Sometimes you have to overpay for really good players even if they aren't top 10 players. Charlotte gave Al Jefferson a crazy deal(not sure if it was max) and he's a really good player but how good? That team has turned around and is a legit solid team. If not for him they are probably in the basement of the east. If we didn't pay Amare Melo possibly gets traded elsewhere, Gallo is hurt every year and we still haven't even sniffed the playoffs since 04.
It also depends on which max we are talking about. I've seen different variations of it all. If the cap is at 62 Mill you can give out around 3 max deals and if you use the bird exception you can still fill out your team without going over the tax line. I mention the tax line because all the recent talk seems to be that the owners dont want to go over that whereas I thought in the past that wasn't as big of an issue. Anyway, there's probably upwards of 50 guys I'd be willing to give out a max or close to it depending on the situation. It's just much easier to but together a big 3 than a well rounded core of 5 or 6 ok players you'll be overpaying anyway due to the cap restrictions.
Jodie meeks got 6-7 Mill I believe. He's a mediocre backup. I'd much rather pay double that for Chandler Parsons who does everything at least offensively. Meeks is just a spot up shooter. These prices seem to all get driven up and when they do I'll just take the overpaid really good player over the way overpaid role player.
