Yesterday, Brad Stevens mentioned how much harder it would have been to build around the Jay’s at 70% of the cap compared to the 47% they made when they won at title.

As part of something I’m working on, I looked at how much the last 10 champions spent on their top two players.

What I’m discovering in this process is that there’s no cheat code in the NBA like underpaying your best player. Notice that the best player on the 2026 Knicks, 2024 Celtics, 2019 Raptors or 2017 Warriors is not listed in this graphic.

Similarly, notice how the only team above that 70% figure Brad Stevens cited are the 2022 Warriors… who were probably the single team most responsible for the CBA environment we now exist in. Remember when Windy called one of their Finals games a “checkbook win.” He was absolutely right. The 2022 Warriors paid just under 124% of the cap to their top four players.

The tweet has an attached graphic that notes that KAT and OG combined to take up slightly less than 60% of our cap (Brunson was only our third-highest-paid player), and the only teams over 60% in this stretch where the 22 Warriors (Steph and Klay at almost 75%) and the 17 Warriors (Steph and KD at slightly over 60).

Knicks are likely OUT on DeMar DeRozan…

“But I don’t think the Knicks are on his wish list and I don’t think the Knicks have strong interest in bringing DeRozan in, so you can put that to bed at the moment”
– @IanBegley on @SNYtv

Or, to put the salary thing another way:

@Betsycashmoney
Going back to 2017, every Finals winner except the 2022 Warriors featured a star making 25% of the cap or less:

2017 – Steph 13%
2018 – KD 25%
2019 – Kawhi 23%
2020 – AD 25%
2021 – Giannis 25%
2023 – Jokic/Murray 25%
2024 – Tatum/Brown 25%
2025 – SGA 25%
2026 – Brunson 22%

The Knicks now have pretty much a set rotation. It wouldn’t be a great landing spot for DeRozan.

We need a 3rd string C. That’s about it. If Clarkson wants to tag along, sure, but he needs to understand that he will probably get even less minutes than last year.

I don’t think Derozan can hold up on defense well enough to be on a contender, and I’m not looking to catch lightning twice by betting on another high usage player committing to defense

His defense is bad, but he’s a very good scorer who can pass a bit. That’s useful if you need that, but I don’t think we really need that all that much. I also think that, as we saw with Clarkson, defenses in large port about effort. Demar could probably be coached up to make the effort, but still, he’d be taking playing time away from somebody already in the rotation. And that wouldn’t be healthy for the locker room.

“We need a 3rd string C. That’s about it. If Clarkson wants to tag along, sure, but he needs to understand that he will probably get even less minutes than last year.”

Or a second-string center. Depending on who we get, Drum might move down in the rotation.

Macri’s newsletter is sort of a “what if” re: the Spida trade. I posted about it yesterday, but me, it was the luckiest break of Leon’s tenure that his best offer (and possibly any offer) to Ainge was rebuffed.

I consistently said back then that I would personally withhold judgment on Leon’s tenure until Fall 2023 or until he made an all-in move. In that moment, I thought the die was going to be cast in the extreme negative. I even went on Termine and Johnson’s show after the Cavs’ deal was made to express relief that the deal didn’t go through and that I represented a broad swath of fans who felt the same way.

Nothing that has happened since has changed my mind that Leon was extremely lucky to have avoided a catastrophic mistake, most likely (but of course, not definitely) an unrecoverable one. And at the time, it definitely shook my confidence in Leon, but the rest of that offseason was pretty solid (I didn’t mind the draft-day stuff all that much) and, well, here we are…..defending champs!

And this has nothing to do with it not working out for Cleveland as they had hoped.

“Or a second-string center. Depending on who we get, Drum might move down in the rotation.”

Fair. I just don’t see that guy readily available.

I really don’t get why Cleveland signed Spida to that massive extension. Maybe they think that they have no chance to win a championship beyond this season so might as well ensure that they are somewhat competitive and keep fannies in the seats. He and Mobley clearly aren’t a championship core going forward into their extensions.

As to Drummond, I think he has the ability to be very close to as good as Mitch on offense and on the boards. It’s the defensive end where Mitch will be missed most, especially situationally. But can he be coached up? We’ve seen Brown and his staff work wonders with all three of KAT, Brunson, and Clarkson. Even with plus defenders like OG, Mikal, Deuce, and Mitch, seems like the schemes maximize their effectiveness.

Drummond’s biggest issue is that he’s heavy on his feet. He was never all that quick laterally in terms of covering the court, while Mitch was obviously elite. The goal should be to close that gap as much as possible with a conditioning program, film study, and practice reps. I just worry that with a guy at Drummond’s age and weight, you risk injury by asking him to do too much.

“I posted about it yesterday, but me, it was the luckiest break of Leon’s tenure that his best offer (and possibly any offer) to Ainge was rebuffed.”

I generally agree with your take. But it ignores two things in the counterfactual: Thibs’ imprint on Donovan versus JB/Kenny’s; and the Brunson/Mitchell dynamic (Macri insinuates that Jalen would defer to him ala Luka–don’t agree). Of course it would have meant different or no OG, Bridges, KAT trades, but the last 2 were 50-50s until this post season. All I know is that you need a lot of luck to be champs–whether it be a trade that did not happen, a Shamet 2-3 bounce on the rim before going in for a crucial 3, or a star rifling the ball into the back of his teammate in the last minute of a game on a knife-edge.

“But it ignores two things in the counterfactual: Thibs’ imprint on Donovan versus JB/Kenny’s; and the Brunson/Mitchell dynamic (Macri insinuates that Jalen would defer to him ala Luka–don’t agree).”

The pairing would create two intractable problems:
-one of the worst defensive backcourts in the NBA
-a closer issue…who waters down who? Clearly Brunson is the superior closer, and that would eventually cause Mitchell issues, or at least make him not worth his contract.

I don’t think Thibs or anyone else could solve that riddle. And there was a guy named Randle to deal with. And Mitch would have gone out in that trade. It would have been a clunky mess.

However, I do think that Spida could have been offloaded for decent value, even if not as much as went out to get him. Maybe after a year or two, Leon would have pivoted in a way that made more sense, and got lucky and hit some home runs in the process.

Thankfully, we’ll never have to find out.

In my eyes, Mitchell was the only guy who competed in the Cavs series. I can see why Cleveland re-upped him even if they have no real shot of winning it all.

I think the Harden trade was a big mistake for them, though. They went out early last post-season and then weren’t on track to win 60 games again, so they panicked and made that Harden trade. I think they should have been more patient and waited for another move.

It’s interesting that Kayil is having trouble getting released from his old team. It suggests they aren’t happy about losing him, even though they might be contractually obligated to release him eventually. I consider that a good sign for his talent. Of course, it could just be a simple bureaucratic mess too.

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