The Portland Trail Blazers have done well to negotiate some great contracts recently. Excluding rookies, which are the best value contracts on the roster?
In the quest for playoff and championship success, teams need great contracts on their rosters to enable flexibility and the space to sign extra pieces. The Portland Trail Blazers have a few great value ones themselves after some shrewd negotiating on Neil Olshey’s part.
Value contracts are also important as they are easily tradeable in situations where a player may get injured. Or if a star on another team becomes unhappy, then you have value contracts you can use to trade for said player.
Some teams struggle to get these value contracts, as they spend their money too liberally and are at the mercy of agents who do a great job at getting their clients overpaid. It’s about finding a happy medium between players / agents and the front office of a team.
Rookie contracts will be excluded from this article as they aren’t negotiated by teams. Second-round-picks can be negotiated, but they are still on a scale with rules put in place by the league under the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.
Value contract No. 3
Carmelo Anthony – $1,364,204
Yes, this is a different situation with Carmelo Anthony signing the minimum when the Blazers brought him in around November. But Olshey knew in his eyes that Melo could play, so he signed him to a minimum contract and then watched him give great production for this team.
Minimum contracts usually don’t give double-digit scoring, or have a player shooting 37 percent from three and 49 percent from the corners.
Melo’s stat line is as follows, 15.3 points and 6.3 rebounds on 42.6 percent from the field, 37.1 percent from three-point range, and 84.3 percent from the field.
The above stat line is that of a starter. Yes, Melo wasn’t very efficient from the field, but he gave excellent production on a contract of $1.3 million.
He started all 50 games he played, missing just two due to injury. Melo’s stat line is one of a starter – and a starter’s paycheck is usually at least $8 million at the lower end. His 32.5 minutes a night shows he was a main option on this team.
He also hit a game winner against the Toronto Raptors, and played crunch time in every single game he was in.
It’s very rare to see a player give starting level production on a $1.3 million contract. Well done Neil, and well done Melo