Jailblazers7 wrote:sixers hoops wrote:Jailblazers7 wrote:I don’t really blame Silver for all this nonsense. Players haven’t been given any additional power by the league they’ve taken it by force. They have a strong union & individual stars have a lot of power because of their importance on the court & economic importance off of it. 
I definitely think there are long-term costs to players employing this strategy. But preventing these types of trade request is a really difficult collective action problem to solve.
He is the commissioner they took it by force from. Agents are calling teams who are not even holding contracts of one of their players and threatening them not to pursue their client’s services. It is the commissioners job to insure an agent is abiding by the NBA standard of conduct to remain a certified NBA agent. The NBA has a system in place to determine the order of draft picks in an attempt to create parity; however, agents are allowed to call teams and attempt to intimidate them from drafting their client. Lillard is more than welcome to holdout, yet his agent is permitted to bully teams from trading for his client. 
If a player wants to control the exact team he wants to go to, his agent can recommend that he doesn’t sign an extension, he can holdout, or he can negotiate a no-trade clause. However, Dame signed an extension because he wants ALL the money. James opted in because he wanted that $35 million. Their agents recommended they extend contracts with these teams, then the commissioner thinks it is a professional practice for these same agents to randomly call all of the front office executives in an attempt to warn them against acquiring their player. Doesn’t sound like he is insuring that agents abide by any professional standard of conduct to maintain the integrity of the league.
 
So he’s going to ban Rich Paul & every other powerful agent in the league for working the phones on behalf of their client? He’s gonna open up the league to lawsuits from CAA, Klutch, and every other agency? Piss off Lebron & all the players with relationships with these agents?
There’s just no good recourse to an agent calling up a team and saying “hey, you can trade for Dame but he doesn’t really want to be in XYZ city & that could impact the team.” The fact is that superstars are hundred millionaires who are absolutely essential to the on court product. They have real power whether we like it or not & they are now wielding that power to their personal advantage. 
Portland offered him that contract with a full understanding that this situation was a possibility & so did Dame. It sucks for the fans but this is just the nature of the business.
 
They need a commissioner with the backbone to maintain the integrity of the league. If he is afraid of pissing off agents, then he will continue to screw over small markets. If the agents want to sue for the right to act in a manner that doesn’t honor the collective bargaining agreement, then let them. Adam Silver is expected to represent all of the owners, not just the owners in the larger markets. If the NBA negotiates a draft to allocate players to teams to promote parity, and agents just want to force their players to a specific market, then agents are not operating within the negotiated bargaining agreement. If Silver is scared to do his job, then that is a different issue. 
Fortunately, these day more owners are equipped to deal with these issues, and are willing to trade for a player in this situation. For the most part, agents give teams four or five teams that they would be willing to be traded to, and for most organizations are able to find a deal that is good enough to get rid of an unhappy player.
Kawhi’s LA request was ignored and he was sent to Toronto.
Anthony Davis’s LA request was ignored until the Lakers put together what NO thought was a competitive offer.
Paul George’s LA request was ignore when he was sent to OKC.
There are conflicting reports regarding what Harden wanted, but the Rockets got a reasonable enough return. And they Nets got a good return from us, although I think they expected a much better Ben.
Kyrie and Durant both gave a few teams they were willing to go to. 
Bradley Beal had a full no-trade clause.
This summer seems to really be the beginning of the one team thing, and will be interesting to see how it plays out.