Hunter’s numbers are WAY off in salary talk

Billy Hunter said a maximum of 10 players have bloated salaries, but we counted at least 34. (Reuters)

Billy Hunter’s appearance on Bill Simmons’ podcast Monday is a must-listen for NBA fans. The union executive director revealed several interesting nuggets from the collective bargaining talks, including Mark Cuban’s semi-radical idea of ditching the salary cap altogether in favor of a tax-only system (the league responded Tuesday by saying the union proposed that idea, and that Cuban proposed eliminating just the salary-cap exception.)  But the highlight for me came at about the 49-minute mark of Hunter’s interview when he got on a roll about the allegedly overpaid mid-level players whose bloated deals are among the driving forces behind this lockout.

Simmons brought up players making $6 million to $10 million per year on long-term deals, saying such contracts are the ones that “kill the league.” Hunter’s response:

“The problem with that, Bill, is that you’re talking about maybe six or seven guys in the league — maybe 10 guys at the most who fall into that category.”

But about a minute later, Hunter, riffing on a remark Simmons made in a column last week, argued that perhaps the league’s owners and general managers lack the “intellectual capital” to run a team effectively:

“You talk about intellectual capital. … I can use that argument with you and say when it comes to parity and competition, the players — I think they know more about what it takes to put together a winning team than most of the people that run these franchises. Because when we sit in rooms in the negotiations, the players will point out time after time how they couldn’t understand why a given team gave a particular player the contract they gave him. They are saying there’s no way in the world — that all the guys around the league are laughing because we know these guys don’t deserve these contracts. They have got to recycle some of these general managers. They need to go out and find people who really know how to conduct evaluations that are necessary in order to award contracts to the right guys.”

At first, Hunter says there are only a half-dozen veterans making $6 million to $10 million who truly don’t deserve it. But a minute later, he’s chuckling about all the inept general managers who reward players with silly contracts. These aren’t necessarily contradictory statements, since Hunter could be referring in the second excerpt to players making undeserved star-level money — guys like Joe Johnson, Rashard Lewis, Gilbert Arenas, Elton Brand, Andre Iguodala and others who fall outside the $6 million-$10 million spectrum Simmons outlined earlier.

But let’s isolate that salary strata and test out Hunter’s claim that we’re talking about a maximum of 10 players. We’ll use last season’s salary data (taken from Shamsports.com) because it covers every NBA player, including those who are set to be free agents and are technically not under contract. (As a side note, I’m well aware the old collective bargaining agreement guaranteed the players, in the aggregate, 57 percent of basketball-related income, meaning that sum of a shade more than $2 billion was heading to the players regardless of how much Eddy Curry made to do nothing. But the distribution of that money is a key issue at play here, and it’s worthwhile to fact-check both Hunter and Stern when they speak publicly).

ATLANTA HAWKS

• Kirk Hinrich: $9.1 million. A solid two-way player, but not worth this money — linked to the post-rookie-deal extension he signed with Chicago.

• Marvin Williams: $7.3 million. Another rookie-deal extension that looks like an overpay already. Perhaps Atlanta’s likeliest amnesty candidate.

BOSTON CELTICS

• None. But Jeff Green looms.

CHARLOTTE BOBCATS

• Boris Diaw: $9 million. Perhaps the league’s most maddening player.

• DeSagana Diop: $6.5 million. This is Cuban’s doing, and the Mavs’ owner managed to foist this contract onto Charlotte in a 2009 deal that sent Matt Carroll to Dallas. The Mavs then returned Carroll to Charlotte as part of the monumental Tyson Chandler deal last year.

• Joel Przybilla: $7.7 million. This is Portland’s contract, and it has already expired. Przybilla might have been able to approach this kind of value with better injury luck.

• Morris Peterson: $6.7 million. Another expiring deal the Bobcats took on at the trade deadline. The contract goes back to July 2007, when the Hornets signed the swingman to a four-year, $23 million deal. He was a borderline nonentity for the final three years of that contract.

CHICAGO BULLS

• None.

CLEVELAND CAVALIERS

• None. It’s tempting to include Baron Davis and Antawn Jamison, but their salaries are above this ceiling, and they fall into the “mistakenly paid like stars” category.

DALLAS MAVERICKS

• Brendan Haywood: $6.9 million. Haywood still has four seasons of guaranteed money left on the mammoth extension Cuban gave him before acquiring Chandler to man the paint. Haywood is almost 32, but he could produce at this level for another couple of years if given the minutes. Of course, if he’s given the minutes, it will mean Chandler has left in free agency or gotten hurt, and that would be bad.

