Gilbert Arenas

In the past four NBA seasons, there have been 208 occasions on which a player has scored 40 or more points - regular season and playoffs combined. Fifty-seven players have combined for those 208 outbursts, including such unlikely names such as Luis Scola, C.J. Watson and C.J. Miles.

Most of the players are stars, or were stars at the time. Many still are. But some of those players have fallen from this intermittent grace so badly that they now only earn the minimum salary.

Despite their proven potency, Nick Young, Al Harrington, Anthony Morrow, Aaron Brooks and Michael Beasley are now earning as little as a player can - in the case of Beasley, not one dollar of this minimum is even guaranteed. This was agreed to less than three calendar years from his 42-point game, quite the backwards progression.

Four others, however, haven't even got that much to show. Four players who scored 40 or more points in an NBA game over the past four years aren't in the NBA any more.

Two are injury related - Brandon Roy and Gilbert Arenas. Roy has retired, twice, due to his debilitating knee troubles, while Arenas is a mere fraction of the player he was. He doesn't need to officially retire from the NBA - he simply wasn't good enough to stay in it any more, and fell out of it before the age of 30.

Memphis had two things to do this deadline: buy some players, and sell some players. Their good but not elite team needed to acquire an extra ball handler, and much improve its three point shooting, while also somehow dodging the luxury tax threshold they currently reside just over.

This trade only alleviates one of those three needs. Apparently, Gilbert Arenas will fix the others.

Gilbert Arenas — One of seven designated amnesty players this offseason, Hibachi is finally free from the monumental burden that was his monumental contract. Even then, however, no one seems to want him. As much as Gilbert has declined, he has never declined to the point that he is no longer an NBA talent. He is, however, seemingly not good enough any more to overcome his reputation.

[T]he amnesty clause (that we're having to pretend will exist here, but which almost certainly will exist in some form) will further expand the range of available talents. A lot of decent players are going to become available, not because they can't play the game, but because they can't justify their contract. A lot of the candidates are obvious and inevitable, some perhaps less so. Here's a potential list:

- Orlando: Gilbert Arenas and Chris Duhon - Wouldn't you? A hard cap is coming and Dwight Howard might be leaving.

Wall should pair up fairly well with Gilbert Arenas, and the Wizards should be a good full court team. Neither player is a great point guard in the half court, but in that regard they can help each other, and Wall should help Arenas rebuild his value (so that he may then be dealt.) Wall's jumpshot is not all there, but the form is solid, and thus it should be something he can easily develop. And while he has the tendency to drift defensively and doesn't do a particularly good job of keeping opposing slashers out of the lane, he has the athleticism to make up for it and win possessions. His flaws are fixable, and his strengths are strong indeed.

[...]

Jon Barry wonders allowed whether Gilbert Arenas can guard opposing shooting guards. That's an easy one, Jon: no he can't. But he couldn't guard opposing point guards anyway. More importantly, this is the number 1 pick; your task is to get the best player in the draft, for now and for forever. You can work the rest out later. (And besides, they're getting Kurt. He's defended two guards for 7 years.)

[...] Whichever of the three he does, Morrow cannot sign for a contract that starts at higher than the value of the MLE. This is due to what is known informally as the "Gilbert Arenas Rule".

The Gilbert Arenas Rule is so named because of the case of Gilbert Arenas back in the summer of 2003. Arenas was in the same situation as Morrow; his first contract was a two year minimum, and when it ended, he became a restricted free agent. However, Arenas was about 47 times better than Morrow at the time of his free agency, so when Washington signed Arenas to an offer sheet that summer, they signed him to a contract that started much bigger than the MLE.

From what we learnt above, with the Morrow case, we learned that played with only two years of experience are only Early Bird free agents. We also learned that the Early Bird exception allows you to re-sign players for up to the value of the full MLE in the first year, but not for more than that. Furthermore, it is of course self-evident that the MLE is equal to the value of the MLE; therefore, when Washington signed Arenas to an offer sheet for $19 billion in the first year or whatever it was, then Golden State had no means with which to match it. Gilbert was a restricted free agent, which meant Golden State had the right to match any offer if they could......but they couldn't. They did not have the necessary salary cap mechanisms with which to do so. The Early Bird exception wasn't big enough, the MLE wasn't big enough, and they didn't have any cap room. So they lost out, and Gilbert went to Washington.

Gilbert Arenas was suspended indefinitely today, where "indefinitely" is implied to mean "for the rest of the season at least." I don't really have an opinion on that, apart from to state the obvious. Which I won't do.

But here's one thing to note; the financial repercussions of the suspension.

Disregarding the possible voiding of the contract for a moment - I'm not a lawyer and won't profess to understand all the technicalities behind this - the suspension impacts the Wizards' current salary situation too. As things stand, the Wizards are about $8 million over the luxury tax threshold, and with no obvious means of getting under it. The players they want to dump (Mike James, DeShawn Stevenson) are undumpable, and they have nine players earning $3 million or more, tied with Portland for second in the league (the Knicks have ten). But this suspension gives them a means with which they can get nearer to getting under it.

50% of money not received by players suspended by the league is deducted from the team's cap. If a player loses an even $1 million in salary through suspension, then a team can deduct $500,000 from their salary cap number (and thus their luxury tax calculations). So by being suspended, Arenas has inadvertently aided the Wizards in their previously futile quest to dodge the luxury tax.

One thing I don't actually know is whether salary lost due to suspension is calculated based on games or days missed. It doesn't make a huge amount of difference to the general point though. So far in the season, 71 days have passed (not including today), and the Wizards have played 32 games. Therefore, regardless of whether you use 32/82nds of Gilbert's $16,192,079 salary ($6,318,860) or 71/170ths ($6,762,574), the fact remains that the suspension will cost Gilbert over $9 million if it is season long.

So if Arenas is indeed suspended for the remainder of the season, the Wizards will get about $4.5 million nearer to dodging the luxury tax. At that point, it becomes attainable.

How do the Wizards feel about this? Happy, surely. Must be. They needed to blow the team up because they built a bad one. They were losing, woefully underachieving, ill-fitting and WAY over budget. They mismanaged it badly, spending money badly and wasting basketball assets, compiling an inefficient roster of shooters and sulkers, and they were the most fail franchise in the NBA. Even moreso than the 3-31 Nets, who at least and a plan and some youth. Now, they've gotten an out clause. The Lord had mercy. Not sure why.

Sucks for the fans, though. The fans always are the victims. Sorry, people. Maybe next year.