Luxury Tax

by jefu on Jul 27, 2009 8:41 PM PDT

I`m not sure if someone wrote about this topic before, and if they did, my apologies for the redundancy.

Anyway, over the past week or so I have come across a lot of blog posts (on other websites) where angry Philadelphia sports fans are complaining about the off-season and the "lack of aggressiveness" with regards to free agents this summer.

It seems most people feel the team should have been more aggressive and tried to obtain the best free agents on the market this year. The fans are impatient (this is typical in Philadelphia), they are tired of seeing a .500 team and they want some kind of response. They want a competitive team no matter what it takes. Aside from the idiots who want to see Iverson back on this team, most felt we should have been more aggressive in obtaining a shooting guard or a point guard. Upon the mentioning of luxury tax, this was irrelevent to them. The attitude is, if the team cares about the fans, and thus, the purchasing of season tickets, the front office would go after the best free agents possible to make the team "more competitive."

I tend to be a little more conservative with my beliefs. If a front office is not wanting to go over the luxury tax threshold, I pause, and ask "why?" From my understanding, the team wants to develop their young core of talented players. It seems as if these players will need at least another year to develop. I imagine after Thad and Speights` rookie contracts expire, they will want to resign them. Afterall, I see them becoming very good players. So I can see why the sixers desire to preserve a little cap space. After their rookie contracts expire, these players will have been on the team for a few years, hopefully under a solid coach, with a group of players they know well. So I can also see the logic behing wanting to build up a team rather than acting rashly and trying to get the biggest names out on the market. This is also why I didn`t really mind seeing Andre Miller leave. I like the guy, he`s a solid player, but I know developing the younger players is more important for the future.

So anyway, I would like to hear what you think...

Is it best for the sixers to avoid the luxury tax?

Do you think this team is going anywhere with a core of Thad, Iguodala, Speights, Jrue, and four more years of Elton Brand?

arigatou gozaimasu

Another user-created commentary provided by a Liberty Ballers reader.

Tweet Comment 3 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

I don’t care if the sixers avoid the luxury tax – not my problem – if they sign talented folk who can help them win – then the tax is insignificant to me. The problem is that fear of the luxury tax (and not really next seasons, but the season after that) has paralyzed the sixers into inaction. They won’t sign anyone they’re interested in (so far) to more than a one year deal and other teams are willing to make multi year offers to a variety of players the sixers are interested in – so they pass on the sixers.

As I see it, this roster, as constructed, will never win an NBA championship even if everyone preformed exactly as everyone hoped…the bench is still weak, when holiday ascends there is no back up point guard and willie green is still on the roster…ie the bench is still weak, need a better bench to wina title.

I don’t care if the sixers avoid the luxury tax because they don’t want to over spend on bad players, but right now they dn’t want to spend on ANY players…and that’s an entirely different problem as I see it

Don't frack with me or you'll get a punch in the kidneys...you've been warned

by jemagee on Jul 30, 2009 8:58 AM PDT reply actions 2 recs

Do you think it might be better if...

They wait until next year to consider luxury tax spending?
Apparently a better free-agent market – I don`t expect the sixers to try to land any allstars, but with teams spending most of their money on the allstars, that leaves less of a demand for talented reserves.
I`m not exactly sure when Willie Green`s contract expires, but I thought it was in a couple of years. And I agree, they need to get rid of him for this team to go anywhere. I imagine they will look to draft a SG next year, so if they don`t play well this year they have higher chance at landing a good SG.
I don`t like to rule out the possibility of winning a championship. I just don`t see the point in being that pessimistic.

by jefu on Jul 30, 2009 7:48 PM PDT up reply actions

I believe green and dalembert expire after the 10/11 season.

If there were free agents that they thought could be helpful winning a title this season they should have offered multiple years, not just one, i don’t care how they do it but building a winner would be nice.

The cheapness this off season hinders the championship development of this team cause now they have to wait until Holiday is ready as opposed to having a solid point to hlpe the rest of the roster adjust to the new system

Don't frack with me or you'll get a punch in the kidneys...you've been warned

by jemagee on Jul 31, 2009 7:02 AM PDT up reply actions