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Nuggets VP Mark Warkentien slashes payroll, builds playoff powerhouse
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One of the most common criticisms of Dick and Charlie Monfort, the Colorado Rockies’ owners, is that they are not willing to dedicate the financial resources necessary to make and keep their franchise competitive in the high stakes world of Major League Baseball, where there is no salary cap to maintain a spirit of even competition. As a result, critics say, general manager Dan O’Dowd is hamstrung in his ability to make the same types of baseball decisions as GMs from teams whose owners are willing to spend freely in order to obtain top quality talent, and the Rockies suffer for it.
Too bad Mark Warkentien’s expertise is in basketball..jpg)
AP Photo/Jack Dempsey
AP Photo/Jack DempseyWarkentien, the Denver Nuggets’ vice-president of basketball operations, was named the NBA Executive of the Year, on Sunday (the ceremony is pictured at right), precisely for his ability to do more with less. Maybe he should thank his boss, owner E. Stanley Kroenke, for adopting a similar salary policy to that of the Monfort brothers.
The NBA doesn’t have a hard salary cap necessarily, where a team is not allowed to exceed a certain total amount of money paid to its players. It does have a luxury tax threshold, however, which mandates that each team pay the league a “tax” of one dollar for every dollar the team goes over the threshold.
Last season, for example, the luxury tax threshold in the NBA was $67.865 million. The total amount of money Kroenke paid to his players, during that time, was $80,530,771. As a result, Kroenke not only paid his players about $13 million more than the league recommended, he paid the league office an additional $13 million for the right to do so! All this for a team that was unceremoniously eliminated in the first round of the playoffs for the fifth year in a row.
Enough was enough.
Warkentien, along with vice-president of player personnel Rex Chapman and advisor Bret Bearup, were charged with reducing the payroll. The luxury tax threshold, this season, is $71.15 million. The total player salary paid by Kroenke, this year, is
$70,478,826. As it turned out, not only did they drastically cut payroll, they
dramatically improved the team.
$70,478,826. As it turned out, not only did they drastically cut payroll, they
dramatically improved the team.
Combined with a defensive emphasis from George Karl, a healthy Nene, and a new, positive attitude from Kenyon Martin, Warkentien’s tightening of the purse strings has made the Nuggets a 54-game winner, and arguably the best team in the history of the franchise. There are seven players from last year’s playoff roster who have been replaced by players who make less money. Let’s examine four of Warkentien’s key maneuvers:
Last year’s player and his salary: Allen Iverson, $19,012,500.
This year’s replacement and his salary: Chauncey Billups, $11,050,000.
Sending Iverson to Detroit, in exchange for Billups, was obviously the master stroke which vaulted the Nuggets from playoff also-rans to conference title contenders. Replacing Iverson, and his me-first-shoot-first losing attitude, with Billups, and his team-first-win-first attitude completely changed the culture of a team who was known primarily for being a selfish bunch of petulant prima donnas, whose team plane had been compared to an over grown kindergarten classroom or fraternity house. The move also allowed Anthony Carter to shift from a sub-par starting NBA point guard to an extremely valuable contributor off the bench.
Last year’s player and his salary: Marcus Camby, $11,250,000.
This year’s replacement and his salary: Chris Andersen, $797,581.
Warkentien was widely questioned and criticized when he sent Camby to the Clippers, last July, for the right to swap second round draft choices in 2010. The Nuggets basically gave their starting center, and recent NBA Defensive Player of the year, away for nothing. Chapman called the move “a little bit radical.” Warkentien called it a “chess move.”
As it turned out, Denver was able to replace Camby on the roster with “The Birdman,” and replace him in the starting line up with Nene. Nene basically hadn’t played in two full seasons (he tore an ACL in 2007, and overcame testicular cancer in 2008), and Andersen had been suspended the previous two seasons for violating the league’s substance abuse policy. Whether by luck or tremendous foresight, Warkentien’s “chess move” not only saved the team $10 million, but allowed Nene to have a breakout season as a starting center and Andersen to flourish as an important energizer and fan favorite off the bench.
Camby won the defensive player of the year award in 2007 primarily for his tremendous shot blocking ability. This year, by contrast, Andersen was fourth in the NBA with 2.5 blocks, in 23 minutes per game off the bench. Camby, playing 31 minutes per game as a starting center for the Clippers, averaged 2.13 blocked shots per game.
Last year’s player and his salary: Chucky Atkins, $3,000,000.
This year’s replacement and his salary: Dahntay Jones, $797,581.
Coming into last season, the Nuggets decided to let Steve Blake return to Portland and sign journeyman point guard Chucky Atkins. The 5’11 Atkins, when he wasn’t injured, combined with Iverson and Carter to form one of the NBA’s smallest and most dysfunctional backcourts.
Coming into this season, Warkentien was able to stumble across the rugged Jones, a 6’6 former Grizzly, who was on the Nuggets’ summer league team. He has provided Denver with much needed toughness and defensive intensity, as a starting two-guard for most of the season. Atkins is currently a member of the Oklahoma City thunder, having been traded for Johan Petro.
Last year’s player and his salary: Eduardo Najera, $4,952,380.
This year’s replacement and his salary: Renaldo Balkman, $1,369,960.
Letting Najera sign, as an unrestricted free agent, with the Nets, last off-season, was another one of Warkentien’s most puzzling and controversial moves. Najera was an undisputed fan favorite, who provided energy and hustle off the bench.
Denver acquired Balkman, last July, in a trade which sent guard Taurean Green, forward Bobby Jones, and a 2010 second round pick to the Knicks. Considering Green and Jones likely would not have made this year’s Nugget roster anyway, the trade qualifies as a minor steal, regardless of how Balkman compares with Najera.
Balkman did not play the same type of minutes, for the Nuggets, as Najera did in past years. For some reason, Karl lacks faith in the man appropriately nicknamed “Kool,” but there is no disputing his tremendous contribution when he was able to get off the bench. Balkman’s willingness to dive for loose balls, never stop running and moving, and relentlessly fight for rebounds were things that did not show up in the box score, but would often turn the tide of a game, if things were not going in Denver’s favor. He averaged 5 points and 3.8 rebounds in the 53 games he played for the Nuggets.
Najera, meanwhile, played in 27 games for the Nets, averaging 2.9 points and 2.5 rebounds per contest. His season ended in March, after having surgery to repair a sports hernia.
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