(did you notice that two of the above players are traded while the other two are indefinitely inactive?)
From hoopshype.com, the Knicks total payroll this year is $98,997,575.
Right now, D’Antoni is using an 8-man rotation as follows:
Al Harrington ($9,226,250)
Quentin Richardson ($8,825,750)
Malik Rose ($7,647,500)
Tim Thomas ($6,049,400)
Chris Duhon ($5,585,000)
David Lee ($1,788,033)
Wilson Chandler ($1,173,480)
Anthony Roberson ($797,581)
Total salary for these players: $41,092,994. That’s roughly 41.5% of the team’s total salary.
The rest? The injured list includes:
Cuttino Mobley ($9,100,000)
Jared Jeffries ($6,049,400)
Danilo Gallinari ($2,873,520)
Nate Robinson ($2,020,178)
Total salary for these injured players: $20,043,098 or 20.3% of the total payroll. Cuttino Mobley is of particular concern, because it is reported that there is some problem with his heart, which means that he might not be able to play again. But then, if he is diagnosed as incapable of playing, at least his salary can be (largely) compensated by insurance.
The doghouse players:
Stephon Marbury ($21,937,500)
Eddy Curry ($9,723,983)
Jerome James ($6,200,000)
Total salary for doghouse players: $37,861,483 or 38.2% of the total payroll. These are really sunk costs. Nobody is willing to take them, not just because of their high salaries, but also because of their character issue and the length of their contracts. Eddy Curry’s contract won’t expire until 2011, while Jerome James is good till 2010.
Whether it is that only 41.5% of the payroll being productive, or the fact that 38.2% of the payroll flushed away to the sewage, one way or the other, the New York Knicks will forever be a text book example of one of most badly run sports teams in history.
Needless to say who is the one big architect of such a wreck:
Portland Blazers
Interestingly, the Portland Blazers, who are full of promises on court, do not play well financially. They have the fourth highest payroll at $81,544,774, behind only the Knicks, the Mavericks and the Cavaliers. If you look into their list, their three highest-paid players are:
Steve Francis ($17,180,000)
Raef LaFrentz ($12,722,500)
Darius Miles ($9,000,000)
with a combined payroll of $38,902,500. This is even more expensive than the Marbury-Curry-James trio. Worse, they account for 47.7% of the total payroll of the Blazers, much higher than that of the Marbury-Curry-James trio to the Knicks' total salary. At least Marbury, Curry and James are still on the roster, and the Knicks can still play any of them if they so want to (and, of course, only if Marbury wants to too). But for the Blazers, none of them are with the team now. They can’t play them. Basically, it’s more deadlier than dead.
On the bright side, the contracts of Francis and LaFrentz will expire after this season. Furthermore, Miles’ salary is covered by insurance, as his knee damage was diagnosed to be career ending.
So given the fact that the Blazers are having a better record and more promising young talents, you really can’t say they are on the same level of the Knicks in terms of awful management.
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