Croshere got lucky, he signed his contract when stupid GMs didn't fully realize the long-term ramifications of signing unproven players to huge contracts.
These days, NOBODY is gonna give a guy like Croshere (7 years, $51 million) a big contract.
The super-stars (Kobe, Shaq, KG, Duncan) will get the max. Rookies will get their pre-determined salary based on draft order. Meanwhile, everybody else is lucky to get more than $5 million/year. Nobody is gonna blow their salary-cap on a Juwan Howard.