Tax Payers, Trade Kickers, And Other Deadline Day Bookkeeping
February 26th, 2011

He looks happy. And why shouldn’t he.

That was one of the most interesting trade deadline weeks you’ll ever see.

Fourteen trades, one kind of funny near trade, 50 players traded, 3 players signed, 4 players waived, 16 draft picks traded, 1 rights to swap traded, and two absolute Stone Cold Stunners of trades that no one expected. And these weren’t trades like Sam Cassell and cash for a 2016 top 55 protected second rounder, either. These were trades …

Posted by at 6:21 AM

Changes In 2010/11 Salaries Due To Performance Incentives
July 10th, 2010

The worst part about maintaining the internet’s premier NBA salary information resource is that the information is never static. It is ever-changing. Due to things such as conditional guarantees, trade kickers and the like, rarely do contracts ever stay the same. This is particularly true because of the science of performance incentives.

Performance incentives can be included in contracts for almost any reason, including (but not limited to) All-Star selections, championship, or team wins. The only rules are that any …

Posted by at 12:49 AM

The Absurdity Of The Bulls/Celtics Series
May 1st, 2009

I feel obligated to write something about the Bulls/Celtics playoff series. It has been untold drama, brilliant excitement, and well worth the fortnight of 7am finishes. It’s been better than Megan Fox’s shadow, worse than De Niro’s moustache in Cop Land, and awesome to a fault. And I feel inclined to write something that describes it all.

But the truth is, I don’t want to. I don’t think I can. The series has been so unilaterally brilliant, so …

Posted by at 8:09 PM

It turns out defence does indeed win championships
June 18th, 2008

In the unlikely event that you hadn’t noticed, defence wins championships.

In the six games of this NBA Finals series, the Celtics ran about two perimeter isolation plays, not including ones at the end of quarters. They didn’t need to run any. The offence took care of itself from running only the simplest stuff. All they had to do was push the ball off of Laker misses and turnovers, occasionally post up Kevin Garnett, have the shooters run to …

Posted by at 5:52 AM