DENVER NUGGETS

• Al Harrington: $5.8 million. Even though Harrington falls a hair shy of Simmons’ $6 million threshold, I’m including him because this is clearly the kind of deal the Grantland editor and chief and Hunter are talking about. Harrington’s salary will cross the $6 million mark next season and push toward $7 million in 2012-13, and at nearly 32, he’ll probably never live up to this mid-level deal. That said, Harrington could absolutely work as a “stretch” power forward in the right system, which is why I was optimistic when Denver signed him. Context is everything; Shawn Marion and Jason Kidd might both appear overpaid outside of Dallas, where their skills meshed perfectly with personnel and team needs.

• J.R. Smith: $6.8 million. Some people will object to this choice, considering Smith’s explosiveness as a scorer. But given his shaky defense and his tendency to find coach George Karl’s doghouse, I’m not sure he was worth this money last season.

DETROIT PISTONS

• Ben Gordon: $10.8 million. Gordon’s a bit over Simmons’ threshold, but I’m counting him because his salary slots him in the NBA’s second-banana tier, and he did not approach second-banana production last season.  Remember: context. Un-clutter the backcourt here and surround Gordon with the right type of defenders, and this deal suddenly doesn’t look so bad.

• Charlie Villanueva: $7 million. Ouch. Villanueva averaged just 22 minutes per game last season, the lowest mark of his career. Beyond that, his production didn’t actually change much.

We’re already at 11 players.

GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS

• Troy Murphy: $11.7 million. Will he be in the league next season?

• Andris Biedrins: $9 million. He made 14 free throws in his last 92 games and has regressed defensively.

• Vladimir Radmanovic: $6.9 million. A useful player and hard worker who nonetheless hasn’t averaged even 23 minutes per game since 2005-06.

HOUSTON ROCKETS

• Jared Jeffries: $5.9 million. The Rockets actually bought out Jeffries for less than the full amount due, but this list would not be complete without his Isiah Thomas-era deal.

INDIANA PACERS

• Mike Dunleavy: $10.5 million. They’re both off the books now, but the 2007 trade that sent Murphy and Dunleavy to Indiana (and Harrington to Golden State!) was spectacular.

• T.J. Ford: $8.5 million. The Pacers dealt Jermaine O’Neal to Toronto for Ford (and Ford’s contract), but at least they got Roy Hibbert’s rights in return, too.

• James Posey: $7.1 million. The price for acquiring Darren Collison from New Orleans, Posey is enjoying the post-championship bump that came with playing crucial minutes (at age 31) for the 2008 Celtics.

• Jeff Foster: $6.7 million. A nice role player. Not worth this money.

LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS

• None. Mo Williams, who earned $9.3 million last season, is a borderline choice, but I’ll spare him because the Cavaliers acquired him from Milwaukee at this price to fill a role around LeBron James that made sense. He also remains at least decently productive.

LOS ANGELES LAKERS

• Luke Walton: $5.3 million. His deal escalates to $5.8 million in 2012-13, so I’m including him. He has barely played over the last two seasons.

(Note: If you’re looking for Metta World Peace here, you won’t find him. His defense alone is worth a mid-level deal to a contender like the Lakers. Context is everything.)

MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES

• None.

MIAMI HEAT

• None. A healthy Mike Miller gets the benefit of the doubt.

MILWAUKEE BUCKS

• Corey Maggette: $9.6 million (now with Charlotte). The deal originates with Golden State. Maggette fell to the edges of Bucks coach Scott Skiles’ rotation last year because of his iffy jumper and shaky defense.

• John Salmons: $8 million (now with Sacramento). The Bucks did this one to themselves after Salmons lit up the league for Milwaukee in the last part of the 2009-10 season. Injuries derailed his 2010-11 season, and it will be interesting to see how he fits with the Kings.

• Drew Gooden: $5.8 million. Another universally — and instantly — panned mid-level deal, along with Harrington’s in Denver. Gooden is 30, with four seasons of guaranteed money ahead of him.

MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES

• None. Darko Milicic doesn’t crack $5 million until 2012-13, so while he’s overpaid, he doesn’t make the list.

NEW JERSEY NETS

• Dan Gadzuric: $7.2 million. This was his real salary.

• Travis Outlaw: $7 million. A disastrous first year with the Nets. A possible amnesty candidate.

• Sasha Vujacic: $5.5 million. Despite Vujacic’s claims that he can score 20 or 30 points whenever he feels like it, he wasn’t worth this money.

