PeterJohn
The sample sizes (for imports especially) are too small to be interpreted and dissected with any great confidence. There are some outliers (Cotton, Randle, Patterson, Boone, Ware) who would be on really good coin, as well as outliers (Jett, Deleon, Conklin, A Moore, Turner) on minimal coin. Australian outliers (Goulding, Bogut, Bairstow, Kay, Sobey?) and (Doyle, Teys, White, Majok) would also skew both ends of the averages. There would also be surprise pay packets both ways ("he's not worth half that", and “great value for that price”). Also, what price Bogut with his share deal?
If you knew a few individual salaries over a range of both imports and locals, you could probably extrapolate salary ranges for categories such as:
stud import, solid import, budget third import; and
elite local/ marquee local, top 6 local, role playing local, young future development local (but not an official DP), benchi local (5 min or less court time barring injuries or blowouts).
Obviously, some players would be on contracts that don’t reflect their current range (eg a veteran on a multi-year deal whose contributions have declined faster than expected, and players who just go to another level in a season.
Personally I’m against naming individual’s salaries, but I’d appreciate it if the NBL would publish that sort of guide to salary ranges. I think we’d work out that some teams really overachieve considering their players’ likely salary ranges.
