[Taraz]

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Agree 100%...having players who know their role and bust their a$$ every night is critical...but the reality is that those guys don't warrant big salaries nor do they have much trade value.

San Antonio pays three guys big money, then the rest get peanuts (relatively speaking) - and they have a bunch of quality role players (and have for the past half-dozen years, really).

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You can't really compare what the Spurs and a couple other teams are able to do financially with teams that are farther from title contention. Many high quality players are willing to take pay cuts to play for the Spurs and Suns because they seem so close to winning a championship. Do you really think that Grant Hill would have signed with the Lakers for the $2M that Phoenix offered?

You have to look at other players around the league who were signed for $4-5 million:

Kendrick Perkins, Damon Jones, Donyell Marshall, Eduardo Najera, Rafer Alston, Desmond Mason, Tony Battie, etc. I think Walton is about as good for the Lakers as the rest of these players would be.