Can someone explain to a non-math guy why it would be in the players' interest to use max escalator every year? Isn't AAV meaningless if the revenue isn't there?
One way to look at the matter is that there is a big pie. I mean a BIG pie. That's the amount which is going to be available in players' salaries next year. The size of this pie is fixed. You can't change it, I can't change it, the owners can't change it, and the players can't change it.
Now, what happens with the escalator is something like this:
No escalator: There might be on average something like 15M per team available to spend on free agents (this is an exaggeration, but it will illustrate the point). All the other salaries are already contracted for.
With escalator: That number jumps to 20M per team available to spend on free agents. Of course, maybe 10% of that 20M is lost to escrow, but that still leaves more available than there would be without the escalator.
So, the escalator doesn't help ALL the players. It helps the free agent class of the year in which it is used. And, of course, it does that at the expense of everyone else.
I hope that helps.