Osprey
Registered User
- Feb 18, 2005
- 27,302
- 9,789
I think that it's largely confirmation bias. The fact that dozens of players elevate their play each year while in contract years doesn't prove the phenomenon. There are over 700 hundred players in the league. Probably nearly a third of them are in contract years at any time. There will always be at least dozens of them who underperform, dozens who perform about the same and dozens who overperform. We tend to notice the latter because they're in the spotlight and we like putting reasons to things. We don't notice the rest nearly as much.
There likely is motivation to improve when your contract is coming up and less of it after signing a contract. I'm not saying that that's hogwash or a non-factor, but I doubt that it has as much effect on a player's performance as many people believe. There are probably other factors that are more responsible for a player's increase or drop in production, IMO.
There likely is motivation to improve when your contract is coming up and less of it after signing a contract. I'm not saying that that's hogwash or a non-factor, but I doubt that it has as much effect on a player's performance as many people believe. There are probably other factors that are more responsible for a player's increase or drop in production, IMO.
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