rewrite this content and keep HTML tags (remove this from content : rewrite this content and keep HTML tags)
Over at Front Office Sports, Annie Costabile broke down the roster building complications that could potentially emerge under the new CBA.
Read it for all the details:
Under the WNBA’s proposal, the salary cap would be $5.65 million, the supermax salary would be approximately $1.1 million (20 percent of the cap) and a regular max would be around $988,750 (17.5 percent of the cap). Then, the WNBA has projected an average player salary of $470,000, with the minimum coming in at $200,000.
In short, these forecasted financials are going to make team building much more difficult, especially for teams with multiple max-worthy players.
Furthermore, while max-level players made sacrifices under the previous CBA, the sacrifices they would be asked to make under the next system would be much more severe. Costabile uses A’ja Wilson as an example. A’ja took a 20 percent pay cut last season, resulting in her sacrificing over $49,000. If she took a similar level of pay cut under the WNBA’s new structure, she’d be sacrificing $226,000 per season.
A’ja clearly deserves the most $$$ possible. But once she gets the max, how many more maxes can the Aces afford to dole out, as the team still needs a full roster?
It gets complicated quick!
From the player side, every player who believes she deserves a max should push for it. From the team side, there likely will be a desire to set a precedent where only the very top tier of players get the max, much less the supermax.
To throw another wrench into things, it will be interesting to see if stars seek to sign one-year contracts, thereby maximizing the raise they can secure season over season. This was the norm for stars under the old CBA. Teams, however, likely will try to lock players into longer deals, thus allowing for cap sheet and roster planning.
As a supporter of the players, I would love to see as many as possible get the max. But if I’m imagining myself as a GM building a team, I would hope maxes are rare.
Do you hope all your favorites get the max? Do you want to see the GM of your favorite team draw a hard line, even if it means some players depart? Which players do you think are supermax automatics? Are there any players who, believing themselves to be max-caliber, might be in for a bit of a rude awakening?
