There are 12 teams in the NBA with a better than .550 winning percentage.  The Mavericks remaining schedule includes only seven games against those teams and only two on the road, both road games are in Portland.

The Mavs are finished with the Lakers, Suns, Jazz, Cavs and Hawks.  They have one home game each against the Celtics, Nuggets, Magic, Thunder, and Spurs.

Eight of the 12 teams are in the Western Conference.

Remaining games for teams in the West against teams with better than .550 winning percentage:

San Antonio 13 - Home 4, Road 9

Denver 12 - Home 5, Road 7

Oklahoma City 11 - Home 6, Road 5

LA Lakers 10 - Home 4, Road 6

Phoenix 10 - Home 7, Road 3

Portland 8 - Home 3, Road 5

Utah 7 - Home 3, Road 4

Dallas 7 - Home 5, Road 2

Pro-Football-Reference.com has what they call Career Approximate Value (CarAV).  It's a complex formula used to measure a players performance.

I averaged the CarAV for the top 32 picks in each draft from 1970-2005.  As expected the top picks were the best players.  But they weren't nearly as good as the current contracts would indicate.  Based on the average performance of the 360 top 10 picks, 2009 contracts dollars exceed a players value by around 200%-250%!

After the top ten things evened out,  with the later first round picks being a little under paid relative to the median first round deal.

The Bengals are correct.  Making Smith the second highest paid player on the team is financially insane.

Solution: Don't draft in the top ten.  Try to draft number 32 if possible, it seems to be the best value.

Previously, I was in support of Brown for standing his ground.  But now I think they should pay Smith. Overpaying an unproven rookie is part of the penalty for having a losing team.