Good and Bad Franchises and Salary Dumping: Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves
Sometimes, when the relationship between a player and a team doesn’t work out in the National Basketball Association (NBA), it is important for a team to find a creative way to alleviate their salary cap by ‘dumping’ the player onto another team with as little damage to their own roster and cap as possible.
The ability to do so is the smoothest way to move on from a mistake and how teams handle player dumping is often reflective of their organizational strength. A prime example of this is the major difference between how the successful Houston Rockets team handled dumping compared to the sideshow-like operation of the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Houston Rockets signed Australian big man David Andersen last summer to bolster their frontcourt, while Yao Ming was slated to be out with an injury. Anderson simply could not perform at the 5 spot and the Rockets wound up using the 6ft, 6in Chuck Hayes as their centre for the most part of the year.
With Yao Ming slated to return, the Rockets needed to get rid of Anderson to open up their salary cap and have a roster spot available for a player that could be considered NBA-level talent. They managed to unload Andersen and his steep salary onto the Toronto Raptors for a protected 2015 second-round draft pick.
This clears up $2.5 million that Andersen would have earned this season for the Rockets. As Houston had already signed Luis Scola, Kyle Lowry, and Brad Miller, getting rid of Andersen was a necessary salary dump to avoid the pitfalls of the NBA’s luxury tax. In exchange, Toronto got themselves another frontcourt player, though he probably will not be of much help to the team’s deficiencies. Regardless, he is only guaranteed $185,000 for 2011-12, so Toronto can sever ties seamlessly if Andersen continues underperforming.
The Minnesota Timberwolves did a similar thing this week by moving Ramon Sessions to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Timberwolves signed the point guard last year to a four-year contract worth $16 million and were expecting him to be a fit to their system. Almost immediately it became evident that Sessions and Minnesota were not meant to be.
Like the Rockets, the Timberwolves decided to dump Sessions’ pricey deal. To do so, Minnesota sent Sessions and a 2013 second-round pick to Cleveland in exchange for former Timberwolf Sebastian Telfair and the unguaranteed contract of Delonte West.
While this may seem like the same cap alleviating move, it is in reality a perfect example of the brains behind Houston and the entire disregard for logic when it comes to running the Timberwolves.
By getting rid of Andersen, Houston alleviated $2.5 million in luxury tax. It also helps Houston get closer to being below the threshold, which is even more important. Even if they pretty much paid Toronto to take Andersen, they will still end up saving a total of $2 million almost immediately.
The Timberwolves, on the other hand, actually did nothing with their ‘dump.’ The Timberwolves save only $800,000 next year with their trade and now have to deal with West’s guaranteed $500,000 and Telfair’s $2.7 million for next year. Perhaps even more pathetic is that Telfair’s preposterous deal, which will haunt the Wolves, was initially brokered by former Timberwolves general manager (GM) Kevin McHale.
The Timberwolves also did nothing to clear up their logjam at point guard, by simply replacing Sessions with Telfair, all immediately after signing 29 year-old point Luke Ridnour. So if Ricky Rubio does in fact come to Minnesota as GM David Kahn expects, and he won’t, that would mean that the Timberwolves would be paying one of their third-string point guards multiple millions per year.
This is the sort of decision making that exhibits why the Timberwolves are doomed as a franchise until they entirely retool their management and why the Houston Rockets have been consistently contending despite injuries to star players.
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