This brave, new NBA salary world has a focal point of interest within the Nuggets: Darrell Arthur.
The backdrop: Arthur had one of the best seasons of his career in 2015-16, averaging 7.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists in a career-high 21.7 minutes per game. He shot 45.2 percent from the field and a career-high 38.5 percent from 3-point range.
Those numbers and his youth — he is 28 years old — will go a long way toward attracting interest in free agency.
But in an NBA where the salary cap has soared to upward of $94 million, what will that ultimately mean? Is Arthur a $10 million-a-year player?
If he is, that would mean he received a $7 million pay raise. Are the Nuggets willing to go that high, or higher, to re-sign him?
We probably will have to wait a while to find out. The first, most important reason is there is no comparison to make. High-level role players such as Arthur were prime midlevel exception candidates in years past. But now, the midlevel exception, which is a set amount at $5.628 million for nontaxpaying teams ($3.477 million for taxpaying teams) could be laughed at.
Why settle for that when there is a much bigger pay raise out there? It’s been reported that Cleveland’s Matthew Dellavedova could get $8 million to $10 million per year. Arthur is as sought after this summer as he was last summer when the Los Angeles Clippers, among other teams, made a strong bid.
Locker room salary dynamics are about to get distorted across the NBA.
Think of this in terms of the Nuggets. Danilo Gallinari is the highest-paid player on the team at $15 million next season. If the Nuggets maxed out a player such as Golden State’s Harrison Barnes at $21.9 million per year, he would clear Gallo by almost $7 million per year. That kind of money had better land you the best player on the roster. Because that player is now being paid like it.
But this summer, that won’t necessarily be the case.
Letap take a lesser example: Atlanta’s Kent Bazemore or Dallas’ Chandler Parsons. Parsons is looking for a max contract. Give that to him, in, say Memphis, where he’s been connected and he will be making as much money as former defensive player of the year and two-time all-NBA center Marc Gasol. Bazemore is being projected to make in the $16 million-a-year range. If he signed with the Nuggets, he would become their highest-paid player. It would be debatable as to whether he would be the team’s most indispensable player.
In the short term the over-inflated salaries could cause stress in the locker room before the new market finally encompasses all NBA players into the new salary structure a few years down the road. Maybe that matters. Maybe teams don’t think it matters. But it will be worth watching.
The Nuggets have one of the friendliest salary structures in the NBA. Only three players — Gallinari, Kenneth Faried and Wilson Chandler — make more than $10 million per year. After next season, the Nuggets will have potentially lucrative contract extension decisions to think about for Gary Harris and Jusuf Nurkic. The year after that, they will have big contract extensions to dish out to Emmanuel Mudiay and Nikola Jokic.
But thatap down the road. For now, players such as Arthur are precedent setters in an increasingly green league.
