Some Links, Thoughts…And a Chance to Win Prizes!!!

Well, hello there everyone! I’m so glad to see you all back. I hope you’re holiday weekend was excellent. So, this whole lockout and CBA mess is still awful. But I’ve decided we need to have a little fun and mix things up slightly, so later on in this post I have a contest for all of you. But first, an interesting read on player salaries.

Arturo Galletti, over at the fantastic Wages of Wins (seriously, the site is amazing), has a great chart on which players are overpaid and underpaid in the league.

Things of note from the chart:

-The Hornets look great in the chart. They rank 10th in net value and the highest overpaid player they have (Willie Green) clocks in at 75th. This means the contracts they have been giving to players are fair and the team tends to avoid salary cap-killing deals.

-Remember when the Cavs traded for Antawn Jamison in a mid-season-midlife-crisis-panic to appease their star player? Yeah, his 13.3 million contract ranks him the 5th most overpaid player. Moral of the story: Don’t make moves just to make moves and shake things up. I know the Hornets have been quite this offseason and it’s aggravating. But Dell Demps isn’t going to make a rushed move just because he thinks it will help keep his star player. It’s a strategy which doesn’t work out. Toronto brought in Jarrett Jack because he was good friends with Chris Bosh and it didn’t work there either.

-David West ranks as the 129 underpaid player. According to the chart (which is by no means a true indicator of a players value) fair value for West is $10 million. That seems slightly on the low end of what he’ll ask for. Demps is a very smart GM and I’m very curious to see what the offer for West will be.

-I agree that Kevin Love has to be the most underpaid player in the league. He is a rebounding beast.

-It is strange to see Dwight Howard and Lebron James ranked as the 2nd and 3rd most underpaid players when both are making over $14.5 million. That just goes to show you how good both are.

-There are almost no surprises on the overpaid list.

My best 42 impression with a couple of more links and a CONTEST after the jump. Let’s do this…

Various:

-Congratulations to Phil and Jen on their wedding this weekend! Everyone had a great time in Louisville and the wedding was beautiful.

-Like Larry Coon, Nate Silver is skeptical of David Sterns’ claims that the NBA is losing money. [UPDATE] The NBA has responded to the article.

-Whose going to the Running of the Bulls this weekend in New Orleans?

-John Smallwood points out that while the players are taking a hard stand, they will eventually give in more and more.

-Israel Gutierrez points out that the big owner vs. owner fight is still to come.

Okay, Contest time!!!!

There is nothing fun about this lockout. I know we all desperately want to talk about which players the team should sign and trade for, but we can’t because of the lack of a CBA. So, while we can still talk about basketball, how about we bring a few other topics into the mix?

I would love to do a mailbag post. So, email or tweet me your questions (or any other way you know to reach me)!!! Questions about anything, NBA related or not. Need some help with your English schoolwork? Curious to see if I can answer your best trivia questions? Will Chris Paul be a Hornet in 2 years? Need some dating advice? Email me at nolajake86@gmail.com or tweet me at @nolajake. Let’s have some fun.

The three best questions will win some Hornets prizes:

-First place will win a Hornets basketball and Mardi Gras Beads.

-Second place will recieve a deck of Hornets playing cards and a Believe in Blue wrist band.

-Third place will win a Hugo ornament.

Get to it! Send in any questions you want.

We have a nice short week. It’s Wednesday already, hump day. Go big today, close your deals, book some business, but don’t hurt yourself, the rest of the week will only get easier. I’ll leave you with this…