I saw a social media post yesterday saying that the Sixers would be either just as good or better without LeBron James. It is a preposterous statement but comes from a Lakers fan with hate in his heart. My response was to say that even if you took the LeBron part out of it, the Sixers still signed a starter for the minimum. That pushes everyone back a level and helps the depth of the team (and oh yeah, it’s LeBron f’ing James who has been fantastic). How rare is that though?
NBA Minimums
The absolute minimum salary in the NBA is $1.4m for rookies, however every first round pick signs for more than that. The 2nd year salary jumps to $2.2m and it goes from there all the way up to 10+ year vets:
1st year – $1,357,763
2nd year – $2,185,116
3rd year – $2,449,421
4th year – $2,537,526
5th year – $2,625,627
6th year – $2,845,883
7th year – $3,066,143
8th year – $3,286,399
9th year – $3,506,659
10th year – $3,524,115
10+ years – $3,876,529
That last category is where LeBron James finds himself. Granted he wasn’t signed with the minimum salary exemption, but he makes the minimum nonetheless.
Minimum Starters
I decided to go through the salaries for all of the starters in the league. Do you know how many make the minimum? Only a few, between 4 and 6 depending on how you view the minimum and starter criteria and not counting the injury-depleted Thunder who had no original intention of starting anyone anywhere near the minimum.
- Jaylen Wells makes $2.3m for the Grizzlies (I actually don’t know how this is possible since it is his 3rd year in the league)
- Ziaire Williams and Matisse Thybulle of the Lakers both signed under the NBA minimum exception. This means they each count as $2.45m for tax purposes but Williams is making $2.85m and Thybulle makes $3.3m
- Then there’s LeBron who in his 24th season makes that 10+ level at $3.88m
- Moussa Diabate of the Hornets makes just a smidge over the minimum as a 3rd year former 2nd round pick who had originally signed a 2 way contract. He makes $2.46m, just $12k over the minimum.
- The Celtics began the season with Payton Pritchard coming off the bench with Jordan Walsh and his slightly below minimum $2.4m salary starting at around 15 minutes per night.
That’s it. Sure there are some rookies starting across the league, but they are on their rookie scale contracts with many making above $10m per season.
Lowest Paid Starters
Along with the 5 others above, there are only 6 other starters in the NBA making under $5m:
- Kyshawn George of the Wizards makes $3.1m
- Yves Missi of the Pelicans makes $3.5m
- Nolan Traore of the Nets makes $4m in his 2nd season
- Gui Santos of the Warriors makes $4.6m, but he probably would not be starting if Jimmy Butler were playing
- Then there is the Celtics again who now start Hugo Gonzalez at $2.9m and Neemias Queta at $2.67m instead of Pritchard and Mitchell Robinson for some reason (Queta has already signed a 4/$56m extension by the way)
For those scoring at home, this means James is the 9th lowest paid starter in the NBA. 12 teams do not have a single starter who makes less than 8 figures per season (Hawks, Cavs, Nuggets, Pistons, Rockets, Pacers, Knicks, Thunder, Magic, Suns, Spurs, and Raptors). There’s not anything wrong with that, but it just goes to show just how important the LeBron James signing was for the Sixers.
He was a unique element to free agent history. Still a very productive player stating that he would legitimately consider every team. Since he was planning on signing at the minimum, any team could sign him without fear of falling out of cap compliance. He would also come at an inherent discount.
Even in his 40s, LeBron probably has the value of a $30m to $40m player. Maybe you could argue he is worth a max deal due to the revenue he generates, but for the most part he is still a fringe All-Star caliber player with rest concerns. Somewhere in the 30s seems right. Considering their other obligations, the Sixers could have never afforded this.
You could also argue that in a salary capped and strapped world, he could have easily commanded a non-taxpayer midlevel contract of just over $15m. Plenty of teams had this available and anyone would have waited to give it to him if he said they were a finalist. Philadelphia would have waited to use their MLE and thus not signed both Dean Wade and Anfernee Simons. Instead of choosing between two role players and a starter, they ended up with all 3.
Sources: Spotrac
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