the league is based on.
  A team can now afford a player they shouldn't, the player now can still enjoy his big fat contract (giving back a small portion indeed) while playing for a contender,
• It is another blow for small market teams.
  They are never on the receiving end of those deals because they have to overpay pseudo-stars in the first place, can't win with (in spite of?) them and then have to negotiate a buyout. It's a lose-lose-lose for them,
• No sports competitions benefit from a domination of the few.
  Who's still rooting for Lewis Hamilton, Tom Brady in the superbowl or Nadal on clay? We all respect them but their easy or mutliple victories were no fun were they? 
• Great players are supposed to compete, not settle.
  Nothing will ever be more beautiful than great rivalries with players loyal to their team. Do you want Robert Horry's career or Dirk's? Also, what saddens me about buyouts, is that a player can tank his own value for his current team to then go on and perform. Maybe not on completely consciously, but they do.

Actually let's check that last part out. Let's study a few buyout scenarios.

Deron Williams
Contract year stats - 21/8.7/3 & All Star
Buyout year stats - 13/6.6/3.5 & only 55 games played

D-Will played his last game as a Net in May 2015 and received his last paycheck in June... 2020. 5M a year during 5 years for a player that joined first the Mavs then the Cavs with no luck in his quest for the ring. The Nets made a lot of bad decisions in the early 2010s and D-Will took full advantage of that, managing to land a five year $90M+ contract at the back of his third and crucially last All-Star season. 

Boris Diaw

Had to talk about a couple French players, didn't I? Boris is a good example of a buyout that made a bit more sense. First of, he arrived in Charlotte via trade and he was ''only'' on a 9M/year contract, second, a coaching change meant he was not in the Bobcats' plans. Also worth noted that this was in 2011 where the buyout market was still a role player's world.

Nicolas Batum
Pre-buyout stats - 22 games, 28.6% 3pts, 46.3 TS%
Post-buyout stats - 44 games, 43% 3pts, 63.5 TS%

Second frenchman, but not as positive as Boris. Stats-wise you can even look at the previous season, his production was already falling off a cliff. This is to me one of the worst examples of a buyout. Charlotte bet on Batman in 2015 and resigned him in 2016 on an albatros contract (5-year, $120 million). His production then decreased drastically year after year, turning his deal into the benchmark for bad contracts around the league. But then he gets his buyout and flies to the Clippers, one of the main contenders for the title. And guess what, he is productive. Yes he is only asked to be a role player but that's what he's always been.

Blake Griffin
Pre-buyout stats - 31 min/game w/ 45.3 eFG% and 9.9 PER (Career Low by a mile)
Post-buyout stats - 18 min/game w/ 75 eFG% and 18.9 PER (very small sample)

Very small sample and who cares about stats. Blake was having the worst season of his career (and it's not even close) after being an All Star & All NBA in 2019. Now he gets to play a smaller amount of minutes around three MVP-caliber players. Is that fair? You could argue that there is a bit of Karma for the way he was traded by the Clippers. But why is Detroit paying the cost of that there? Also the Nets just added LMA in a same kind of context, so the karma can go to hell.

Andre Drummond

Let's not talk about it. I don't want to talk about it. He is not as good as some say he is, but not as bad that I can just let his buyout slide. He got traded for a bag of Cream Eggs and is now being bought out. I don't know man. Just happy he is not on the Knicks.