I've been thinking of this idea for a bit, and Lowe mentioned it in his column today, so I thought I'd run with it.
As the cap projections currently stand, the Celtics will have a difficult time of getting to max cap room without dumping at least one significant player. The commonly held best idea -- releasing/renouncing all free agents and fully non-guaranteed deals, salary dumping Jackson and Rozier, and keeping Yabusele overseas for an additional season -- leaves the team a couple hundred thousand short of pure max room. If the cap rises about $350k from the current projection, that will be sufficient. The other idea is "if he won't take a small haircut, I don't want him", which, while understandable, seems sub-optimal.
But there is another way -- unlikely bonuses. Unlikely bonuses do not count against the cap -- only likely bonuses. The problem, of course, is that unlikely bonuses are not accomplishments that are expected to happen (hence the "unlikely" in the name) -- if they are expected to happen, they become "likely." Now, the key is that the NBA defines (with some room for exception) a bonus as likely if it would have been reached in the prior season, and unlikely if it would not have. So this means the challenge would be to create bonuses that Hayward would have a reasonable chance of reaching, that would not have been reached last year. They can be either player or team accomplishments, and they have to be "measurable", so based on a statistic or an award. Here is my idea:
1) Hayward is paid a bonus of X (X being the amount he is short of the maximum) in any season in which one or more of the following occur: a) he is named to the All-NBA team, b) he is named to the All-Defense team, c) the team advances to the NBA finals, d) the team wins 55 games. (X goes up each year to the amount Hayward is short the max, since that number rises thanks to raises -- if he's short $300k this year, he'd be short $315k next season).
Anyway, that collection of events are all unlikely by what both Hayward and the Celtics did last year. All-NBA might be more possible next year in Boston instead of Utah, so that could help. All-Defense is unlikely, but gives him something to strive for. Reaching the NBA finals is always difficult, but certainly becomes more plausible with Hayward on the team. The key is winning 55 games -- last year the Celtics won 53, and with the addition of Hayward 55 seems quite attainable. It's not a guarantee, however, and the NBA would be unlikely to challenge it (there's also a challenge process, and the burden of proof would be on the league).
So, if Hayward and/or the Celtics accomplished at least 1 of the above 4 things every year, Hayward would wind up with a max deal. Now I should caveat that I'm not certain if team win totals are allowed. I know the other 3 are, and I'm fairly certain that is as well, but if anybody could confirm or deny (with a source), you'd get TPs from me.
Anyway, that's my idea to get Hayward to a max, with a little less than max room. Frankly, I think it's a good one, and I hope that Mike Zarren, or someone who works for him, has already come up with this idea, or sees this if they haven't. What other "unlikely" incentives can we add to make this idea even better? I prefer to avoid statistical accomplishments since that can sometime lead to perverse incentives, as we saw with Moe Harkless and the sudden fear to take 3-point shots.
Topic: Using unlikely bonuses to get Hayward to the max (Read 3747 times)