We all know that Khris Middleton is going to get paid a lot of Khash this offseason. His skillset is invaluable to most contending teams. The only question is, how much Khash will he end up receiving? It only takes one team to overvalue him and dash the hopes of all others. Let’s figure it out.
Base figure: 5 million dollars, roughly the MLE for a cap-strapped team.
+1 million for not having regressed horribly this season. GMs like it when they can sign a player with a track record of not being horrible.
+2 million for hitting that ridic buzzer-beater against the Suns.
+2 million for hitting that ridic buzzer-beater against the Heat.
+2 million for hitting that ridic buzzer-beater against the Bulls to win the series.
+5 million for the cumulative total of the five extra dollars he gets each time someone says he’s a “3 and D guy”, which has happened about a million times as far as I can tell.
That brings us to 17 million per year for Middleton! That’s pretty good, but we have to remember to subtract some money for his deficiencies.
-2 million for not hitting that buzzer-beater against the Bulls. He later atoned in game 7, but still.
-3 million for having a puffy face. How can he be the face of the franchise when his face sucks?
-1 million for basketball reasons
That leaves at 11 million per year, a fair contract if I’ve ever seen one for an elite role player. He’s not going to lead your team to a chip, but he’ll definitely, uh, follow your team to a chip?