Back from the Beach

Turks and Caicos - thus the hiccup in publishing. KMARK made it to the sandy shores of this British Virgin Island for 5 days. Golf? Good question. Not much (none). Providenciales, the most tourist inhabited island, is home to one golf course, Royal Turks and Caicos Golf Club. Designed by Karl Litten, the course is owned by the island’s water company. I don’t imagine an explosion of destination golf to come to these shores in the Caribbean. The water company’s monopoly combined with a rather arid tropical climate would make further expansion difficult. Combine that was a significant lack of compelling topography, space, and population, and TCI probably won’t become another Hawaii. As for the rest of the island trappings, they’re not bad. I sense the island in a transition from remote (and desirable) to commercial (but potentially attractive). The Ritz has moved in. The St. Regis is being built. The US dollar is the local currency. There’s good in some of that. The food lacked an impressive ceiling, but the floor was pretty high for a speck of land in the middle of the ocean. For the adventure traveler, keep hunting. For the Family Man, enjoy clear blue water, white sand beach, and ice cream for the kiddos.

I’m personally enjoying the NBA Trade Deadline. Hand up! It’s exposing enough interesting elements that I’m indifferent to a bunch of Washed Stars changing cities. Sure, Giannis could move in some seismic deal but that’s neither here nor there. The Bucks should very much hold him until the summer. The real intrigue should be explored in 10,000 words but I’ll tip the iceberg below:

- The Salary Cap is here. That’s right. The Second Apron showed its teeth all summer and at this point, it’s eating teams alive. What’s apparent is the transition of deals signed in the previous CBA that are now completely underwater. Anthony Davis, Trae Young, Jaren Jackson, Jr were moved for fractions of what they might’ve fetched years ago. Part of that is performance and a much, much bigger part is that handing max extensions to keep starts happy is now a thing of the past. The league has significantly corrected away from consolidating $40-60m in one underperforming asset. Expect future fringe stars to get stuck with a $35-40m ceiling. The max and super max will be reserved for Jokic, SGA, and Wemby.

- Teams are starting over. Cleveland dumped Darius Garland on the Clippers and I won’t ever be convinced they actually believe in James Harden. But Harden’s contract next year is only guaranteed for $14m (of $42m) while Garland will earn no less than $42m in each of the next two seasons. The Cavs shaved almost $50m in commitments this year by shipping De’Andre Hunter to Sacramento and then immediately cleaned up their 2026-2027 outlook as well. For a team that raced to the East’s 1 seed last season, they are now firmly resetting. Or clearing room for a Lebron swan song. Other resets include Chicago (who cares), Miami (when they wiff on Giannis), Boston (did their work last summer), and Golden State (when they wiff….on Giannis).

- How does this redistribution shake out moving forward? It’s 1000% true that owners enjoy salary caps because of their propensity to stifle wages, but they’re sold to the public as a tool to redistribute talent from top performing (often large markets) to underperforming teams. That’s partially happening here. The Celtics shipped out title contributors Jrue Holiday and Kristaps over the summer to Portland and Atlanta respectively. The Kings picked up De’Andre Hunter for virtually nothing because a capped out 1 seed wanted to shave his contract. The Jazz are the beneficiaries of Jaren Jackson because Memphis couldn’t stomach paying this much for a 19-29 roster (even though they won 48 games last season). Does that mean the Jazz, Blazers, Hawks, or Wizards (with AD) are actually any better off? I don’t think so, but there is a linear talent flow occurring right now that probably doesn’t exist if the Second Apron isn’t as harsh as currently written. In a sport like basketball, does that matter? Does it matter a lot more in baseball? I don’t know. I’d characterize the current economic system in basketball as moving closer to football’s hard cap and away from baseball’s no-cap (NO CAP). Do we like this? Again, I don’t know. But Rob Manfred is watching.