Apples and oranges, on multiple levels.
Phil asking Melo to take less than the max has nothing to do with luxury tax payments (I don’t think Dolan himself cares, so why would Phil?); it’s purely about increasing future cap space in order to increase the odds of attracting quality free agents to join Melo in New York (in the summer of 2015 and beyond).
As of now, the Knicks have about $11.7 mil committed to four players for 2015-16. Factor in roster charges for being under 12 players, and the Knicks would have about $50.5 mil in cap space (projected $66.5 mil cap minus $16 mil after roster charges), which doesn’t include Melo, assuming he re-signs this summer. Melo can re-sign with the Knicks for up to 5 years, $129.1 million. If Melo were instead willing to re-sign for 5 years, $110 million this summer, the Knicks would have an extra $2.6 mil in cap room in 2015. That doesn’t sound like much, but that would enable them to offer another player an extra $11 million over the life of a 4-year contract (i.e. offering a superstar $86 million over 4 years instead of just $75 million). If Melo were willing to take $100 mil instead of the full $130 mil over five years, that would open up nearly $5.5 mil more in cap space for 2015, enabling them to offer another player an extra $23.5 mil over the life of a 4-year deal. In addition, it would be a clear indicator that Melo is willing to sacrifice, which increases the odds of star players doing the same in order to join his team.
Melo taking less than his full max increases Phil’s chances of building a legitimate contender around him. If Melo wants his full $129 mil, the Knicks won’t be able to add enough quality pieces to sniff a title. In this day and age, it’s going to be almost impossible to build a title team from scratch with one player making 22.46/24.14/25.8/27.5/29.2mil each year. The Heat lost in the Finals with LeBron/Bosh/Wade making 14.5/14.5/14.2 mil each in their primes three years ago; they lost again with those three making 19/19/18.6. Miami ultimately won two titles in four years with a team built from scratch, but they had three superstars, including the best player in the world, playing for much less than what Melo could potentially make on a new max deal. If the Knicks already had a quality team around Melo—perhaps with a star player that was still on a rookie contract—it would be a different story, and giving the max wouldn’t be such a hindrance to contention.
MJ’s entire career consisted of non-max deals, since A) there were no max salary restrictions when he was with the Bulls, and B) he played for the minimum in Washington. MJ made $30 mil in 96-97 and $33 mil in 97-98, when the salary cap was only $24.4 mil and $26.9 mil, respectively. Even if MJ had signed for the minimum each of those years, the Bulls would have been over the cap, so any sacrifice on MJ’s part would not have created any additional cap space.
Max contract limitations have completely altered the landscape of the league, so much that you can’t make any meaningful comparison between MJ, Kobe, Shaq, and any of today’s prime superstars with respect to financial sacrifices. The ceilings on player salaries today are so low (relatively speaking) that superstars can team up today without making the same financial tradeoff that players in past eras would have had to make to pull of the same thing. If Dan Gilbert could have offered LeBron $33 mil per year in 2010 (12 years after MJ made the same salary), he never leaves Cleveland to make half as much in Miami.
