The ‘Rashard Lewis Rule’
Jul 12th, 2007 by totoro
The amnesty rule a few seasons ago allowed teams a one-time opportunity to release a player and avoid paying the luxury tax on his salary. It was often called the “Allan Houston” referring to the former Knicks shooting guard who had a 6 year, $100 million dollar contract while spending most of his time in the training room instead of the basketball court because of an injury. The rule was used on players like Brian Grant, Michael Finley, and Calvin Booth. Interestingly enough, the Knicks didn’t even use it on Allan Houston but rather Jerome “Junkyard Dog” Williams.
With reports of Rashard Lewis signing a max deal of $126.4 million deal over the next six seasons, the NBA may have to bring back the amnesty rule. It’s quite absurd for a player that averaged 22.4 points and 6.6 rebounds last season and will be 28 years old next month. Lewis is a good player but he’s not a max player. He’s not even the best player on the team. That honor goes to Dwight Howard who is set to sign a 6 year extension for less than Rashard’s deal.
The Allan Houston contract set off a storm of bad contracts and NBA teams being financially handcuffed. What kind of contracts will players and their agents want next year when the free agent class could be one of the best in recent years led by Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, Gilbert Arenas, Elton Brand, Shawn Marion, Jermaine O’Neal, and Allen Iverson.
The NBA needs to make changes. When it all comes down to it, the ones paying for these bad contracts are the fans. I can’t wait for the “Rashard Lewis” rule in 5 years when Lewis will be making close to $25 million while just being a decent role player for the Magic.
Rashard just banked. Magic should have waited until next year before doing this because the FA crop would have been better.
They basically locked up their cap without having any legit guards.
I can’t wait for the “Rashard Lewis” rule in 5 years when Lewis will be making close to $25 million while just being a decent role player for the Magic.
…And that’s if he’s healthy
I agree rashard is overpaid, but in a weak free agency year. Teams have to upgrade in the offseason. And being the best available, means you get paid the most of everyone. Because every team is bidding on rashard, so if the magic dont pay the max then the grizzlies will pay it to get him. The cap protects teams from being able to sign every all star on the planet to their team, but the system is definitely flawed. But I like salary cap leagues like football and basketball. I hate baseball’s system, because the best 5 teams always have the best players, cause they are willing to spend the most. In basketball you can have teams make a couple moves in the offseason and become champions like when the heat traded for shaq. And the nice thing about the nba system is players are able to get rewarded for staying with their home team and get paid for being loyal to their teams and their fans. For the most part superstars stay in place on the same team for many years. But once and awhile a good player can move to a good team and make that team great, like steve nash. Nash was always considered good in dallas, but never great. But after adding him to marion, bell, stoudemire, joe johnson, quentin richardson and all the other studs in pheonix, he turns into a phenom mvp candidate. When he was in dallas he never was considered an mvp. So if a free agent is smart and picks a team that has a system that will maximize him, he can get paid big dollars and possibly become a better player or at least more marketable to the fans, so he can earn more off the court. Nash is selling instructional dvds and nike commercials of him playing soccer now. If he stayed in dallas, he never would have gotten those opportunities. I dont even think nash is the best player in pheonix. I believe marion and amare or more important suns than nash. But when nash showed up, they started winning, so he got all the glory and became an mvp. He has always been a great passer.
But every mvp, is surrounded by great players, and then make each other win. That is why kobe bryant is not a great player. He is a selfish player that cannot elevate his teammates to win big games. Kobe dominates one on one games. But stick 12 guys out ther with him and 12 guys out there with tim duncan. And duncan will kick his behind, all day long. Duncan has won with so many different teammates and so has shaq. But kobe will never win without a great big man to help him like shaquille. Wade knows it, but kobe’s head is so big, now he lambasts, his management and his teammates. And blames all the losing on everyone else. When he should blame the losing on himself. If you want the glory for winning, then you must accept the blame when you lose. You cannot blame the losing on your teammates, and ask the press to call you mvp when you win.
Rashard will open up the floor for dwight with his outside shooting. Which could make dwight better and make rashard better when they double team dwight. They spent a lot of money on lewis. But that money might bring them closer to a ring. He will be an upgrade over hill at small forward for sure. And with a weak eastern conference if the magic get hot they could go far in the east. I dont know if they can beat any western conference teams, but we all said the same about the heat and pistons, until they won the title and showed that the west can be beat in a 7 game series.
And if you were kobe or garnett, getting older and becoming an unrestricted free agent. Would you be willing to take less money to play with dwight howard and rashard lewis in a weak eastern conference? If they were smart they could consider that a good destination, for a quick run at a title. Can you imagine a front court of howard, kg and lewis, that would be sick. Or howard, lewis and kobe would be just as dominant.
Two guys cannot win in the new nba. It takes 3 superstars, or at least 3 all stars to pull it off. So the magic have two young all stars, if anybody else good signs with them in these next 5 years, the magic could be well on their way to multiple titles. Then nobody will be calling rashard’s deal a bad deal.
I am glad for Rashard Lewis, Houston should have pick him in the draft when they had a chance. He waited and now he is getting paid. Orlando, well done, Rashard, you got work to do. Yes Orlando should make to the eastern conference final this coming season. It’s all about the playoffs. Hint,Hint…Dallas
The Spurs just won the title! How may Superstars/All Stars did they have? You are wrong! It takes a team that plays tight defense and
can control the tempo with their defense like beating Phoenix that wins playoff and finals games!
Very few Superstars play good defense. Kobe Bryant does but
it’s a mentality of team defense that wins like the Spurs. I will admit that those kind of teams are not very exciting unlike the Phoenix run and gun but look at the outcome this year. It would have been more exciting in the 2007 Finals if Chicago would have played Phoenix!
Spurs versus the Piston would have been just as boring as Cleveland versus the Spurs! The Spurs and Pistons have the best defensive teams in the NBA!
John, you don’t think Manu, Parker and Duncan qualify as three All-Stars? I bet you can’t name more than a handful of players, at each players’ position, that are better than those three. All three of those guys are perennial All-Stars whether or not they get voted in or not.
All three guys are so intelligent with the ball. They rarely make mistakes. The Pistons were like that in their Championship run. They’re getting more sloppy. The Spurs seem to only get better. They have an advantage in having a younger PG. Duncan, being older now, doesn’t have to be the fastest guy on the floor.
Of course, the supporting cast is getting old, fast. We’ll see if they can keep replenishing their perimeter guys like they have been. However, you could argue that Duncan makes his teammates look good, but then I’d say that there were many times when they didn’t have Duncan and they’d still win or play well. Both Manu and Tony can easily put up 30ppg if given the ball enough, but they don’t because the scoring is usually more even.
It’s quite amazing to look back at the kind of players they’ve had and you wonder how they managed to win it all (Avery Johnson, Sean Elliot, Stephen Jackson, etc.). It’s amazing how well they were able to transition to Tony Parker and Ginobili and keep on winning. It just goes to show that the Spurs have a great scouting department and a great judges in talent, mainly Popovich. He’s one smart cookie; even if he is a little on the grouchy side.
BTW, I’m not even a Spurs fan but I can appreciate greatness when I see it. I’m actually a Jazz fan. I’m sure you can all understand how excited I am about my team’s future. Better hop on the bandwagon now so it looks like you were there from the start. =)
duncan maybe “boring’ but how can anyone say that Manu & Parker are boring. Parker gets into the paint more than Duncan does and more than every other point guard in the league.
What makes Duncan”boring” is that he very seldom gets to the rim or dunks the ball.