The Timberwolves will play 64 games this season. The Mavericks will play 75-77 games before the traditional playoffs.
Should Dallas players get paid a higher percentage of their salaries than Minnesota players?
That’s one of the thorny questions as the NBA resumes its season.
Though players have individual contracts with defined salaries, there’s an overriding factor in determining actual wages. The Collective Bargaining Agreement calls for players and owners to split revenue approximately 50-50. Salaries are adjusted to reach that 50-50 split.
Each year, the salary cap is set to a number designed to get total player salaries to about 50% of league-wide revenue. Obviously, that’s a difficult target to hit precisely. So, there are mechanisms to adjust the distribution of money if necessary. If their total slated salaries are higher than 50% of revenue, players don’t receive their full salaries. If their total salaries are lower than 50% of revenue, players get a shortfall check from owners.
Coronavirus has disrupted that well-oiled system
The league is missing a major chunk of revenue. Players’ slated salaries would call for them to earn WAY more than 50% of revenue. That’s why the NBA has been withholding a portion of players’ salaries. Force majeure allows teams to reduce players salaries for games canceled due to an epidemic.
The NBA’s reported plan reveals the number of lost games. There were 259 regular-season games remaining when the season was suspended. The continued season includes 88 regular-season games (eight each for the 22 continuing teams) plus 0-4 play-in games.* No playoff games are being canceled.
*I’m counting play-in games as regular-season games. It’s a gray area. Perhaps, owners and players will agree to count them as postseason games. It probably doesn’t matter here, anyway. In terms of force majeure, regular-season and playoff games count equally. So, it’s simple enough to count them as regular-season games.
That’s 167-171 canceled games.
Except not every team will have the same number of games canceled.
There’s a four-game spread in the number of games each team has played so far. The Warriors, Timberwolves, Cavaliers, Pistons, Hawks, Knicks, Bulls and Hornets are done now. Every other team will play at least eight more games. The Mavericks, Grizzlies, Nets, Magic, Trail Blazers, Pelicans, Kings, Spurs, Suns and Wizards could play up to two play-in games.
Based strictly on games played, here’s how much players on each team stand to lose in salary:
- Timberwolves: 19%
- Hornets: 18%
- Bulls: 18%
- Cavaliers: 18%
- Warriors: 18%
- Pistons: 17%
- Knicks: 17%
- Hawks: 16%
- Lakers: 12%
- Spurs: 10%-12%
- Celtics: 11%
- Rockets: 11%
- Clippers: 11%
- Thunder: 11%
- Raptors: 11%
- Jazz: 11%
- Nets: 9%-11%
- Pelicans: 9%-11%
- Kings: 9%-11%
- Wizards: 9%-11%
- Nuggets: 10%
- Pacers: 10%
- Heat: 10%
- Bucks: 10%
- 76ers: 10%
- Grizzlies: 8%-10%
- Magic: 8%-10%
- Suns: 8%-10%
- Trail Blazers: 6%-9%
- Mavericks: 5%-8%
Is that fair to players on the eight done teams? They didn’t ask for their season to end prematurely.
On the other hand, they don’t have to do any more work. Other players must travel to Orlando, live under restrictions, play games with heightened injury concerns and risk contracting coronavirus just so the league can increase its revenue. Should eliminated players reap the rewards while sitting home?
This tension also exists in normal times. Players across 16 playoff teams divvied up just $20 million total for competing in the 2018 playoffs, and the amount was similar last year. Player income is largely earned on the regular season, even though the players playing in the playoffs disproportionately draw the revenue that funds everyone.
But the disparity feels sharper now – with the worst teams not even finishing the regular season and playoff teams facing a far larger burden just to keep playing.
To a certain degree, this is a player problem. Owners are going to pay approximately 50% of league revenue to players. The CBA dictates how players on each team should have their salaries cut through force majeure. If players want to share the losses more evenly among each other, owners should accommodate.
Consider this similar to cap smoothing, which the union infamously rejected. Except in that case, it was more just luck which players were in the favored class. Now, the players who could earn more will actually be the ones putting in the additional work. Then again, there could be a push for everyone to share the losses more equally.
Like many things disrupted by coronavirus, there are no good answers.
