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The Houston Rockets' contract with Nene including "likely" bonuses won't be allowed by the NBA.

Nene's deal will include the $2.6 million in base salary.

Nene had bonuses in the deal of more than $7 million, which would have turned his contract into a major trade chip.

While the contract didn't explicitly violate the collective bargaining agreement, it has essentially been ruled that it violated the spirt of it.

Via Shams Charania/The Athletic

"If ya ain't cheatin', ya ain't tryin!"

I definitely feel like this was the boldest attempt I've ever heard to fabricate a trade asset through a player contract. I can't knock the Rockets for it, though. I'm just glad the league stepped in, even if their justification is a little bit subjective.

Good move, had it been approved everybody would start doing it and the rich would all get richer.

Good move. It was manipulating the spirit of the game. Almost as much as flopping.

Another self-own by Morey

Rockets should take NBA to court for this, if it's in the role, it's in the role!

Miami heat did the same thing to get Mike Miller, NBA picks and chooses when to enforce rules and when not too. I guess if it helps if it's for LeBron huh

I agree in principle with both sides. However the slope gets slippery (as Cuban once remarked) once other teams are emboldened to try... perhaps this is the best course of action. This of course begs the question: What now happens to Nene?

DreamTeam09 wrote:Miami heat did the same thing to get Mike Miller, NBA picks and chooses when to enforce rules and when not too. I guess if it helps if it's for LeBron huh

No, they did not. Miller got a full mid-level exception and at a time that meant 1/10 of the salary cap.

I would be outraged if the NBA blocked my favorite team from completing a deal that was 100% within the rules, but since it's not my favorite team, I fully support this arbitrary, subjective, and authoritarian action.

IAMZOOTED2 wrote:I agree in principle with both sides. However the slope gets slippery (as Cuban once remarked) once other teams are emboldened to try... perhaps this is the best course of action. This of course begs the question: What now happens to Nene?

The slippery slope goes both ways. If the NBA can block this because it violates the spirit, they can block anything that violates the spirit. That's why we have rules. To avoid slippery slopes.

Update: nene gets paid but bonuses cannot be used in a trade.

DreamTeam09 wrote:Miami heat did the same thing to get Mike Miller, NBA picks and chooses when to enforce rules and when not too. I guess if it helps if it's for LeBron huh

I don't think your facts are correct there but obviously you have your own agenda.

scrabbarista wrote:I would be outraged if the NBA blocked my favorite team from completing a deal that was 100% within the rules, but since it's not my favorite team, I fully support this arbitrary, subjective, and authoritarian action.

It's hardly arbitrary.

There is absolutely no reason for this contract except cap circumvention. The fact the NBA has the right to disallow a contract means they gave themselves the power to deal with situations like this where someone invents a construct that goes against the intention of the cap that wasn't previously foreseen.

scrabbarista wrote:The slippery slope goes both ways. If the NBA can block this because it violates the spirit, they can block anything that violates the spirit. That's why we have rules. To avoid slippery slopes.

The NBA probably does have the authority to block anything that violates the intention of the cap or intention of the league in order to protect the league. They probably can do that. It isn't a slippery slope. The intention is to protect the integrity of the game.

This contract was created with the sole purpose of circumventing the cap.

dougthonus wrote:

scrabbarista wrote:The slippery slope goes both ways. If the NBA can block this because it violates the spirit, they can block anything that violates the spirit. That's why we have rules. To avoid slippery slopes.

The NBA probably does have the authority to block anything that violates the intention of the cap or intention of the league in order to protect the league. They probably can do that. It isn't a slippery slope. The intention is to protect the integrity of the game.

This contract was created with the sole purpose of circumventing the cap.

The NBA blocked this because they felt it made them look stupid, IMHO. "Circumventing the cap" is a meaningless phrase. What actually happened is that the team used the rules to gain an advantage, which is no different than what all 30 teams are trying to do with every contract they sign. Are NBA refs going to start saying, "Well, to be honest, you didn't break any rule, but we feel like you violated the spirit of the rules, so we're going to have to just take the ball away from you. We don't have a specific call, so just make one up yourself. The point is... you know... the... spirit?"

EDIT: Now that I think about it, that's kind of what happened to James Harden in the 2018 WCF. Eh. Maybe that's just life in the NBA. Fairness and equal competition be damned. I'm not going to die on this hill.

Rockets once again showing the knack for salary cap magic.

The reality is that teams will be getting ultra creative to attract as much talent on the teams - the money to be made will be astronomical once the NBA truly ventures into international territory in the next 10 years (i.e. NBA Euro, NBA Asia, NBA Africa leagues ).

The question is what is the tolerance level for the owners / commissioner on the amount of financial "creativity"?

scrabbarista wrote:The NBA blocked this because they felt it made them look stupid, IMHO. "Circumventing the cap" is a meaningless phrase.

The NBA blocked it because the deal was exploitative and did not have legitimate intent. I applaud the Rockets for their creativity, but I also applaud the NBA for saying, no this is a loop hole, and we're not going to let you use it, we're going to close it immediately rather than let you use it.

What actually happened is that the team used the rules to gain an advantage, which is no different than what all 30 teams are trying to do with every contract they sign. Are NBA refs going to start saying, "Well, to be honest, you didn't break any rule, but we feel like you violated the spirit of the rules, so we're going to have to just take the ball away from you. We don't have a specific call, so just make one up yourself. The point is... you know... the... spirit?"

If the NBA has the right to disallow contracts then that is also part of the rules isn't it. In which case, no rule was broken by the NBA. They have a final right to void contracts that they don't think are within the spirit of the rules, and you know darn well this one wasn't. There was no intent to pay Nene this money.

EDIT: Now that I think about it, that's kind of what happened to James Harden in the 2018 WCF. Eh. Maybe that's just life in the NBA. Fairness and equal competition be damned. I'm not going to die on this hill.

I have no idea what you're talking about here.

HIF wrote:

DreamTeam09 wrote:Miami heat did the same thing to get Mike Miller, NBA picks and chooses when to enforce rules and when not too. I guess if it helps if it's for LeBron huh

I don't think your facts are correct there but obviously you have your own agenda.

When Miami big 3 came together the 1st year, they all had "likely incentives in their deals" the incentives were that they had to win 47 games to trigger the bonuses. Since their cap number was at a lower than the expected cap hit to begin the year, they used that money to sign Mike miller. They went to wln to win more than 47 games that year.

What facts do i have wrong ??

3baller9 wrote:

DreamTeam09 wrote:Miami heat did the same thing to get Mike Miller, NBA picks and chooses when to enforce rules and when not too. I guess if it helps if it's for LeBron huh

No, they did not. Miller got a full mid-level exception and at a time that meant 1/10 of the salary cap.

When Miami big 3 came together the 1st year, they all had "likely incentives in their deals" the incentives were that they had to win 47 games to trigger the bonuses. Since their cap number was at a lower than the expected cap hit to begin the year, they used that money to sign Mike miller. They went to wln to win more than 47 games that year.

What facts do i have wrong ??