Did the Sacramento Kings pay DeMar DeRozan too much?
By Mat Issa
Method #2: Cerebro Sports Global Search Tool
The website Cerebro Sports has a Global Search tool that allows you to compare players from different eras dating all the way back to 1980.
According to their database, there are eight player seasons with similar statistical profiles to the one had by 2023-24 DeRozan. However, two of those seasons occurred before 1990. Since it's difficult to find accurate salary data from that time, we'll eliminate those seasons from our analysis. We also won't look at Allen Iverson's 1997-98 season, Brandon Roy's 2008-09 season, and Jerry Stackhouse's 1997-98 season because they were still on their rookie contracts, and DeRozan is long past that.
With those added filters in mind, here are the three player seasons (one of which actually belongs to DeRozan) with similar statistical footprints and the percentage of the salary cap each of them was making during that season.
Player | Year | Age | % of Salary Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
DeMar DeRozan | 2017-18 | 28 | ≈ 28% |
Monta Ellis | 2009-10 | 24 | ≈ 19.1% |
Michael Finley | 2000-01 | 27 | ≈ 23.7% |
The three seasons we have in front of us fell within the range of 19.1% of the salary cap to 28% of the cap. If you extrapolate those numbers to next season's salary cap, you have a range of 26.9 million to 39.5 million. Even the low end of that spectrum is well above what DeRozan is getting paid next season (16.6% of the salary cap), further adding to the notion that the Kings are getting DeRozan at a bargain.