Collective Bargaining Agreement Changes?

[ballerblogger]

The Euroleague doesn't operate under the confines of a salary cap, luxury tax, age limit, or rookie pay scale.

Is it time for the NBA to change those provisions to the Collective Bargaining Agreement to retain their competitive edge over the Euroleague?

If so, which provision needs changed the most?

[Rodya]

During the next bargaining negotiations the NBA will need to address the problem of college players leaving for Europe due to the one year college rule. In addition, the inability of NBA owners to compete with a Euro league that have zero penalties on their spending will be a glaring issue.

[draft]

The rookie scale is going to hurt in the future. European players who could be making some good money are not going to come here to get picked in the late 1st and make only a million. Especially with the way European teams are currently spending.

[jefe]

I think the best way to address the competitiveness of the Euroleague is the bring back the Mike Finley / Allen Houston waiver (IIRC summer of 2006 teams were permitted - as a one time only occurence - to buyout one player and not have that player's salary count against their cap figure) and make it permanent - one player per year. This would allow teams more flexibility under the cap, but still preserve the cap in order to facilitate equity among teams of differing financial means.

[jefe]

During the next bargaining negotiations the NBA will need to address the problem of college players leaving for Europe due to the one year college rule. In addition, the inability of NBA owners to compete with a Euro league that have zero penalties on their spending will be a glaring issue.

What problem? Jennings is the only player of consequence to do this, and he did it because he couldn't qualify academically IIRC. Further, we've yet to see if this hurts or helps his draft stock.

[raleigh]

I think the best way to address the competitiveness of the Euroleague is the bring back the Mike Finley / Allen Houston waiver (IIRC summer of 2006 teams were permitted - as a one time only occurence - to buyout one player and not have that player's salary count against their cap figure) and make it permanent - one player per year. This would allow teams more flexibility under the cap, but still preserve the cap in order to facilitate equity among teams of differing financial means.

One per year? Not happening.

I think you could solve things easily by:

1. Increasing the MLE.
2. Creating exceptions to the luxury tax like you currently have with the salary cap (e.g., players signed with full Bird rights do not count vs. the luxury tax).

[That Nicka]

Rookie contracts should only be like 2 years instead of 4

[hoop_head]

The Euroleague doesn't operate under the confines of a salary cap, luxury tax, age limit, or rookie pay scale.

Maybe not, but this recent interest in NBA players, and generous contract offers, can only go so far. The clubs signing NBA talent might go on a spending spree for a few years, but like the NBA there will come a point where some kind of binding financial framework will have to be implemented. If not, many clubs could spend themselves into the ground. Or, teams with greater cash streams could simply acquire the best talent available year after year, leaving poorer clubs in the dust.

And then there's the matter of Stern. What's best for his NBA? A level playing field, right across the globe (if he can do it). To spread the NBA beyond North America he would likely implement the same CBA structure for newly-created foreign NBA teams & leagues (if that ever comes to pass; with the money potential in a global NBA, Stern likely dreams about this on a regular basis). Would the spread of the NBA mean the copying of its financial frameworks by non-NBA leagues? If it will guarantee long-term profit and financial stability of the club / league, you bet they will copy it. Is Stern happy about the NBA losing talent to foreign teams? Who knows, maybe he does believe this is a good thing for the NBA with the increased international exposure. Maybe he thinks this is a great way to warm foreign basketball fans to possibly having a local NBA team to root for.

[Flash3]

Rookie contracts should only be like 2 years instead of 4

2 Years?
That's way to short. It's perfectly fine the way it is right now, with rookie contracts and the way they are set up, IMO.

[richboy]

1. Raise the rookie cap.

2. Perhaps have an international draft where teams can give up cap space or a MLE to draft international players. Maybe even have an international player exception. Why should pros be drafted like amateurs.

3. Add an exception above the MLE. I've suggested an exception that starts around 8 million a year. This exception would only be available every once every 3 or 4 years. It should allow for more player movement for players like Childress.

4. Change the BYC rule regarding sign and trades. Its tough to trade Gordon and Deng or Childress because if they receive big raises they become BYC which limits what teams can get in return for them. This rule seems to have been made to stop teams from signing a 1 million dollar player to a 1 year max contract so they can trade him for another max player. Instead of using ByC in sign and trades make it so that if a player signs a 4 year deal or more he can be traded for what his new contract would be. Teams are not going to trade for players that are highly overpaid anyway. If that trade was in effect I think Gordon and Deng would have new contracts and Childress would still be playing in the USA.

5. Expand to europe. Its going to happen and lets put our mark in these countries as well. With the strength of the Euro they definitely can compete right now.

6. Quit letting big market teams go to small markets. Sorry Mr.Stern but I would pick to play in Europe over OKC or Memphis everyday of the weak. Especially in cities like Rome, Paris, etc. If I was commissioner OKC still be in Seattle. Memphis would still be in Vancouver. No team should be in Charlotte. There should be a second team in Chicago. I might add another team to New York and Southern Calfornia. I add a team to Vegas as well.

