RealGM

It's gonna take me a while to edit this post accordingly for all of it to make sense. Years ago, I wrote an option for the G-League to create a sliding scale and performance-based contract system to allow players to become professionals early. I'll attach in an edit when I can find it.

What is an ABSSC? It's an Algorithm-Based Sliding Scale Contract.

Lengths of contracts remain the same. Pay is shifted and raised or lowered based on performance, health (games played), etc. While incentives can still be part of a contract, teams would have the ability to shift part of a contract, thus becoming Non-Guaranteed, to allow them to acquire talent or take up cap room. The scales would eventually shift and teams would have to play catch-up, but the gist is allowing teams, and players, to adjust a contract to ensure a fair system that won't hamper team and players years down the road because of a Super Max option exercised. The can maneuver it to a long-term pay-out (almost Bobby Bonilla/Stretched-out style) or adhere it to a Signing Bonus (a La NFL) for a player.

In the case of Lillard, the Non-Guaranteed part would allow the Blazers to pay Lillard's contract in full, but because of team performance, give them a small percentage of Lillard's contract to become Non-Guaranteed and not count against the cap. That way, they can use that difference in a trade or signing someone.

It makes sense in my head yet I'm not an aficionado when it comes to this. Was just an interesting concept that I feel could help players keep getting paid, while allowing teams to shift and move their books to allow them to acquire that "missing player."

Nice idea in all honesty, although I do have some grave concerns when it comes to implementation of said tool.

I’m assuming this will be purely based off analytics as mentally we already have our own “Sliding Scales” based on our view of players. The only issue is when you take mental aspects of a human, and essentially place them into a algorithm… the psychological repercussions will be heavy on one the way the organization runs and secondly the players…

Synopsis: This is good in theory, but bad in execution. You’re basically removing the mental capacity of discernment from a human and creating a sliding scale based on performance. If you or anyone you know has Experience working Pay by Commission, You’ll understand how terribly this can effect the environment of a company and aka the product of the NBA