NEW ORLEANS HORNETS

• None. I’m giving Trevor Ariza one more year, because it’s my blog, and I can do that. Ariza put up an all-time bad shooting season in 2010-11, but his defense and package of skills would make him an asset on lots of strong teams — even at a price of $6.2 million.

NEW YORK KNICKS

Eddy Curry is why there's discussion of adding a "stretch exception" in the next CBA. (Jeff Lewis/Icon SMI)

• Eddy Curry: $11.5 million. Curry technically ended up on the Wolves’ payroll and his salary exceeds Simmons’ ceiling, but he has to be on this list because this is precisely the player the two sides have in mind when they talk about putting a “stretch exception” into the next CBA.

OKLAHOMA CITY THUNDER

• None. You could argue for Nazr Mohammed ($6.9 million), but he was productive on both ends last season.

ORLANDO MAGIC

• Hedo Turkoglu: $10.2 million. He has proved a better fit in coach Stan Van Gundy’s offense than he was in either Toronto (a one-season disaster) or Phoenix (a tiny sample size), but he is not going to come close to earning this money.

PHILADELPHIA 76ERS

• Andres Nocioni: $6.9 million. He essentially fell out of the rotation last season.

• Jason Kapono: $6.6 million. Ditto.

PHOENIX SUNS

• Josh Childress: $6.5 million. He’s got time — as much as four seasons under his current deal — but the 28-year-old forward was a non-factor in his first year in Phoenix, and he looks like a possible amnesty candidate if owner Robert Sarver is willing to pay Childress to go away.

PORTLAND TRAIL BLAZERS

• None. You could make the argument for Marcus Camby ($11.7 million), but he’s well above our artificial threshold and has served a vital role for the injury-riddled Blazers over the past two seasons.

SACRAMENTO KINGS

• Francisco Garcia: $5.5 million. He could play his way off this list easily, but over the last two seasons, Garcia has been unhealthy, semi-unproductive and occasionally out of place in Sacramento.

You could make the case for Beno Udrih ($6.5 million), but he has been a very productive offensive player for the Kings and should help on that end in Milwaukee. He gives back a lot of that production on the other end, but the Bucks, with Andrew Bogut and a team-wide emphasis on defense, might be better able to hide him.

SAN ANTONIO SPURS

• Richard Jefferson: $8.4 million. The Spurs, by some measures, broke even on this tax-skirting deal, primarily because of Jefferson’s 44 percent mark from three-point range — a total career outlier. But Jefferson fell apart in the playoffs for the second straight season, and he doesn’t add enough beyond shooting to justify this contract going forward.

TORONTO RAPTORS

• Jose Calderon: $9 million. This is a borderline choice, and I’m won’t argue if you think Calderon is worth this deal. He’s a very efficient offensive player who works hard on defense, despite his obvious limitations there. He’d be the league’s best backup point guard, capable of playing 20 minutes per game on a good team. He has been miscast as a full-time starter in Toronto, and a series of nagging injuries hasn’t helped.

It’s tempting to add two other players here — Amir Johnson and Leandro Barbosa. But both come with enough caveats that I’m willing to be generous and leave them off. Barbosa earned a tad more than $7 million last season, but Toronto took him on as the price of dumping Turkoglu’s much-worse contract. And Barbosa is another reminder that context matters: His deal looked like a disaster on a rebuilding team that needed to work in Sonny Weems and DeMar DeRozan on the wing, but on a contending Suns club, Barbosa looked like the bench scorer every contender needs.

As for Johnson ($5 million), he’s young and making progress. Let’s give him another year to play decent minutes while the Raptors wait for Jonas Valanciunas to join Johnson, Andrea Bargnani and Ed Davis in a frontcourt crowded with question marks.

UTAH JAZZ

• None. A few candidates, but none that fit the bill exactly. Al Jefferson is too pricey ($13 million), Devin Harris ($9 million) is productive and Mehmet Okur ($9.9 million) is a big help if healthy.

WASHINGTON WIZARDS

• None. You get one more year, Andray Blatche ($5.9 million). One. You had a pretty serious shoulder problem for much of last year, and while that doesn’t excuse your egregiously bad shot selection and lazy defense, it’s enough to buy you one more year. You talk a good game every summer about leadership, defense and even the playoffs. Let’s see it — now.

So, by my count, we have 34 players who last season earned a bloated salary in or around the range Simmons and Hunter mention — and I’ve been generous to a few other candidates.