Costing Out the Nets Bench

There has been a lot written about how the Nets have remade their bench, have gotten a lot younger this season, turning away veterans and picking up younger players. The assumption has also been that the new, younger bench would be a lot cheaper. Not so.

An analysis of the salaries found on Hoopshype and elsewhere shows that remaking the bench has saved the Nets only about $450,000. In comparing the benches from last year and this, I worked with what the Nets have at this point in 2006 compared to what they had at this point in 2005. I did make one exception: I substituted Jay Williams for Jeff McInnis in this mix, believing Williams [or a similarly paid player] will make the team as a 15th man and that McInnis will be bought out rather than be traded. That means 14 players last year vs. 15 this year. (The Nets did keep Ben Handlogten on the payroll last year for a few weeks into the season.)

Indeed, the Nets' bench this time last year was filled with veterans: Cliff Robinson and Marc Jackson, backup big men, were 38 and 30; Jacque Vaughn, Jeff McInnis and Zoran Planinic, backup guards, were 30, 31, and 23; Lamond Murray, Scott Padgett and Linton Johnson, backup forwards were 32, 29 and 25; rookie swingman Antoine Wright was 21. Average age of the bench was 28.

This year, the bench is filled with younger players: Robinson, Mikki Moore, Josh Boone, and Mile Ilic, backup big men, are 39, 30, 21 and 22; Marcus Williams, Jay Williams, Eddie House, and Hassan Adams, backup guards, are 20, 28, 25, and 22; Bostjan Nachbar, backup forward, is 26, and Wright is now 22. That's an average age of 25, the youngest Net bench since the 2001-02 season.

But reworking the bench has not been free of expense, in spite of the youth movement. The Nets had to pay--and will have to pay--to clean out the dead wood on the pines.

Last year's bench was paid $17.5 million, an average of $1.93 million. The Nets also bought out Ron Mercer's contract, costing them another $1.76 million. Not all of that total was paid by the Nets, however. The Sixers had paid the Nets $3 million to take Jackson's contract and the league paid $729,000 towards the cost of Vaughn and Murray's vets minimum deals. So the total cost was $14.99 million. Average cost for the nine players riding the pine: $1.67 million.

This year's bench will be paid $11.2 million, an average of $1.24 million. About $350,000 of Moore's vets' deal will be paid by the league, dropping that number farther. But the Nets will have to pay additional costs this season they didn't have last year. Assume that McInnis's buyout is at least $2.5 million for starters. Then add buyout packages for Padgett ($450,000) and Planinic ($150,000) as well as what the Nets had to pay FMP Zeleznik to let Ilic go ($500,000) and the total additional costs reach $3.6 million. The grand total for this year then is $14.45 million, or $450,000 less than last year. Average cost for the ten players this year: $1.45 million.

Bottom line: clearing out the dead wood on the bench cost the Nets dearly and that cost just about ate up whatever savings there was in going young. And the analysis once again shows what a bad deal it was to sign McInnis.