Wow ... take that Indiana Pacers

The Indiana Pacers were Eastern Conference Finalists two years in a row (2013 and 2014)

This year, David West, one of the grittiest workman players on the Pacers, opts out of his $12.5 million contract with the Pacers because he would "rather play for an NBA championship contender"

Ouch Pacers

Not only that, he takes the veteran's minimum of $1.4 million to play with the Spurs

He drops $11 million to leave the Pacers and play for the Spurs

Now if that's not an indication of one franchise being troubled and the other being respected, I don't know what is.

http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/ ... for-spurs/

Why the NFL works and Baseball and Basketball don't, salary cap makes the league balanced along with the spending minimum required by all teams. Any team can rise and be a contender in the NFL, the NBA and MLB have the same teams every year in the battle with an exception being a great draft class of another team and keeping them till their first FA contract to which they get out bid by the usual winners. NBA has a problem with 1 or 2 all stars and nobody else on most teams and the luxury tax penalty that teams will pay that win while others won't separates the haves and have not's.

West is 35 years old and they're not about to compete for a ring next season.. he's obviously very hungry to win a ring before he calls it a career.. its a pretty cool move to see but not extremely surprising.

The Cavs and Warriors were also trying to get West to come over.. and were offering more money than SA had.. so West essentially thinks SA has the best shot at a ring next year going off of that.

NBA does have a cap...

David west signed for practically peanuts. This is like Kevin Williams coming over to us last season.

Wanna check out something though, go look at the contract Gerald Greene just got, and then look at the luxury tax digits. Gerald Greene was and never will be worth that much.

Throwdown":2wrtfhlb said:

NBA does have a cap...

David west signed for practically peanuts. This is like Kevin Williams coming over to us last season.

Wanna check out something though, go look at the contract Gerald Greene just got, and then look at the luxury tax digits. Gerald Greene was and never will be worth that much.

Click to expand...

What is so crazy about Gerald Green's deal? From what I see, he got the veteran minimum, a one year deal worth 1.4 million. If anything, that's great value based on some of the other contracts floating around the NBA. Aron Baynes who basically rode the Spurs bench got a 3-year deal worth 20 million from the Pistons. A guy who has done nothing in the NBA just got paid nearly 7 million per year. The Kings signed Kosta Kuofus as their 3rd string center and gave him 4-years and 33 million dollars. That's right, a 3rd string center making nearly 10 million per year. And then you have average wings like Shumpert and Danny Green getting 10-12 million per year. The contracts this offseason have been very inflated, but the NBA salary cap is suppose to balloon to around 108 million in the 2017-2018 season. Right now I think it's set at 70 million for the upcoming 2015-2016 season.

And very surprised to see D West opt out for such little money. Shows how much he wants to win a ring.

Yeah a cap that can be exceeded if the owner wants to pay the luxury tax for going over it, Cuban was doing it for a while.

Throwdown":2fh6ne6o said:

NBA does have a cap...

David west signed for practically peanuts. This is like Kevin Williams coming over to us last season.

Wanna check out something though, go look at the contract Gerald Greene just got, and then look at the luxury tax digits. Gerald Greene was and never will be worth that much.

Click to expand...

Because Green signed for the veteran minimum, his luxury tax hit is only $947k. Not a great player by any means (his salary is indicative of that) but to get a great athlete, under 30 years old, who can provide some spark off the bench as a scorer is a pretty good deal for the Heat.

I thought I read it was more, thanks Twitter for making me look stupid

I watched a little of the Jahlil Okafor vs. D'Angelo Russell summer league matchup earlier. Both looked very raw and sloppy with the ball. Seven turnovers for Russell, five for Okafor.

Russell does not shoot well off the dribble when contested. He also looked kind of slow and lazy with his passing.

Okafor looked a little better defensively and as a rebounder than he was hyped during the draft. He moves his feet really well, but just seems to lack an understanding of positioning. He did have a couple blocks, including a really nice rejection on Russell, who exposed the ball in the lane. He had 11 rebounds pretty effortlessly. His best play, of course, was his footwork in the post.

Both players are 19 years old and extremely raw, but I thought Okafor looked like the better long-term prospect.