The crazy state of the NBA

I've mentioned before that I'm a Detroit Pistons fan, and so during tonight's draft, I was thrilled to see Joe Dumars once again make the smart, business-minded move: faced with the opportunity to trade down from the 29th pick and secure the 32nd instead, Dumars the GM did what Dumars the SG would have done - made the smart, efficient, less-than-flashy move, and I consider it a win. What he also did was create a nice microcosm of the NBA these days, which is something that troubles me.

Why was Dumars' move so intelligent? The 29th pick comes along with it a guaranteed 3-year contract based on the collective bargaining agreement. Just three picks later, the 32nd offers an incredibly similar player in terms of talent level, but with no strings attached - that player doesn't count at all against the salary cap. Dumars also picked up a pick in the low 40s when he made the trade with Seattle, adding it to the 59th pick he already had, providing the Pistons with three wild-card opportunities to develop talent in the D-league at no salary cap cost to the team. When you're hoping to continue to compete for championships, and can use that cap space for more immediate help, every bit of space helps.

As proud as I am for Dumars, this fact that this kind of thinking is necessary is slightly embarrassing for the league, I feel. The more egregious examples this week have been the Jermaine O'Neal and Richard Jefferson trades - teams like Indiana and New Jersey deciding that the greatest assets it can have aren't multitalented all-star players, but rather the absence of those players and their corresponding contracts. I've been disturbed by the fact that NBA teams have an incredible incentive to unload contracts, with the idea that having the least commitment possible to players is the best way to compete.

More conspicuous is the fact that these teams often work so hard to free up cap space, then immediately waste it with inane contracts - much like the housing bubble, the desperation with which cap-free teams attack the free agency market only overvalues the available prospects and creates a larger problem for many teams down the road. Again, Dumars is a prime example of playing this situation correctly - in numerous instances, such as with Ben Wallace recently, he has stuck to his guns on where he values a player and let him walk when the market price rose too high. Similarly, he was smart enough to trade Jerry Stackhouse for a similar scorer - but younger and 'less overvalued' - in Richard Hamilton before Stackhouse's contract came up for renewal.

Is there a better way? Salary caps are tricky; the NFL's may be even more cruel, with unguaranteed contracts leaving for immediate cuts and even more player turnover. But it strikes me as odd that a league that needs to market the magnificent athleticism of its players allows them to almost always be viewed by fans and media as liabilities rather than assets. Since the rules don't appear apt to change any time soon, maybe more fans can appreciate the mastery with which shrewd businessmen like Joe Dumars navigate the NBA labor market to stay competitive year after year; art imitates life, and in the NBA, league success closely parallels the savvy that creates business success.