[rpa]

I think the best way to address the competitiveness of the Euroleague is the bring back the Mike Finley / Allen Houston waiver (IIRC summer of 2006 teams were permitted - as a one time only occurence - to buyout one player and not have that player's salary count against their cap figure) and make it permanent - one player per year. This would allow teams more flexibility under the cap, but still preserve the cap in order to facilitate equity among teams of differing financial means.

It wasn't a buyout and the player still counted against the cap. You cut the player (under the exception) and still paid him his full salary but his contract wouldn't count against the luxury tax.


1) I think adding another exception above the MLE would be a great idea (mentioned by another poster) but only if you can use it every couple of years.

2) I think that the league needs to look at the rules regarding restricted free agency and possibly rework them. The Childress situation happened because the Hawks saw that the best offer he could get was the MLE so they basically ignored him completely. Maybe create some kind of exception or trade-off for making offers to restricted free agents. Something similar to what baseball does (with a twist here and there):

Give teams an exception that allows them to make an offer to a restricted free agent (regardless of the teams cap situation) but given the following rules:
a) The players' salary would could 1.5x against the luxury tax (as opposed to 1.0x for all other salaries)
b) You can only have one player on your roster that you used this exception on at a time (so you can't use it until you get rid of the last player you used it on)
c) Possibly something along the lines of giving up a future draft pick as well (1st rounder)--though this is doubtful

This would make restricted free agents more of a priority and lead to more offer sheets being signed

3) Change up the lottery to stop rewarding teams that tank and teams with forever **** management. Change the lottery rules to:
a) Every team in the lottery has the same chance to get any pick.
b) The first 14 spots of the draft (or more than 14 in the case of expansion) will be determined by lottery. There will be no slotting teams by order.

Doing those 2 things completely eliminates draft tanking from the equation. You won't have teams in the playoff hunt tanking because they aren't guaranteed a high pick and it would look AWFUL to their fan base. You also won't have crappy teams tanking because being the worst team or the 10th worst team wouldn't make any difference.

[giberish]

The one obvious one is that the 1st round pick/rookie scale will be adjusted. This will likely be age and/or years after drafted related, so that teams aren't limited in their offers to 22/23 year old ready to play players by a scale meant for 19/20 year old projects. The older players will be able to sign for higher money and/or fewer restricted years. Higher buyout payments by NBA teams wil also be allowed. There may also be a rule that if a player stayes in Europe for a year or two after being drafted then the NBA team with their draft rights will be able to use MLE money to sign them without being limited to the rookie scale.

I don't see a big change in the FA/restricted FA/salary cap/luxury tax issues. Most NBA teams make decent money now but if their salary costs go up $20M/yr per team to make sure no good players go to Europe that's really going to hurt. There are also a limited number of Euro teams able to pay big $$ salaries (maybe 6-10), and those teams won't pay that to that many players each (maybe 2-4 with MLE money or more, and others at LLE). That's still maybe 25 players, and most of those will be like Saras, Papindolkalis, or even Langdon - guys NBA fans and teams don't really miss.

This leave ~5-10 Childress level players in Europe even in a few years. While this would be enough to make threats of a Euro contract more serious in contract bargining, it's not going to be enough to completely revamp NBA salaries.

[deeney0]

Here's my two cents:

1) Allow some players to enter the NBA straight from High School. Allow the teams in the lottery to sign a BINDING agreement to draft the player if he falls to them. If no lottery team is willing to sign such an agreement, the player can't enter the NBA draft. These players would be REQUIRED to spend a certain amount of time in the NBDL their first season. This would help the NBDL serve is title purpose, development, and also increase its exposure substantially. Were it up to me, I'd also make these apply to college freshmen, too. This is primarily targeted to solve the Brandon Jennings problem.

2) The lux needs to be lower than the cap, not higher than the cap. It also needs to be graduated, not absolute. NBA owners live by the lux, not the cap, and that takes away a lot of flexibility. If the lux was lower than the cap, I expect owners would still live by the lux, but if the rare opportunity came along to bag that final piece of the puzzle, splurging is still possible. A graduated lux would also allow the thrifty owners to go just a bit above the lux to help their teams win, but still penalize the Knicks (and the expected 2012 Blazers) for exceeding it by such ludicrous bounds. Something like 25% on the first $3 mil over, 50% on the next $3 mil, and so on. 5 of the 8 teams over the lux right now would pay less under such a system, while the Mavs, Cavs, and Knicks would pay more for their excess. This is as far as I'd go to combat Childressism.

2) Things like extra exceptions, a slightly higher cap, and occasional reissuing of the Allen Houston Rule could help as well.

[ballerblogger]

Great thoughts all.

I wish I knew why my signature failed to appear in the beginning of this thread...