Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Here’s Prince J. Grimes.
When Jaylen Brown signed his massive supermax extension in July, penning his name to the richest contract in NBA history, a popular sentiment across the interweb was that he didn’t deserve it. That the Boston Celtics were out of their minds for giving him that much money.
The truth those people were all missing, of course, was the Celtics paid Brown exactly what the market in 2023 dictated a player of his caliber was worth, as FTW’s Mike Sykes wrote at the time. And the the next supermax eligible player will get even more. That’s just how it goes. When the salary cap increases, so too do player salaries.
However, the thing that has allowed for those numbers to jump is NBA revenue also increasing, and it would be foolish for the league or its players to ever take those increases for granted. Which is exactly why the league’s board of governors voted Wednesday to approve tougher rules on resting star players.
Sykes broke down exactly how the new rules work here, and you should definitely check that out, but in a nutshell, the league is doing more to make sure star players are on the court more often. “As the league negotiates a new media rights deal, NBA commissioner Adam Silver has been determined to increase player participation,” ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski wrote in his report on the new rules. It’s an apparent about-face for Silver, who defended load management as recently as this year’s All-Star Weekend.
Woj didn’t specifically say the load management issue has come up in negotiations, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see how that might have been something the NBA needed to address sooner or later. Load management has been a common gripe amongst fans for years, and in a media landscape proving more unpredictable in the era of streaming, it’s more important now than ever to listen to those fans — who also pay the price of tickets for the games. Especially as the current media rights deal is set to expire after the 2024-25 season.
That gets to the heart of why I don’t think we’ll see much pushback from players on the new rules. They want to see league revenue increase as much NBA headquarters, because it means their salaries continue to increase. And if this is part of what it takes for that to happen, then so be it.
Sure, we’ll still see the occasional fishy injury designations pop up. And we’ll all question those to no end. But I’m guessing most players will make an effort to get their rest within the confines of the new rules, and everyone will be more happy (and paid) for it.
Rings over Teams
Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.
As you can tell from everything above, our guy Sykes has been taking good care of y’all when it comes to NBA coverage this summer. So, it’s no surprise he was all over it when Giannis Antetokounmpo first made clear his ambitions to win a championship — no matter where — and said that should terrify Milwaukee Bucks fans.
So, I don’t mean to alarm those same Bucks fans, because you’ve heard this before, but, uhhh, y’all. Giannis just doubled down on those sentiments, and yikes! If you didn’t listen to Sykes before, you should probably be shaking in your boots now. I think it’s safe to say Milwaukee is rising up the list of teams with the most pressure to perform this season.
Antetokounmpo was a guest on Bleav’s 48 minutes podcast, and he made it very clear that while he’s a Milwaukee Buck today, he doesn’t necessarily have to be a Milwaukee Buck for life.
“I’m a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I’m a winner. … If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O’Brien I have to take that better situation,” he said.
"I'm a Milwaukee Buck, but most importantly I'm a winner. … If there is a better situation for me to win the Larry O'Brien I have to take that better situation."
Giannis on his future with the Bucks. pic.twitter.com/XzucRXtmOv
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) September 13, 2023
As a non-Bucks fan, I appreciate Antetokounmpo’s openness in talking about the things that matter most to him. This the type of response we don’t usually hear from superstar athletes. Whether it’s money, playing time, championships or whatever, players aren’t always open about their priorities, but this is one time where one of the world’s greatest NBA players is making it very clear he’s more loyal to his pursuit of titles than he is a single franchise.
We’ve always assumed that to be the case for some players — and we’ve seen the opposite of other players like Damian Lillard who have maybe been loyal to a fault — but we don’t always hear it. This may not be exactly what Bucks fans want to hear, but they absolutely have to respect it.
At least if Antetokounmpo does end up leaving, you can’t say he didn’t warn you. You also can’t blame him, because it sounds like if he leaves, it’ll be the fault of something the team didn’t do rather than a choice he wanted to make.
Shootaround
— Bryan Kalbrosky put together a best-case scenario roster for Team USA at the 2024 Olympics
— Baron Davis shared an untold 1999 draft story in this Q&A with HoopsHype
And that’s it from me, y’all. Catch you next week.
