How do max contracts work? How do they decide how much a players' max contract is worth? Rashard Lewis will be making 23 million in the final year of his, but Joe Johnson's reaches just 14 million. Can someone help me understand this?
Rashard Lewis was part of a sign and trade. The Sonics had the ability to offer more money than any team (I think that's called Larry Bird rights?) trying to sign him so they signed him and traded him out to Orlando. Also since Rashard came out of high school he has more opportunities for new contracts and the amount he can make increases the longer he's in the league or something like that.
A player's "max contract" depends on their tenure in the league. Shard has been in the league for like 11 years, thus why his max is 120+ while Dwight Howard has been in the league about 4 or 5 years and his max is around 85 I believe.
<div class="quote_poster">sunsfan1357 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Rashard Lewis was part of a sign and trade. The Sonics had the ability to offer more money than any team (I think that's called Larry Bird rights?) trying to sign him so they signed him and traded him out to Orlando. Also since Rashard came out of high school he has more opportunities for new contracts and the amount he can make increases the longer he's in the league or something like that.</div> Well Atlanta had Joe Johnson's bird rights too. Like both of you mentioned it is the tenure that you are in the league. For someone like Dwight who just got an extension after his rookie contract is up, he is only allowed to make the max of 25% of the salary cap, but once you are in the league longer, like Rashard Lewis's 9 years, you move up to being able to make 30% of the cap, so that's why Lewis's is more than Dwight's or Joe Johnson's.
