Bargain is a relative term, especially in the NBA’s new salary cap era.
When Robin Lopez signed a four-year, $54 million deal with the New York Knicks in 2015, many considered it a tad too high for a rim-protecting center with clear offensive limitations, but imagine that salary ballooned by 34 percent this summer, the same way the cap will skyrocket from $70 million to $94 million on July 1. That’s an $18 million annual commitment to Lopez through 2020.
Now, consider that cap could exceed $110 million in 2017-18 — a 57 percent increase in the span of two years — and suddenly the final two seasons of Lopez’s deal at an average annual rate of $14 million seems like a bargain, especially since inflation would push his 2015 deal to four years and $85 million.