I mean the price of a back up big in the NBA right now is 15+ million dollars. I'm pretty sure Noel is worth that. I doubt anybody is going to go higher than 20, and I'd pay it. Hell be movable on that contract.
Team 2nd Center 2016 Contract
ATL Muscala 1.0
BKN Hamilton 3.0
BOS Olynyk 3.1
CHA M Plumlee 12.5
CHI Felicio 0.5
CLE Frye 7.8
DAL Bogut 11.0
DEN Nurkic 1.9
DET Baynes 6.5
GSW West 1.5
HOU Nene 2.9
IND Jefferson 10.2
LAC Speights 1.4
LAL Black 6.1
MEM Davis 1.4
MIA Reed 1.1
MIL Henson 12.5
MIN Aldrich 7.6
NOP Asik 9.9
NYK Hernangomez 1.6
OKC Kanter 17.1
ORL Biyombo 17.0
PHI Okafor 4.8
PHX Len 4.8
POR Ezeli 7.4
SAC Koufos 8.0
SAS Dedmon 2.9
TOR Nogueira 1.9
UTA Withey 1.0
WAS J Smith 5.0
Average 5.8
Median 4.8
older contracts though
With the new cba, they'll def go up a bit
They'll go up a little bit, but not that much. $15 or so million is what a lot of teams are paying their top bench guy. Sometimes that's a center, sometimes it's not. Noel being paid like a top bench man isn't ridiculous, I guess, but let's describe what he's being paid as in such a situation more accurately.
a number of those players are still on their rookie contracts and West signed for the veteran minimum chasing a title. Only like 3 signed under the current CBA and those are all much higher than average.
You kind of proved the opposite point with your West comment unwittingly. West is not worth more than a few million as a bench player at the end of his career. Maybe some other team would pay him a million more but nobody is paying West 15 million. That is fine though, teams fill their bench and backup players on cheap deals. That is why a lot of backup players are going to be rookie or aging vagabond vets on short deals. You could argue the Warriors backup center is actually mcghee, but he is also a near minimum player. You look at our backup bigs and it is Zeller and KO. Zeller signed 8 million in a bit of a gift to him on a year deal mainly for trade purposes. KO is still on a cheap deal, when he wants 17 million dollars if he is still seen as backing up Amir and Horford he will go on another team he can start or make less money. The idea that you just throw 15 million at bench players is absurd, especially when they are backing up a star that needs to be on the floor in crunch time and starting.
West is 100 years old (actually 36). He isn't a typical back-up and neither are any of the players on a rookie deal. That was the point I was making. I'm not suggesting 15 million is a good price for a backup, but I am suggesting you can't include rookie deal player or players like West in your analysis because they aren't a Noel type player. Plumlee, Biyombo, Jefferson, and Ezeli are the new order of back-up center. Those guys average around 11 million. It certainly isn't crazy to think that Noel would get a contract more in line with Biyombo than Ezeli.
Moranis, in case you've forgotten, the list of salaries was in response to this statement:
I mean the price of a back up big in the NBA right now is 15+ million dollars. I'm pretty sure Noel is worth that. I doubt anybody is going to go higher than 20, and I'd pay it. Hell be movable on that contract.
The point is that just because Biyombo and 1-2 others may make $15+ million as a backup big, most teams don't budget that much for the position. Some use vets on minimum or room deals. Some use guys on rookie contracts. A few of the contracts are pre cap spike, but a majority aren't.
Noel may get in excess of $15 million per. But to declare that such a sum is typical for a backup big is incorrect, and believing Noel to be movable on such a contract is optimistic. He'll only be movable if a team taking on that deal sees him as a starter.
I just found the use of guys on rookie contracts to be disingenuous when talking about a guy that isn't on a rookie contract as some great salary divider, especially when all of those contracts are going to get a lot bigger with the new money at play. That is why Biyombo, Plumlee, Ezeli, and Jefferson are far better gauges, since they all got new money contracts. Now if you want to say that most teams just use a rookie contract guy or an aging veteran in that role, that is a fair point, but that was not how that list was being used.
The list is what it is. Teams fill the backup 5 position with cheap contracts. Not everyone is going to get a lot more money because of the new CBA. As it is, the 4 deals you cherrypicked aren't great indicators for Noel. The two long-term deals for Biyombo and Plumlee are albatrosses, the Ezeli deal isn't a long-term deal and Big Al got paid less than before.
ESPN had the following to say about the recent CHA trade for Plumlee (the underlined part is imnportant if you believe in the law of supply and demand)
...Plumlee will make $12.5 million a year through 2019-20, and it's quickly become evident (if it wasn't already) that he's worth nothing near that amount in a center-saturated league.
.
CHA got a D for its trouble. The Biyombo contract is viewed as immovable:
It has not taken long for buyers’ remorse to kick in. League sources told Sporting News that the Magic have picked up their attempts to move Ibaka ahead of next month’s trade deadline, eager to ensure that they come away with some return for a player who does not figure to be in Orlando long. Ibaka will be a free agent this summer. There is no chance of a Biyombo trade, not after the Magic paid him $70 million for four years this offseason.
I suspect smart GMs aren't looking at Plumlee or Biyombo as indicative of the market.
Sure as was Mozgov, Noah, and plenty of other contracts that people were analyzing under the old money system. Of course you also had a guy like Speights that basically couldn't find work and signed real cheap. And then Boston signs Zeller for 8 million to be what a 3rd string back-up center.
I would be surprised if Noel didn't at least 15 million a year from some team, now granted that team would like be making that offer for Noel to start and not be a back-up which does make it a bit different, but Noel could easily end up in the Biyombo role on that new team anyway.
I don't think anyone disagrees that, barring Noel playing absolutely horrible the rest of the season or suffering another injury, a team like the Nets or Mavericks will pay him 18-20 million dollars to anchor their defense as their starting center and plan on playing him 32 minutes a year.
What people are contending is that for the 76ers (and a lot of teams that have a good starting center) Noel is not going to be worth that kind of money when he will play 20-22 minutes a night.
As other have pointed out lots of teams that have a good starting center fill the backup role with an aging vet on a cheaper deal or fill in with a cheap young player that is still developing.
Also, I think it is being a bit unrealistic to feel like the deals this summer really set the market for what backup or lower end big men will make. Mosgov, Noah and Bismack are already viewed as bad contracts and not movable unless they are attached to a sweetener for a salary dump.
I think this offseason we saw a lot worse contracts handed out then we will in subsequent offseasons. Similar to how a lot of people buy a frivolous thing or an overly fancy dinner on pay day, owners had a pocketful of cash and wanted to spend it just because we could. In that respect I am thankful that we have a GM in ainge that didn't get us attached to any crazy contracts.
To be sure guys are going to get paid a lot more across the board but bench players, especially not "6th starter" types are not going to make 15-20 million a year.