The Firm

Heisley & Kahn does sort of have that shyster law firm ring to it doesn't it? In any event, Monday's news of the jaw dropping 5 year, $40-$45 million extension (depending on the source) granted to Mike Conley assured Memphis owner Michael Heisley a partnership in said firm.

As bad as the contract was on the just the merits of Mike Conley, baller, (take it away, Matt Moore of Hardwood Paroxysm), it's even worse in context:

As Matt Tweeted Monday night, a player like Mike Conley is the "perfect" restricted free agent. Had the Grizzlies just let him make it past Monday night without a contract extension, he would have hit the open market during one of the worst open markets in NBA history, stuck looking for a gig with another team with the knowledge that the Grizzlies (if they truly wanted to) could match any offer sheet he signed. Conley, a fringe starter at absolute best, would be forced into letting the market dictate his own terms.

And the market, in the NBA's case, probably won't even be open for business this summer because of a potential lockout.

So, as is the likeliest case, Conley was looking at having to shop his wares around the league next September after the labor standoff was resolved. And, at absolute best, he'd be looking for a gig and/or offer sheet throughout next summer under a slimmed-down NBA salary cap, with the Grizzlies in the catbird seat, allowed to match any offer they thought reasonable.

And the Grizz, for whatever reason, decided to chuck that seat into the mighty Mississippi.

Bidding against absolutely nobody, they signed Conley to a deal that will have him making eight figures over the last couple years of its existence. That alone should make your hair stand on end. And as Moore pointed out, there is absolutely nothing in Conley's game nor at-best potential that should allow for anyone to think that he should even approach an average salary, something that would pay him about half of what he's due to make in a few years.

Had Mike been an unrestricted free agent during the last offseason, with all that crazy money being tossed about, he still would have had a tough time making the sort of dough he's set to "earn" in Memphis. But that's Michael Heisley, perhaps the worst owner in NBA history, Non-Racist Division.

Also, in eight months? The NBA will put a hold on all transactions, they will stop paying the salaries they legally committed to paying their employees, and they will tell you that it is the players' fault they are losing money. That the system allows for players to be overpaid.

The system. Not the owners.

And it's up to you to remember that the system allows for a player like Mike Conley to go out next summer, and try to find a team to sign with that has cap space. And with so few teams with available cap space, it would be down to a team like Indiana (with two starter-level point guards in Darren Collison and T.J. Ford) and Minnesota (with Luke Ridnour, Jonny Flynn and Ricky Rubio's rights already on board) to spend money on Conley.

As a result, Conley would have few suitors, even if he was an unrestricted free agent. As a restricted free agent, Conley would have zero suitors, because what's the point of signing him to a three-year, $14 million deal that you know the Grizzlies would match in an instant?

This likely result, mind you, is a result of the system. The system the NBA and its players were smart to put into place. A system that, when utilized properly, lends no leverage to the sorts of players that deserve no leverage. And Mike, though I'm sure he's a swell guy, deserves no leverage.

And he certainly doesn't deserve a five-year, $40 million contract.

If the NBA wants to restore fiscal sanity, I'm all for it. But it has to start with restoring sane owners.

Ouch.

As alluded to in that quote, this signing touches on two timely issues. The first, which we discussed a few days ago, is the impending lockout. Though I think Moore was slightly hyperbolic in saying:

You're going to single handedly kill basketball in 2011 and your franchise for the next five years. All by yourself.

he's not that far wrong. To go Hubie Brown 2nd person for a moment:



Now if you're a member of the NBPA, you're saying to yourself "come on, I don't believe you guys are losing money for a moment. You just paid Mike Conley $8-$9million a year for 5 years." And you've played against Mike Conley, so you know. He DOES NOT have a game.

So maybe you take a little harder line than you think you should, which basically ensures the lockout, cue point 4 on the Etats schedule.

The second point is the already somewhat tiresome "I could be a better GM" discussion. First of all this kind of thing makes it harder for those of us who tend to think that no you couldn't. Though, I'll grant that being better than The Firm of Kahn & Heisley is setting the bar pretty low. Second, and more interestingly, I think this deal fairly perfectly illustrates a shortcoming of thinking that because some players are overpaid, NBA GMs as a whole are bad at "evaluation." I'd say that in Conley's case, 29 other teams have him value just about correctly (since the Grizzlies have tried and failed to move him for at least a year). It only takes 1 out of 30 teams to be a bit off on the high side (see also) and any number of the "bad" contracts in the league can be seen from this perspective. Thinking about all the teams that didn't overpay Darko Milicic and Charlie Villanueva may not be as exciting as laughing at the teams which did we shouldn't forget that not offering a bad contract is just as correct a decision as offering a good one.