Max deals rarely pay off
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Sean Deveney /
http://msn.foxsports.com/story/2572300




Four summers ago in Orlando, Magic owner Rich DeVos sat, smiling, and with good reason. He was officially announcing that his team would sign free agents Grant Hill and Tracy McGrady. The move was to transform the Magic into a powerhouse and pull the franchise out of the post-Shaq-and-Penny doldrums. In what now seems an egregious use of an exclamation point, DeVos said, "They make us a much, much better team. It sort of feels like I'm in church up here saying: 'What a day this is!' "


How right you were!



It was a pivotal day for the Magic because the team simultaneously handed out two maximum-dollar contracts, the first time a team had done so since the maximum-contract rule came into being with 1998's collective bargaining agreement. That agreement defined a max contract as 25 percent of the team's salary cap for players with up to six years experience, 30 percent of the cap for a player with seven to nine years and 35 percent for players with 10 or more years. At the time, giving up half the team's cap space to two players did not seem like a bad idea.



Turns out, the contract given to Hill has been the worst max contract awarded under the new rules (see rankings). A series of ankle injuries has kept him in street clothes while he chews up his quarter of the Magic's space. McGrady's deal apparently did not do much for Orlando, either, because he was traded.



But the Magic is not the only team having buyer's remorse about maximum deals. Most teams are. Beneath the headlines around the fate of the Lakers, max contracts are the driving force of this offseason -- teams paying maximum money have grown impatient with players who are not giving maximum performance. Changes are afoot.



Rockets point guard Steve Francis, the main bait Orlando took when it traded McGrady, also is a maximum-contract player. Francis was on the trading block even before the McGrady deal. Antawn Jamison also was traded, to Washington on draft day. The Trail Blazers have looked aggressively to deal forward Shareef Abdur-Rahim. The Sonics would trade shooting guard Ray Allen, and the Raptors have told teams wing man Vince Carter can be had.



The Mavericks would give away one of their max-contract guys, Antoine Walker, and could be coerced into dealing another, Michael Finley. The Suns' offer to free-agent Quentin Richardson could be a precursor to moving max man Shawn Marion.



The 76ers are even listening to offers for its franchise icon, Allen Iverson.



These are a small sample of the 30 players who next season will collect on maximum contracts (including free agents Kobe Bryant and Kenyon Martin, who are certain to draw max deals).



There were approximately 410 players in the league last season, which means more than 7 percent of the total players were making maximum money. That number is far too high -- there's no way 7 percent of the league's players can be worthy of max deals; no way 30 players truly can be called "elite."



In the luxury-tax era, there is no room for mistake contracts, but teams have been careless in giving out big deals. Maximum players should be all-around stars, excelling on both ends of the floor, making players around them better and acting as leaders in the locker room. There are not many more than six or seven such players in the league.



As one agent says, "The way things have turned out with a lot of the max-deal players, it has gotten harder to go to a team and say, 'We want the max.' The precedent of giving those out is not very good. That's the reality we're dealing with."



This summer, there is likely to be just two max contracts given out -- a historic low under the current CBA. Meanwhile, teams are looking to the trade market to wriggle out of the unsatisfactory contracts on their payrolls.



What a day this is, indeed.



Sean Deveney is a staff writer for Sporting News. Email him at sdeveney@sportingnews.com.