[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Look at the NBA for comparison here.

In 2016 the NBA had a new TV rights deal kick in and suddenly the cap went from $63 million in 2014 to $94 million in 2016. Essentially a 50% increase in 2 seasons (and a 40% increase in a single season).

Did teams piss away a bunch of money in 2015 knowing the cap would explode in '16? Nope - they sat on it because they knew that revenues leaguewide were about to explode and they didn't want to have to go into a 2016 FA market with $2 million and a pack of chewing gum when everyone else was holding $25 million in runaround money.

Now SOME teams did try to leapfrog the market by being aggressive in 2015 knowing that they really didn't want to get in the middle of a bidding war in '16 with everyone holding full coffers. But those were smaller market teams like the Spurs and Cavs. And really, the small/large market distinction just doesn't apply in the NFL.

History tells us that many teams will actually try to keep powder dry AHEAD of a major cap explosion rather than spend up to it. And that's not collusion - it's simply savvy cap management.

Now that all went up in a puff of smoke in '16 when all those teams spent money like it was water. Suddenly Timofey Mozgov is getting $20 million/season. Luol Deng got something like $65 million to play 80 more career games.

Teams will be stupid again soon enough, but what you're seeing right now is them PREPARING to be stupid later.

Bismack Biyombo got $17 million per year for averaging 5.5 pts/game. It was perhaps the dumbest thing I've ever seen outside of trading/paying fat rus.