Comments on: Winderman: Max contracts and amnesty, have the owners learned anything?

By: papichulo55

papichulo55 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 19:17:48 +0000

Need a system that allows small market teams to compete for the ring on a reguar basis. Hard Cap is equal rules applied to unequal business partners. Use entertainment industry metrics to categorize each market, then let the small caps spend more. Then total compensation package of small vs big caps will be much closer than it is now. The shoe contracts of these guys is the wildcard in all of this. Gotta figure a way to make things even or we will have a league of Globe Trotters vs Washington Generals!

By: reupjosh

reupjosh — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 17:57:32 +0000

The need a hard cap… straight up… no luxury tax, no MLE’s, etc… just a hard number that no team can go over. There are still too many loop holes for these teams willing to spend to get better players.

Really though, players need to man up and stop with the “if I can’t beat them , I’ll join them” routine.

By: Kurt Helin

Kurt Helin — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 14:23:05 +0000

NBA owners started off the last CBA talks asking for non-guaranteed contracts. But that was a non-starter for the union.

By: southpaw77

southpaw77 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 13:15:44 +0000

These amnesty rules are a joke. The player still gets his money and then turns around and signs with a warm market or big market while teams in said markets still go over the cap.
Need to be allowed to waive a player NFL style at least every other year if they don’t live up to a contract. No money if you turn into a slacker, then they either gotta keep proving themselves or to get their highly bloated contract they actually gotta go to a team with cap space. Not get their 10-20 mil du to amnesty then turn around and sign the vets minimum with Miami, NY, LA, Boston or Brooklyn.

Want to exceed the cap of say 66 mil? Then once u go over you pay 66 million and up. NBA will never be up to NFL popularity if cold weather small markets never have a shot at long term success such as Cleveland, Denver, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Indiana, etc. Even if u draft right your players will bounce to bit cities or warm weather markets even if they have no cap space. Only shot these cold weather small markets have if nailing every draft pick and trade and praying the players they get stay humble and loyal and wanna stay.

By: brewcitybummer

brewcitybummer — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 05:39:00 +0000

NFL teams are capable of giving out fully guaranteed contracts which means the question should be why they never do so. My answer would be less scarcity in the talent market and a universal understanding of the fragility of the assets. I could go into detail about how much more replaceable NFL players are than MLB or NBA players but I think most people realize that.

NBA and MLB owners would be able to have an NFL system if they had a yearly talent infusion in the draft that was roughly equivalent to what the NFL has.

By: marcusfitzhugh

marcusfitzhugh — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:34:53 +0000

@ cmehustle- yeah, right. If Brook is so good, why try to get Howard? Just sign Lopez to the longest contract possible.

Howard, Bynum, Lopez. You’re going to sit here and say “IN 2 YEARS”, they’ll be practically the same – all top 3 guys. So to you, one rebound or one free throw, that’s about all that will separate them? Please, get a TV and actually watch a game

By: beagle11

beagle11 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 04:12:45 +0000

Get rid of the cap and let the market dictate what players are worth rather than “slotting” players

By: dclogicatlast

dclogicatlast — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 03:45:18 +0000

Simple solution. Want parody? Hard cap no max. Lebron would be paid his actual worth of 30+ and there’d be no true big 3′s.

By: berto55

berto55 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 03:25:56 +0000

Nice example, wouldn’t have thought of that.

By: doubledown44

doubledown44 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:47:32 +0000

“Each time a team amnesties a player, it is acknowledging a mistake, no matter how the press release is issued.”

I don’t think that blanket statement is always correct. Take the Cavs, for example. They took on Baron Davis’ bloated contract as a means to get an unprotected first round pick. That gambit was well rewarded when the pick became Kyrie Irving. The amnesty clause then allowed them to clear that contract off their salary cap. Where was the mistake?

By: cmehustle

cmehustle — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:33:27 +0000

Actually I believe Lopez will be a top 3 center in the NBA. Maybe not by next season but in two he will be. But I am a Brooklyn Nets fan so take it how you want.

By: idontevenwannaknow

idontevenwannaknow — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:25:37 +0000

It is a fine idea in all, but it’s almost like a hard cap without saying it’s a hard cap when we all know it might as well be a hard cap.

By: idontevenwannaknow

idontevenwannaknow — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 02:19:53 +0000

The way I see it, these type of players are below superstar status to major markets, but to small market teams, these type of players turn into their “superstar” players because it is near impossible (there are exceptions) to to lure a true superstar (Kobe, ‘Melo, etc…) to a smaller market. These smaller market owners have to pay a premium to get these 2nd tier players to their market to hopefully put enough pieces together to become relevant. Sometimes they are able to put championship contending teams together, but they need luck on their side so that they do not strike out with any of these max deals that scare some fans.

By: papichulo55

papichulo55 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 01:38:19 +0000

Maybe the Owners can use Congress as an example. Stay with me now, lol..

The Senate recognizes each state equally. So maybe each team can continue to have the same cap. The Congress recognizes differences in states. So maybe the Luxury Tax can be sliding, based on income, like our Income Tax rates, where Brooklyn tax rates are significantly higher than Sacramentos.

These organizations are some of the smartest people in business, not just sports. They can devise something better. If not, we might never see another San Antonio.

By: papichulo55

papichulo55 — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 01:01:12 +0000

Maybe the Owners can rethink this from the basic truism that “They are NOT created equal”! Owing a franchise in Sacramento is not equal to owing one in Brooklyn. It all about location to these Free Agents. They make a ton of money in endorsements and they simply want to play in big markets (God Bless you, Timmy).

Maybe the answer is to devise a cap that factors in the locations. Let the small market teams spend more? I dont know. It seems that they need to rethink this based upon the marketplace realities.

By: therealhtj

therealhtj — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:34:47 +0000

The only fix to this system is to move to a mostly non-guaranteed CBA with a more realistic hard-cap like the NFL where garbage contracts can be released at the team’s whim. We’re about 2 more lockouts away from that happening as opposed to this bogus soft cap where if every team spent just below the tax threshold they’d barely meet the agreed upon BRI split.

Alternatively you can move to a MLB type system with a total free market, but then the days of competitive small market teams can be completely forgotten.

By: raidmagic

raidmagic — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:30:34 +0000

There is no way you really believe Lopez is a max guy.

By: therealhtj

therealhtj — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:01:48 +0000

The answer to your first question is No.

By: reupjosh

reupjosh — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 00:01:34 +0000

KAAAAAAHHHHHHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!

By: icu84bs

icu84bs — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:48:15 +0000

Ira makes no sense. No matter what system is implemented, the owners soon circumnavigate it as most are very competitive people. Nobody is twisting their arms, they could say no but rather blame the problem on the players.

(‘Holding hostage’, I don’t think so: ‘perhaps the NBA needs to move to some sort of free-agency tier system, where the most deserving still could max out, but where others couldn’t hold teams hostage just because cap space happens to be available.’ ) LOL.

By: cmehustle

cmehustle — Thu, 12 Jul 2012 23:39:09 +0000

Im sorry, I believe in Brook, Gordon and Hibbert. I think they were all worth near or close to max dollars. You get paid for what teams believe you can accomplish, rather than what you already have accomplished in the NBA. Your resume cant take the court. Of course the only way to tell whos right is to wait 2 or 3 years lol.