No it doesn't cross their mind.. Their agent negotiates the deal. Agent gets money in his home state for the deal, so they push for more max money. The best agents in the world, don't negotiate based on taxes. They get every dollar they can because saving $11mil in taxes doesn't matter to them, nor will the player notice either way.. Bosh & Bron went to Miami because Wade was there, and they could add all 3. Had the Heat had space and didn't have Wade they would have probably only gotten Bosh, Bron would have stayed in Cleveland, and wherever DWade was... He would have stayed as well. They took a slight paycut because that was the only way it would work. If Bron & Bosh had to take $10mil paycuts, there would be absolutely no way they sign in Miami.
4th largest city means absolutely nothing in sports marketing. None.. In the sports world it is a dead zone. Not saying Houston is a bad city, just saying in terms of sports marketing it is.. You make endorsements by being the face. Certain players, Lebron's & KD's make money by being the best players. But It's much easier to sell CP3 as the face of an LA/NY/CHI team. Dwight as the face of an LA/NY/CHI team than part of a team in Houston. Also if Houston is so great for endorsements/exposure, how did the marketing cash cow of Jeremy Lin not even ran top 15 in jersey sales in the US, internationally, and not top 5 in China. Dwight especially, he will never regain a marketing image in Houston.
Another example: Dirk $400K in endorsements last year.. Pau $2.1mil in endorsements..
Amare still had $3.5mil in endorsements in 2013. Year before he had $8mil.
Chris Paul's last year in New Orleans was less than $2mil in endorsements (No actual number of how low he was).. He had $3.8mil in endorsements last year.
And if that was the case that hey let's take less money and surround themselves with a better team in 2014. Wade, Bosh, Bron should all opt out. Sign $10mil contracts so the Heat will have an extra $30mil + in space.