State Of The Cap: New Orleans Hornets
New Orleans Hornets
Grade: C
2009/10 Payroll: $77.5 million
Highlights: It seems hard to believe, but Chris Paul just keeps getting better and better every year. New career highs were set in many categories, including scoring (22.8), rebounding (5.5), steals (2.8), and field goal shooting (50.3%), all while leading the league in assists with 11 per game. What more needs to be said? Paul’s four-year, $63 million extension kicks in next season and there is little doubt that he’ll be worth the money. The Hornets have the best point guard in the league locked up for a while.
Overshadowed by Paul’s brilliance is the fact that David West had a pretty darn good year himself. The power forward scored a career-high 21 points per game to go along with 8.5 rebounds and nearly 1 block every night. That kind of production normally warrants $10 million plus each year, but West is owed a diminishing salary of $9 million, $8.2 million, and $7.5 million the next three seasons. The last of those seasons is a player option, one that West will likely exercise if he keeps up his current pace. For now, West is a talented and affordable second option for Chris Paul’s Hornets.
Rasual Butler is slated to be the eighth highest paid player next season even though he was fourth on the team in scoring, which means he gives pretty good value to New Orleans. Butler chipped in 11.2 points and shot nearly 40% from the three point line. He was a bit more effective than the higher paid and more well-known James Posey. Butler will earn $3.9 million next year, the last under his current contract.
Lowlights: When Peja Stojakovic signed his contract to come to New Orleans, it looked like he was being overpaid. However, the team wanted to make a big splash in free agency at the time and you couldn’t argue with the initial results as Peja was hitting his threes and the team soon ascended to the second seed in the Western Conference. After his worst season in ten years, Stojakovic is officially overpaid. The normally hot-shooting forward saw his percentages plummet to 39.9% from the field and 37.8% from the three point line. His scoring dipped to just 13.3 and he only managed to play in 61 games due to injuries. The two years and $29.5 million left on his contract are now a real problem that severely affects the team’s bottom line.
To make matters worse, Tyson Chandler’s contract is also causing a lot of pain as his play hasn’t been worth the price. He is owed $24.6 million over the next two years (the last is a player option). Like Stojakovic, Chandler has always been a tad overpaid, but it was overlooked because of the team’s success. As long as he was rebounding and blocking shots, you could forgive the hefty pay scale. Unfortunately, Chandler’s rebounding was down to 8.7 this season, he only played in 45 games, and it got so bad that the team tried to trade him and would have succeeded if he had passed his physical. Between Peja and Chandler, that is $54.1 million in bloated salary over two years for players that simply aren’t living up to their end of the deal.
Another sour contract belongs to shooting guard Morris Peterson. In what seems to be a runnning theme with the Hornets, Peterson’s numbers were down and he missed half the season due to injury. He shot just below 40% from the field and saw his scoring average sink from 8.0 to 4.4. Peterson will be paid $6.2 and $6.6 million the next two years. To earn that kind of money as a sub, Peterson will need to turn things around in a hurry.
Antonio Daniels contributed very little on the court, just 3.8 points and 2.1 assists per game to go along with mediocre shooting. That won’t stop him from collecting $6.6 million next season. Playing behind Chris Paul, there is simply no way for Daniels to ever get enough minutes to warrant his contract. All he can be is an overpaid backup.
The Future: The New Orleans Hornets already have $77.5 million in contracts signed for next season, so its not surprising to see them desperately trying to unload some of their dead weight, most notably Tyson Chandler. With many of their poorest contracts having two years left, it will be difficult to find willing trade partners. The question is; are the Hornets trying to win a title or are they more concerned with saving money?
It’s a testament to the greatness of Chris Paul that this team could win 49 games with key guys like Chandler and Stojakovic missing so much time and playing poorly. As long as Paul is on the court, you’ve got a pretty good shot to win every night. However, it would sad to see Paul being wasted on an average team when he should be making deep playoff runs every year. Last summer, New Orleans added James Posey thinking that he could push them over the top and into the Finals. Instead, his underwhelming play pretty much summed up the effort of the supporting cast around Paul and David West. Posey’s three years and $19.4 million now seem to be a bit steep unless they can get to some important playoff games where he normally shines.
Poor health was a major factor in the Hornets’ season and it showed in their drop from a two seed down to the seventh seed. The team must decide whether this is a championship caliber squad when healthy or a salary cap mess that needs to be blown up and reconfigured. If they start off on the wrong foot next season, look for them to become very active in trade rumors, trying desperately to cut their payroll. Considering their dire financial situtation, they might make some moves even if they are winning. It’s not good when you have to make decisions based on money instead of team success.
