Rookie Contract: No, Bismack Biyombo Doesn’t Deserve a Max (Or Near Max) Deal

I love Bismack Biyombo.

He is one of the purest characters in today’s NBA, an always happy guy. He is a guy I wish I was friends with.

Well, actually, I kind of am. When Biyombo was drafted 7th overall by the Charlotte Bobcats in 2011, I knew little of him. But as a diehard Bobcat fan at the time, I wanted to know more about this guy, who could only ever be described as ‘raw’ by any announcer, analyst, or fan.

The big man from the Democratic Republic of Congo was no big deal in the United States. Not yet, at least. So What did I do? I found him on Facebook and friended him.

Surprisingly, he accepted, probably thinking nothing of it. To me, however, as a 13 year old kid, it was the coolest thing ever. I even messaged him, inviting him to come over for dinner to meet his fans.

He didn’t reply. I’m not salty though. Not at all.

Anyway, with the now NBA star’s status updates popping up on my news feed now, I feel pretty important.

But after his performance this playoffs, along with a severely underrated regular season showing, Biyombo is in line for a massive payday this summer. Few teams have rim protectors that can do what he can, and for that, his salary will increase at least 3 times over.

But lets not get ahead of ourselves, everyone. I’m looking at you, anonymous Eastern Conference GM… (Via Sean Deveney of Sporting News via Bleacher Report)

For someone like (Biyombo), I think when you look at a guy like Tyson Chandler and what he got from Phoenix last summer (four years, $52 million), that’s where you start for a contract. But you factor in the cap spike and it’s probably going to be high, I’d say, $16-17 million. It’ll be a heck of a $17 million-per-year gamble.

Further along in the BR article, it says ‘A separate Eastern conference executive told Deveney, “With the way free agency could wind up going, three years and $60 (million) would be my guess.”

That is absurd. Biyombo’s performances this playoffs have been well worth a salary spike, but $20 million a year!? You must be kidding.

If Biyombo gets that deal, these are some of the players he will be earning more than yearly –

Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Paul George, Kawhi Leonard, John Wall, Klay Thompson, Jimmy Butler, DeMarcus Cousins, Kyrie Irving, Draymond Green, and many more.

NBA GMs should show more discipline with how they deem players and how much they are worth, or this league is about to get inflated fast. No matter how much I love Bismack and how our (lack of) friendship has flourished over the years, he is no $15-20 million man.