Can Danny?

The belief that salary cap is overrated is being floated again, this time by Ira Winderman. Winderman recently wrote an article calling salary cap room the NBA's opiate. The article was published in The Sporting News, however, the way that it glosses over counter-arguments and overlooks facts, you'd think it was a piece for Fox News.

Winderman starts off explaining that cap space doesn't help many teams and pointed to the woefully run Atlanta Hawks as his example. While he does acknowledge that others teams helped themselves through free agency this off-season (Chicago, New Orleans), the fact that he uses Atlanta as his example is priceless. You could pretty much argue anything using them. Lottery picks are overrated. Drafting big over small is not the way to go. Trading for former All-Stars is a bad idea. Not only that but the Hawks are exhibit A as to why salary cap room is better than having to make a sign-and-trade. The Suns bluffed that they would resign Joe Johnson and the Hawks fell for it so instead of merely overpaying for Joe, they dealt two picks (including their 2007 pick only top three protected) and Boris Diaw. The Hawks were the ones holding all the cards but, unfortunately for the one remaining Hawks fan, Billy Knight is clueless and made a horrific decision.

Winderman then shifts gears and states that trade exceptions are overrated. While I somewhat agree with this, his defense is fallacious. He points out that the Suns and Sixers not using their exceptions as examples of why they are overrated. The problem is that the reason that those teams didn't use their exceptions was because they didn't want to add payroll. The Sixers didn't use their MLE or LLE either. Should we assume that those are useless as well?

The bottom line is that salary cap space is important because it gives a team flexibility in trades and will allow them to add some very useful pieces to their roster. The only problem is that many fans (and writers)hear the term "cap space" and have delusions of grandeur. They envision a superstar arriving to don the hometown jersey and save the day. In reality, there are very few top players who will make it to free agency. And there are even fewer destinations where the free agent stars will consider going. Boston has never signed a top-of-the-line free agent. Not since Xavier McDaniel and Dominique Wilkins have we ever even signed someone who casual fans might know. Many teams are in this predicament; stars prefer warm climates and contenders, many times in that order. Still, cap space can allow teams to add young role players. While Winderman might call this "illusory", it's actually just intelligence. Knowledgeable fans understand the importance of cap space while only the most blind loyalists hang their hat on cap space being the be all, end all.

Finally, Winderman himself makes the most common mistake regarding cap space: space today means players today. The Hawks actually were smart not to throw all of their cap space at the below-average free agent class of '06. They only came away with Speedy Claxton and Lo Wright (which isn't that bad an offseason) but they will have space next year which should have not only a better crop of free agents, but could have a star or two on the trading block. And those guys could be had for, of all things, cap space.