Brett Ballantini, of SLAMonline.com, drops some Walt Whitman and describes why you shouldn’t get too excited about the lauded NBA free agent class of 2010.
We’re starting to see some scary signs of the real world creeping into the NBA, and not just in the form of “clearing cap space.” Seats near and far from the sidelines sit empty—a small-market club like the Bucks feel lucky to avoid hearing echoes dribbling in a half-full Bradley Center these days. And now news has leaked of a league “emergency fund” of borrowed monies, intended to help keep the weakest NBA teams afloat.
The salary cap is going down—perhaps as fast as it shot up.
A conservative estimate might peg the ‘09-10 salary cap at $50 million, a drop of 15 percent. If all things economic aren’t righted by miracle cure, it’s reasonable to think the recovery might not be underway by 2011, so expect the cap to take another plunge from there.
When the dust settles on the storied Class of 2010, teams could be squeezing players into a salary cap that’s rolled back to $45 million or less.
It’s a very good, informative and well-researched piece. Read the rest of it here.
Mix It Up