The Sport Count

Each season, hundreds of millions are spent by NBA general managers in their bids to secure the talent their franchise needs to claim a championship.

Some teams outlay more money than is generated by some African nations in a given year. But does expenditure guarantee quality? In our new series The Roster Rater, The Sport Count team give their frank and honest views on the value represented by each franchise’s salaries.

Do not give this man your chequebook.

New York Knicks | Total Salary: $97,763,245

Letting Isiah Thomas come up with contract offers could have been seen as a funny thing to do — just how far will his bad ideas stretch? Really? Will he really offer Jerome James $6m a season? But actually gifting him the authority to make those offers to players is a decision so financially irresponsible it almost makes the Mugabe regime look like gifted economists.

So it’s no wonder that the Knicks’ roster contains some of the most laughably unrewarding contracts in the league, and hence represents the perfect place to start our considerations.

Zach Randolph | $14,666,667 | 3 years

This isn’t outright disgusting. Babyhead does consistently provide 20-10 numbers. But then, Randolph’s salary is a little over $3.5m more than Antawn Jamison is getting this season. Antawn Jamison was an All-Star last season, Randolph wasn’t. There are reasons for that.

One reason? Despite height and girth far more substantial than most in the league, Randolph can’t average one blocked shot a game, making him a serious defensive liability on a team full of defensive liabilities.  Another? This:

Eddy Curry | $9,723,983 | 3 years

$9.7m doesn’t seem too bad at the start of the season, when Curry’s frame and sporadically reasonable offensive numbers suggest he could be a competent big man. Then suddenly we’re 20 games into the season, his weight has ballooned, he hasn’t once turned up for defence and he’s forgotten that the low post even exists. That’s when the collective sigh occurs, as everyone remembers the disgusting contract that Isiah agreed to take on.

Stephon Marbury | Salary: $20,840,625 | 1 year

Flushing this amount of money down the toilet would be exponentially more entertaining for everyone than having to pay out Starbury’s contract. At least New York fans only have to suffer through a year more of this.

Worth mentioning is the possibility that Stephon turns up to training camp physically fit, mentally ready, sporting a serious jones to prove the doubters wrong, and boasting a surprising knowledge of the D’Antoni playbook. Actually, sorry, that wasn’t worth mentioning.

Quentin Richardson | $8,685,500 | 2 years

Well, he was in Van Wilder: Party Liaison. That, plus eight points and five rebounds, could be worth this much money. I guess.

Jamal Crawford | $8,640,000 | 3 years

Jamal’s contract is kind of tough to judge. His talents suggest he is one of the few genuinely capable players on the Knicks. He might even thrive as a floor managing off-guard on a team that needs one. But then you remember the Knicks are one of the worst teams in the league, and suddenly Jamal’s respectable numbers seem the product of the “someone has to score them” rule rather than ability.

We’ll give him the benefit of the doubt though, and assume a player who can top 30 points a game with some regularity is worth $8m+.

Malik Rose | $7,647,500 | 1 year

Rose is consistently, and somewhat euphemistically, referred to as a ‘character guy’:

Malik Rose is too good for these Knicks — too good of a teammate, too good of a person. In the immediate aftermath of player introductions, Rose routinely embraces each New York starter in a firm hug while whispering, “Go get ‘em” or “Make it your night.”

Indeed, by all accounts Rose spent the past four seasons acting as a calming influence on a team owned by a stubborn fatcat, and coached by one of the world’s least impressive basketball minds.

On a team stuffed with oversized egos and bloated contracts, that’s important. But when you average less than five points a game over three seasons, you better have a great personality.

Jerome James | $6,200,000 | 2 years

James played just two games last year, frustrating a Knicks front office desperate for him to retire. If James were to suffer a ‘career-ending injury,’ the Knicks would pick up a medical exemption, freeing up a little cap room, and forcing their insurance company to foot James’ bill.

If Jerome James sees Jimmy Dolan walking towards him with a pair of scissors in hand, and a cruel look in his eye, we know why.

Jared Jeffries | $6,049,400 | 3 years

Who wouldn’t love a reality show called Jared & Jerome, in which we follow two immensely rich, immensely useless big men as they roam the Big Apple?

Chris Duhon | $5,585,000 | 2 years

Duhon hardly oozes upside, and the Knicks undoubtedly bought too high in a bear free agent market. But overpaying by only $2.5m represents a substantial achievement in New York.

Danilo Gallinari | $2,394,600 | 2 years

Gallinari will spend the next two years either a) injured, wearing a Vuitton suit, talking film with Spike Lee or b) riding the pine, sporadically rising to challenge Andrea Bargnani as the NBA’s ‘most prominent Eurobust.’

This man: very excited about his contract year.

Nate Robinson | $2,020,179 | 1 year

Nate will seem like an absolute bargain when he thrives under the Knicks’ new run-and-gun style, putting up 18 points a game, and inexplicably developing a passing game.

He’ll seem like a rip-off when Donnie Walsh rewards his contract year effort with an Iguodala-esque contract.

David Lee | $1,788,033 | 1 year

Paying arguably your most valuable player — a genuine hustle guy, desperate for boards, active on both ends, a good attitude — far less than the wretched mistakes surrounding him?

Thank the lord (and Glenn ‘Big Dog’ Robinson) for rookie contracts.

Mardy Collins | $1,034,760 | 1 year

When Collins’ contract is up, I’m sure Carmelo Anthony would be interested in employing him as a human punching bag.

Wilson Chandler | $977,900 | 1 years

Remember how excited Spike Lee was on draft day ‘07? First he heard about the Babyhead Randolph pick-up (and loved it), then he expressed his love for the late round Chandler pick. ‘Isiah did the right thing,’ he said:

Well, Spike is probably less excited now.

Anthony Roberson | $797,581 | 1 year

Paying minimum wage for someone no one has ever heard of? Well, it can’t hurt. I guess.

Posted By: Alex & Anton

Shout-out: Want to see the hopes of New York fans graphed? Head over to Knicker Blogger.

Note: when expressing the years remaining on a contract, we’ve taken the team’s potential liability into account, meaning we assume a player will accept their player option; for example, Eddy Curry has one guaranteed year remaining, plus two years worth of player options, so the Knicks are potentially liable for three years of Big Eddy. A team option is not considered a liability.