Lockout 99% Certain According to Billy Hunter

[ranger001]

What is it about the CBA that doesn't allow the Raptors, Clippers or Kings to compete with those two teams? Last time I looked, it was gross mismanagement that's kept all of those teams down, not any small market bias of the CBA.

The owners are more concerned about financial matters than competing on court, competing on court is only a consideration because better teams can charge more for tickets.

Its not really financial mismanagement because a GM can't simply decide to not spend on salaries. In regular businesses you can cut costs(salaries) in such a way that you maintain your sales as best as possible. However that is not possible in the NBA, if you cut salaries then the team will start losing and the fans will leave.

When you have a system that forces owners to compete against each other it leads to situations where players receive contracts that they should not be getting. Its ok to pay players for production but if production doesn't pan out then an owner should be able to waive that player.

The owners want rules so that they are not forced to compete with each other in a way that can cause them to lose money. Since they are the ones paying the bills then IMO they should be able to make the rules. And that is what I predict is going to happen. Anytime a players association goes up against the owners they lose.

[douggood]

most owners understand that they need to spend money to win, but what they are looking for are rules that curtail their stupidty. they are looking for something that ungruantees contracts and puts a upper cap on how much they can spend.

the upper cap i can see happening but the unguranteed contracts will be a non starter with the union.

[dacrusha]

Just be clear..Competion and quality of the game are not priorities. Reducing the schedule and contracting teams are quick easy fixes to adress these things but they will never do it becuase it would impact revenue.

The best fix is to track yearly salary increases to match up with BRI.

At its current pace, BRI is increasing at 3-4% annually, while max contracts are increasing at 10%.

It's that 6-7% discrepancy that's causing the owners to moan about huge revenue shortfalls that can't cover salary costs.

That and the fact that ALL contracts are guaranteed.
While, yes an owner/gm should be better inclined not to dole out top dollars to players who are undeserving, ultimately the ability to cut players like in the NFL by only guaranteeing partial time in the contract (i.e. 5 year contract, with 3 years guaranteed) will ease a lot of the owners fears that they are losing money and I think will ultimately drive players to want to compete for longer than just the final year of their contract.

Contracts aren't all guaranteed... any contract can be negotiated to include certain stipulations to protect teams.

Look at Amir's new contract as an example.

[pspot]

If the draft does happen before the lockout would the rookie contracts be honored on the old scale?

I guess there is no real way of knowing and if they are talking about scaling back existing player contracts it would probably mean anyone from the next draft would be effected as well.

Probably not a good situation for the draft class

[torontoaces04]

Crazy hypothesis:

Lockout happens. All NA basketball players spend the time off with their families, getting fat.
All European players return home to play in their national leagues. Since the Raptors squad has by far the most Euro flava, the majority of our players stay in game shape.

The lockout finishes. All our players are still good to go, but the majority of other teams have out of shape, overweight squads. This allows the Raptors to get off to a 30-2 start to the season while other teams guys play their way into game shape.

The rest of the league is now in shape. The Raptors therefore finish the season a dismal 2-48 and finishing 32-50 as the 11th seed in the East.

[Yeezus_]

Crazy hypothesis:

Lockout happens. All NA basketball players spend the time off with their families, getting fat.
All European players return home to play in their national leagues. Since the Raptors squad has by far the most Euro flava, the majority of our players stay in game shape.

The lockout finishes. All our players are still good to go, but the majority of other teams have out of shape, overweight squads. This allows the Raptors to get off to a 30-2 start to the season while other teams guys play their way into game shape.

The rest of the league is now in shape. The Raptors therefore finish the season a dismal 2-48 and finishing 32-50 as the 11th seed in the East.

.....................................

[Zuul]

Is there anything more noble than the PR posturing that takes place in negotiations between billionaire owners and multi millionaire employee's.

[righteous015]

Will the lockout cost Miami one of the big three? For some reason, I now want the worst for Bosh.

[kobejohn89]

a lockout will hurt the owners more than the players cuz the players can offset their losses by playing overseas, the owners lose alot of tv money.

[Reignman]

a lockout will hurt the owners more than the players cuz the players can offset their losses by playing overseas, the owners lose alot of tv money.

A lot of these owners have other ventures to keep them afloat. I don't think most of them would worry. Especially since many teams in the league aren't making much dough anyways after paying exorbitant salaries. The ones that own their own arenas will probably book them out for other events to recoup some of their losses.

[MEDIC]

a lockout will hurt the owners more than the players cuz the players can offset their losses by playing overseas, the owners lose alot of tv money.

This is what happened during the last lockout:

The NBA has said players can play overseas during the lockout. However, FIBA, the governing international body, has refused to admit NBA players if they are bound to rejoin the NBA after the lockout.

http://articles.latimes.com/1999/jan/01/sports/sp-59586

FIBA will try to protect the integrity of Euroleague & the jobs of it's players. I don't think they want NBA players coming over, taking jobs, then dumping their teams when the lockout is over. Not fair to the fans, players, or the league.

If an NBA player had no contract (Free Agent) & agrees to play for a full season, I'm sure FIBA will let them play, but otherwise.......

The players don't really have other employment opportunities..................OK, maybe Footlocker....

[Jatt]

Bring in replacement players from Europe, The Return of Hoffa!