RealGM

I've made it no secret that I expect a long lockout in 2011 as ownership tries to restructure the rules that they've been operating under. There are a lot of questions that can be posed in relation to that, but one that is vexing me is "What if they switch to a hard cap?" By hard cap I mean that the salary cap exceptions go away and that each team cannot exceed a specific dollar expenditure per year.

The reason the Hard Cap question is vexing me is that it would be such a drastic change. I assume there will have to be a transition period or even plan in order to reach the new cap level. I also assume that under such a system players will start to count their average salary per season against the cap. Other than those points I'm unsure what the finer details of such a system would be.

Try to imagine how such a system would work. I think that ultimately, a hard cap makes for truer parity in results because it forces harder decisions and distributes the top talent better in free agency. That's ultimately. How would the Hawks do during a transition period? How long of transition period will it be? Would the hard cap work improve or hurt the Hawks chances for a title? Would a hard cap system even work with guaranteed contracts?

Didn't Morey get fined for suggesting this?

I like the idea of a hardcap. It forces teams to really decide what they want t do. You can build a dominant teams with several large contracts, however you won't have a bench.

The only problem I could see (and it would be a problem here) is teams taking smaller contracts to win a title, but you can't fault them for that.