Some of the best young players in the NBA are suddenly on super cheap contracts
While signing a player like Reggie Jackson - who has spent the majority of his career as a backup - to a five-year $80 million contract may look ludicrous at first, that contract was negotiated in anticipation of the salary cap ballooning from $70 million this year to $108 million by 2017.
As a result of the looming salary cap spike, a bunch of the NBA's best young players are now on absolute bargain contracts because they signed them before the league's new TV deal was announced. For example:
- DeMarcus Cousins signed a four-year $62 million contract extension in 2013
- Stephen Curry signed a four-year $44 million contract extension in 2012
- Paul George signed a five-year $90 million contract extension in 2013
- Kyrie Irving signed a five-year $90 million contract extension in 2014
- James Harden signed a five-year $80 million contract extension in 2012
- Klay Thompson signed a four-year $70 million contract extension in 2014
- John Wall signed a five-year $80 million contract extension in 2013
- Russell Westbrook signed a five-year $80 million contract extension in 2012
Jackson signed the same five-year $80 million deal that Wall signed in 2013, and Westbrook and Harden both signed in 2012. Although Wall said he's "happy" for players being able to make more money, he made a point when talking to ESPN Tuesday that he's now making the same amount of money as a Jackson, who ESPN ranked as the a below-average starting point guard in 2015.