Don’t trade for Devin Booker
7 reasons getting huge-salary stars mid-career dooms your team
BY HENRY ABBOTT
Last weekend, I read an Athletic story musing about the Suns’ nuclear option of trading their 28-year-old homegrown star for a treasure trove of young players and picks. My first thought was: don’t be the other team.
There are seven reasons it’ll never work out, and one tiny little caveat.
Stephen Curry $55,761,216
Joel Embiid $51,415,938
Nikola Jokić $51,415,938
Kevin Durant $51,179,021
Bradley Beal $50,203,930
Jaylen Brown $49,205,800
Devin Booker $49,205,800
Karl-Anthony Towns $49,205,800
Paul George $49,205,800
Kawhi Leonard $49,205,800
Jimmy Butler $48,798,677
Giannis Antetokounmpo $48,787,676
Damian Lillard $48,787,676
LeBron James $48,728,845
Zach LaVine $44,531,940
Rudy Gobert $43,827,586
Anthony Davis $43,219,440
Luka Dončić $43,031,940
Trae Young $43,031,940
Fred VanVleet $42,846,615
Anthony Edwards $42,176,400
Tyrese Haliburton $42,176,400
Lauri Markkanen $42,176,400
Pascal Siakam $42,176,400
Kyrie Irving $41,000,000
Reason #1: Devin Booker makes a ton of money.
These are the 25 highest salaries in the NBA. It’s a weird conundrum. Yes it’s true that these are the NBA’s superstars, who dominate the postseason. Only one out of 30 teams wins a title every year; eleven of these 25 players have rings. Many have multiple. Without a player on this list, you probably won’t contend.
If you look at who “won” the offseason or trade deadline, almost every year it’s whichever team landed one of these studs. But for all the media plaudits doled out to Prokhorov’s Nets for getting Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George going to the Clippers, the Joe Tsai Nets landing Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, the Bucks for uniting Damian Lillard and Giannis Antetokounmpo, the Ishbia Suns hauling in Bradley Beal and Durant, the Knicks for scoring Karl-Anthony Towns. But is it a coincidence that none of those teams has come close to winning a title?
The first reason is that evidently it matters deeply how you get your star.
Draft one of those studs, or trade for them on a rookie deal, and there’s an OK chance they’ll lead you to a title. But if you get them (by trade or free agency) only after they have aged into the league’s highest salary tier, and recent history suggests you’ll only win a title if you also have LeBron or Steph in their primes. (Which, let’s be honest, you don’t.)
How can it be that trading for a player on this list doesn’t work?
Reason #2: Players peak, and win titles, younger than you think
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