Dan Gilbert paid $166 million for the Cavaliers’ roster. Why won’t he pay a general manager?

It is quite hard to argue that Cleveland Cavaliers franchise owner Dan Gilbert is cheap. Or, at least, it was hard to argue that before Gilbert parted ways with his general manager David Griffin over what appears to be stalled contract negotiations.

The Cavaliers had a massive $121 million payroll in 2016-17 and face a $45 million luxury tax bill on top of that. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love aren’t cheap, and re-signing Tristan Thompson, Iman Shumpert, and J.R. Smith in recent years got quite expensive. Cleveland will begin triggering the oppressive repeater tax in 2017-18, which will increase its inevitable luxury tax bill an additional 44 percent.

(The repeater tax enters the picture when a team has triggered the tax in three of the four previous seasons. This is Year 3 of the tax for Cleveland, so it has not yet been triggered. If the Cavaliers go one dollar over the tax next year — and they will — the repeater will be triggered for both 2017-18 and 2018-19.)

So Gilbert paid $166 million for a roster that made the NBA Finals. We don’t know how much revenue such a good team pulled in, but chances are the Cavaliers lost money this season. Forbes reported that the Cavaliers lost $40 million in 2016-17 despite winning the championship. Those reported 2015-16 losses came with the same total payroll as Cleveland carried this season. Odds are there were significant losses.

This is what makes Gilbert’s refusal to give Griffin a raise so incredible.

Reports have suggested that Griffin’s contract paid him less than $2 million per season. General managers often get paid less than coaches -- there are GMs out there making less than the veteran’s minimum -- but most GMs don’t take their teams to three straight NBA Finals. Griffin rightfully felt he deserved a raise. We don’t know how big a raise, but it’s unlikely he was asking for something completely outside norms.

Let’s say Griffin wanted to get up to $5 million per year (or less than half of what Phil Jackson is making). That’s an extra $3 million in costs for Gilbert. Executive salaries aren’t capped, so there’s no extra luxury tax expense or anything. In the grand scheme of things, isn’t it worth it to keep a clearly successful GM who has a good working relationship with LeBron James, the only reason you’re in position compete for championships?

Are the savings from hiring a less-experienced, cheaper general manager worth the drama?

For Dan Gilbert, the answer is yes.

It gets even worse. Gilbert’s grand scheme after running Griffin out of town was to hire Chauncey Billups as president of basketball operations. This is a position over the general manager, and is usually the top basketball job in a franchise. Billups has no front office experience, but is seen as a future managerial star. Gilbert chased Billups immediately, with no apparent Plan B.

One problem: according to ESPN, Gilbert lowballed Billups too, initially offering $1.5 million per year (less than what Griffin made) and bumping that to $2 million per year when rebuffed. ESPN reports that typical starting salary that position is $4 million.

This is like spending $100 on porterhouse and lobster and eating it with plastic cutlery. This is like drinking Louis XIII out of a Dixie cup. This is like building an immaculate, expensive manor on top of a shaky, cheap foundation. When you spend this much money on something, you had better not cut corners. Otherwise, why bother?

The sad truth of this is that Griffin and other GMs have little leverage. There are lots of basketball executives who will work cheaply — Griffin has been such an executive for years — and little pressure on franchise owners to pay up when they are successful. LeBron has already been more vocal than most players would be, and that’s really the only anvil that can come down on Gilbert at this point.

The fact that LeBron likes Griffin, has recently advocated for a new contract for Griffin, and is a free agent in 2018 makes Gilbert’s contract quibbling all the more foolish. That the team is now flailing a week into free agency without any apparent plan going forward is malpractice.

Franchise owners almost always get away with twisting the screws on their GMs. Maybe this time it will end up twisting Gilbert’s screw.

This piece was originally published in late June 2017. It has been updated.