The bears and bulls of this summer's market

Sporting News, The, Sept 1, 1997 by Dave D'Alessandro

The free-agent market marks the completion of its second month this week, and what have we learned?

Just this: It hasn't exactly been the unnoticeable blip on the league's salary structure that we all anticipated. But it hasn't been the percussion grenade that went off last summer, either.

Still, an old NBA verity has held true: It takes only one team to fall in love with a player and subsequently overpay him. The result is a pay scale that has maintained a slow but discernible ascent to levels that make franchise owners very, very anxious.

It effect on the players themselves is equally disconcerting, particularly those left out of this summer's narrowing circle of opportunity. Players such as these feel like rhinos in a petting zoo -- restless young men who strive to reach that rarefied financial atmosphere where superstars reside yet are left to settle for far less than the established market value.

As of last Sunday, 35 free agents had resigned with their teams, and 18 others had found employment on another. And numerous others have been left to wonder whether the market has closed. Here's what the free-agent summer of '97 has yielded so far:

The winners

Bobby Phills. He's not the scorer you want at his position, but the Hornets thought him worthy of $32.4 million over seven years. We can envision him being a success in Charlotte -- as soon as we vanquish our recurring mental image of John Starks ripping him apart each time they meet.

James Robinson. Below-average player, better-than-average contract (five years, $10 million). It figures the Clippers were the ones to make this deal. He still has to beat out Darrick Martin for the starting job, but coach Bill Fitch maintains, "He is ready to bloom." But robinson wasn't even ready to outplay Terry Porter for ninth-man duty in Minnesota.

Erick Strickland. Six months ago, he was unemployed. Just 28 games later, he has a six-year, $14.4 million contract with the Mavericks. Never doubt that America is the land of opportunity.

Chris Mills. Boston cleared out additional cap room by moving Eric Williams to Denver. That created a windfall for Mills projected at $26.1 million over six years after Cleveland opted not to engage in a bidding war. The losers here are the Hawks and Warriors, who had only their $1 million exception to offer. (Teams over the cap have the option to spend an extra million outside the cap. They can use this option three times in a six-year span -- never in consecutive years -- and can use the money on more than one player.)

Brian Grant. The Kings upped their offer from $42 million to $48 million over seven years, knowing there was interest from Portland, Detroit and Cleveland. But Portland countered with a seven-year, $63 million offer that Grant signed last Saturday. Not bad for a guy who was limited to 24 games last season because of a shoulder injury.

Rik Smits, Vlade Divac. They are not to become free agents until next summer. but in the aftermath of the six-year, $65 million deal signed by Bryant Reeves, listen closely and you can hear these two laughing their heads off.

Anybody named Williams. A year after being shut out of the picture, Brian Williams got $45 million from Detroit. A year after mistakenly opting out and playing for the minimum, Walt Williams got $25 million from Toronto. And, despite getting multiyear offers elsewhere, Hot Rod Williams settled for a one-year, $3.5 million deal from Phoenix, with the understanding wink-wink) that he would be rewarded next summer for his patience.

The losers

Terry Mills. The Pistons offered him a choice: one year at $3 million or three years at $8.2 million. He settled for two years at a total of $2.2 from Miami. OK, it was a pride/principle thing. He's 30, he's coming off his best year, and he expected more from the Pistons. His only miscalculation was a failure to recognize that he is a one-dimensional player who few wanted to take on. That might have something to do with him being 20 pounds overweight since his knee surgery in May.

Nick Anderson. Another good soldier, probably on the downside of his career, with an outrageously inflated opinion of himself. The Magic have offered $16 million over four years with another $9 million in incentives. No word on whether those stat targets include shooting 40 percent from the floor and 45 percent at the line, neither of which he was able to do last year. He says he deserves Phills-type money. Doesn't work that way -- not when there's nobody else bidding for your services.

Howard Eisley. It's hard to criticize a guy who chooses winning over money, but you wonder whether the Jazz took advantage of him. He could have done a lot better financially and become a starter had he sought another address -- with the Nuggets or the Clippers, to name two -- but he chose to remain a 13-minute-per-game reserve on a team that has the best point guard in the league and first-round draft pick that also plays his position. The payoff: $4 million over three seasons.

Chris Dudley. Guess they don't teach finance at Yale: He opted out of a Portland contract that was to pay him $13 million over the next three years to sign for the minimum -- with Portland, again. This is in anticipation of a trade to New York, but the league is holding it up as it looks into his free-agent status for next year.