Would the "Beckham Rule" work in the NBA?

[xstockholmsyndromex]

I was reading the post dicsussing the salary cap, and people thinking it should be gotten rid of. I think the salary cap is a good thing, to keep the playing field a little more even.....but I started thinking about the "Beckham Rule" that MLS has, and I started wondering if something like this would work in the NBA, and what pros and cons there would be.

For those who arent familiar with the "Beckham or Designated Player Rule", here is quick explanation:

1-The rule allows each MLS franchise to sign one player that would be considered outside of the teams' salary cap, allowing U.S. and Canadian teams to compete for star players in the international soccer market.

2-For each designated player, $400,000 of his salary is charged to the salary cap, with any remaining salary toward the player being imposed on the individual owner, and not counted against the cap.

3-There will initially be one designated player slot available to each team in the league. A team can trade their designated player slot; teams are allowed a maximum of two slots.
Only $325,000 of a team's second designated player will count against the salary cap.

Say the league allowed this and then left the regular salary cap at around $58 million....what do you think the pros and cons of this might be??? Obviously some tweaking might need to be done, such as having $1,000,000 of the "designated player's" salary going against the team cap, etc.

I think it would work well. Teams would be able to, in a way, designate player their "franchise player". If the leauge wanted they could have a max amount teams could pay to their "designated player", but it could be an amount higher than the typical league maximum......

[britblazerdude]

Sounds good to me. If a teams star player is out of the cap, then they can sign foreign or middle-pack players to higher contracts to keep them from going back to the European leagues.

[celticfan42487]

NBA isn't a poor poor poor league so it's unneccesary here.

The Beckham rule would be the equivelent of the Greece league having an exception so they could bring over Shaq a few years ago.

[richboy]

Sounds like my idea of a bigger exception available every few years. Something between 8-12 million a year is what I was saying. Would allow for more player movement than the current system.

[Red Robot]

I don't think the NBA is going to have a problem getting and keeping the world's best players. A rule like this would result in huge contracts going to a few stars, which would mean clubs would have less money to pay average players, defeating the purpose. Huge pay inequalities would develop, and there would be bidding wars for the top players. All this would be exacerbated because the NBA is such a star-driven league.

[xstockholmsyndromex]

^^^Im not worried about the NBA keeping its best players, but there is some concern when it comes to bench players, role players, etc. I think with this type of a rule, it would actually allow the teams to pay their "average" players slightly better....probably enough to keep the thought of Europe out of their minds.

I agree with the bidding wars, but that is why the league would have to impose a max type deal for the designated player, so things didnt get out of the control, but not having that contract count against the teams total cap, i think would be extrmely beneficial to teams and their abilities to retain players currently on their rosters, etc.

[GOAT_Marbury]

Portland Trailblazers sign Lebron James for 1 Billion, Paul Allen happily foots the bill....

[andyhop]

^ How would this have made any difference to the Childress situation, it wasn't that Atlanta or someone else couldn't pay him more that led him to head to Europe it was that noone wanted to.

Your proposal would probably make the situation worse than it is now as many of the teams are unable/unwilling financially to increase team salary from its present levels, if they keep the size of the pot constant but then have to pay out more of it to their one star then that leaves less for everyone else not more.

[Red Robot]

There would definitely have to be limitations on what teams could pay designated players. If the maximum salary was brought approximately in line with current maximum salaries (say $20m), I think it would have a subtle effect on the NBA. I can't really predict how a "Beckham rule" and a $50 million cap would be different than a $70 million cap. It seems like it would allow teams less flexibility, but I'm not sure.

There's already the Bird rule and restricted free agency to help teams keep their own players. If anything, the Beckham rule might make it harder for teams to keep rising stars. Some players would want to jump ship to be franchise players elsewhere and make more money than they otherwise could. I can already see the wiretap articles.

I still don't think this would help average players make more money. It might not seem like it, but NBA teams have a limited amount of money with which to pay players.

[richboy]

^ How would this have made any difference to the Childress situation, it wasn't that Atlanta or someone else couldn't pay him more that led him to head to Europe it was that noone wanted to.

Your proposal would probably make the situation worse than it is now as many of the teams are unable/unwilling financially to increase team salary from its present levels, if they keep the size of the pot constant but then have to pay out more of it to their one star then that leaves less for everyone else not more.

No Atlanta could pay him more but I could see a number of teams that would have given him more than the MlE if they had that to offer. Not many teams under the cap pretty limits your options. If there was a bigger exception I'm pretty sure a team like Orlando , Detroit, Lakers might have offered him the deal.

[RockTHECasbah]

the MLS franchise player system would not work, LA, Portland and New York would get the top franchise players simply by overpaying

the richest teams would sign Duncan, Kobe, LeBron, KG, Paul or Howard and probably win the 'ship

[GJense4181]

Call me crazy, but I don't *like* player movement.
I want to see Reggie Millers and Kobe Bryants and Yao Mings only play with one team, not Charles Barkleys and Shaquille O'Neals and Tracy McGrady's...

[TheSheriff]

Well it would not be used on players who are leaving for international teams. It would be used on the Kevin Garnetts, Lebron Jameses, and Kobe Bryants, because it would allow teams who couldn't afford them under the cap to bid ridiculous amounts of money for them. For instance in 2010 Lebron, Wade, Bosh, and Melo would all end up on the Knicks, Nets, Celtics, Lakers, or Bulls (No other media markets could afford to pay them like those teams), while they might end up on the Nets/Knicks anyway it brings the Lakers, Bulls, and Celtics into the picture. Why would a team waste an exemption that would allow them to save 20 to 30 million in cap space (or 40 to 60 million including luxury tax), on a guy making 7 to 8 million.

[richboy]

Well it would not be used on players who are leaving for international teams. It would be used on the Kevin Garnetts, Lebron Jameses, and Kobe Bryants, because it would allow teams who couldn't afford them under the cap to bid ridiculous amounts of money for them. For instance in 2010 Lebron, Wade, Bosh, and Melo would all end up on the Knicks, Nets, Celtics, Lakers, or Bulls (No other media markets could afford to pay them like those teams), while they might end up on the Nets/Knicks anyway it brings the Lakers, Bulls, and Celtics into the picture. Why would a team waste an exemption that would allow them to save 20 to 30 million in cap space (or 40 to 60 million including luxury tax), on a guy making 7 to 8 million.

My rule would have it that no team in the luxury tax could get this exception. You would have had to be under the luxury tax for a few years. That would eliminate a lot of teams from getting these players.