Everyone benefits if Davis gets new contract

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Apr 25, 2008 | by Christopher Reina

AS THE 11th-best player in the NBA according to my objective statistical measurements, Baron Davis deserved to make $16.4million, if you were to give him the 11th-highest salary in the league, which is exactly what he did make.

Davis is due to make $17.8million next season, so why is he not eager to opt out and take his chances on the open market while also eliminating the inherent risk of having an injury-plagued walk year?

He doesn't have the leverage of another interested team with cap space, but he did just play 82 games for the first time since 2002 and was clearly not overpaid this season.

For the Warriors, do they want to commit expensively to a player who has alternated between show-stopping brilliance, trying unrest and frustrating injury throughout his career?

The three most important questions surrounding the decision to commit to Davis are as follows: How coachable will he be under Don Nelson's successor? Can he still be a dominant point guard as his quickness and elevation decrease? How would they find a big point guard to accompany Monta Ellis in the backcourt, if they lost Davis?

Nelson will not be around simultaneously to control and coddle Davis beyond 2009, and whoever is handed

Nellie's whistle will also need to have a St. Christopher medal attached to it to coach Davis successfully. But as long as he is well-preserved minutes-wise due to the addition of a non-D-League backup, Davis has enough physical strength and pure cunning to be elite in the below-the-rim Warriorhood of his 30s.

Ellis, who is a season away from officially being the franchise, is incapable of being a point guard and sharing a backcourt with, say, a D.J. Augustin. That would be a defensive nightmare. And a Deron Williams will not appear out of thin air.

Because of their glued mutual dependence, the Warriors should encourage Baron to opt out and sign him to a mutually beneficial six- year contract worth just under $80million. This deal would give Davis a fair-market payday long-term, yet remain tolerable for the Warriors because the annual average would be just $13.3million.

But the catch for Baron is that this deal would be front-loaded in order to withstand the impending extensions for Ellis and Andris Biedrins.

The Warriors would begin with the same $17.8million he is currently set to make and decrease his annual salary by $1.8million each following season, a decrease of 10.5percent, the maximum allowable under CBA rules. In 2012-13, a 33-year-old Davis would be making only $8million, so as those extensions for Ellis and Biedrins escalate annually, Baron's would decrease and almost certainly match his inevitable age-related performance decline.

Christopher Reina is the executive editor of RealGM.com, where you can read his latest

NBA mock drafts.