o2cats wrote:Again, it is not a luxury tax problem, but a possible extension problem. I think that these can all be part of the new CBA.
Soft cap at a level of the %BRI similar to today’s -> The owner will start with a lower number but will eventually give something similar.
Harder cap -> set at approximately equal to current luxury tax level, owners would want to closer to current cap. Bird rights, and exceptions still work up to the hard cap. Luxury tax of 2x amount over the soft cap, versus current 1x.
Hard cap -> Teams over the hard cap would not have to immediately cut players, but cannot even sign draft picks, or use Bird rights, until they get below the threshold, and pay 3x for any salary over the hard cap limit. Expect to see teams sending out picks, and other assets to take good players of their rosters.
Max 3 year deals -> No player options, only team options, larger signing bonus, cap hit over non-option years
End restricted FA -> Bone to players
Rookie contracts structure remains the same, but scale decreases 15%, draft picks of teams over the hard cap go into a pool for a supplementary draft based teams finish, if not sold, or traded before the draft.
No max salary -> More balance around the league, little chance for another Heat situation, unless players would be willing to take 50% of market value, instead of 90%.
If these were part of the new CBA, other teams would be able to outbid the Bulls for Rose, as they could not exceed the hard cap. At the very least multiple teams will have to send out great assets to dump salary, so being able to move $10M of SJax expensive, if even possible.
I'm not worried about CBA phantoms now. Nor do I think our management should be. This is the reality now, this is what we deal with. We cross that bridge when we come to it.
Besides, what if these doomsday CBA scenarios DON'T come to pass? Then it was all much ado about nothing. We let phantoms handcuff us from improving our team in a year when we could well make a legitimate run for the glory. That doesn't make much sense to me.
Also, is any CBA agreement going to come to pass which is going to go drastically against the best interests of certain key owners/franchises and their best interests? I tend to think not.