NBA & Player Union Talks

[BigSlam]

There's no way the NBA is contracting.

Unguaranteed contracts are a bad idea, the results in football are holdouts and constant roster turnover. No thanks.

The salary cap is set at a percentage of league revenue, which is why it can go up and down... the problem is that salaries don't go up and down accordingly over long-term deals, and many owners view their teams as hobbies, not money-making ventures (Allen, Cuban). So there are a couple of options:
1) Install a hard cap, based upon league revenues. This prevents owners from outspending each other.
2) Shorten the length of multi-year deals considerably, to avoid trapping teams and preventing players from being paid according to their worth.
3) Don't agree to deals with a particular cash value. Set it to a percentage of the cap, and allow that number to fluctuate with league revenues.
4) Increase revenue sharing. The NBA did not lose money. Some owners did. So pay them off, and let the league be.

Great post Paydro.

[doc.end]

Wow, can you imagine the luck? We would suck enough to get a very high pick, and the best players would decide to stay in school. I hope fate doesn't hate us that bad.

I know what you mean. With no 1st last year and likely no 1st in 2012 it would suck to finally have a 1st in 2011 with a seriously watered down draft class!

You all want to rebuilding and you don't want to draft an Euro and keep him overses (you POV) till the rebuilding actually starts?!

[Battery]

Wow, can you imagine the luck? We would suck enough to get a very high pick, and the best players would decide to stay in school. I hope fate doesn't hate us that bad.

I know what you mean. With no 1st last year and likely no 1st in 2012 it would suck to finally have a 1st in 2011 with a seriously watered down draft class!

Our pick is lottery protected in 2012.

Chicago Bulls: Receives 2012 first-round pick (lottery-protected in 2012, top-12 protected in 2013, top-10 in 2014, top-8 in 2015, unprotected in 2016) from the Charlotte Bobcats via the Tyrus Thomas trade on 2/18/10.

Read more NBA news and insight: http://www.hoopsworld.com/DraftPickDebt ... z14fQefFp1

[fatlever]

my contraction rankings 30th to 1st - teams most likely to be contracted based on history, arena, fan support, ownership, potential revenue etc...

30th - Lakers
29th - Boston
28th - NY Knicks
27th - Chicago
26th - Miami
25th - Dallas
24th - Orlando
23rd - Portland
22nd - San Antonio
21st - Golden State
20th - Utah
19th - Detroit
18th - Phoenix
17th - Denver
16th - Philadelphia
15th - Oklahoma
14th - Houston
13th - Cleveland
12th - Washington
11th - Atlanta
10th - Toronto
9th - Clippers
8th - Indiana
7th - New Jersey
6th - Milwaukee
5th - Charlotte
4th - Sacramento
3rd - New Orleans
2nd - Minnesota
1st - Memphis

how do my rankings look? agree or disagree? why?

*i think toronto is the hardest franchise to gauge. it really depends on how badly stern wants to keep a team in canada.

**new jersey and clippers also hard to gauge. two horribly run, historically unsuccessful franchises. however, they are LA and NY markets. clippers play in new arena and NJ is soon to play in new arena in brooklyn.

*** cavs have great attendance numbers right now but that is because season tix holders had to renew before lebron made his decision. this franchise was left for dead in the late 90s early 2000s before lebron was drafted.

**** houston, despite having pretty good teams for most of the past 10 years, rich history, good owernship and a huge population, always seems to be in the bottom 3rd in attendance.

charlotte has a few factors going in our favor
1. michael jordan - the only minority owner, the first former player owner, and its freaking mj the most famous player in the history of the league
2. great arena
3. ticket sales and corporate sponsors on the rise 16th out of 30 teams in attendance so far this year

[WhatsaTDot]

I dont think Stern would want out of Toronto. Forbes estimates them to have made 18M last year. Its still one of the biggest markets in NA (anywhere from 6th to 8th depending on what stats are used to measure it.) Its another tool in his belt to promote the NBA as a global brand. With Stern's comments about wanting to build a Eurobrand, it would seem counter intuitive to shut down the only non US based team.

Then again I dont think Stern would want out of anywhere. Even if some franchises are losing money, the teams themselves are all worth in excess of $250 million each. This is typical posturing.
I would likely flip them with OKC in terms of you rankings with neither of them really being in danger of being shed during a contraction.

If for some reason it were to contract, Memphis and NO would be the two to go but I dont see that happening either.

[Battery]

If Miami had no superstars they would be drawing three thousand a game. Worst fans in all of sports. I'd contract them now.

[SWedd523]

You won't see Charlotte get contracted solely because of Mike. You'll have the Clippers, Hawks, Wizards, and maybe Cavaliers and Bucks before us. Toronto is the only non American team right now so they're safe.

[fatlever]

for the record, i dont think there is a chance in hell a team gets contracted. this is more for fun.

battery - yeah, IF miami didnt have superstars... but those 3 are signed for next 5 years. if contraction were to happen it would be in the next 2-3 years. no chance the heat are anywhere near that conversation considering who is there now. plus, wasnt some of the problem in miami in the past related to their old arena being in a not-so-nice part of town?

swedd - i agree. mj is the ace in our hand. no way stern would do that to mj.

[Battery]

for the record, i dont think there is a chance in hell a team gets contracted. this is more for fun.

battery - yeah, IF miami didnt have superstars... but those 3 are signed for next 5 years. if contraction were to happen it would be in the next 2-3 years. no chance the heat are anywhere near that conversation considering who is there now. plus, wasnt some of the problem in miami in the past related to their old arena being in a not-so-nice part of town?

swedd - i agree. mj is the ace in our hand. no way stern would do that to mj.

Yeah I was just kidding about Miami getting contracted now because obviously no way with those 3 but they still have the worst fans in the NBA. Even tonight there were many empty seats.

Miami is where I graduated college and I lived in South Florida off and on for 15 years so I'm very familar with the South Florida sports fan. I used to go to the old Miami Arena a lot and yes it was in Overtown, one of the most dangerous areas in Miami. It's where they had those riots back in the 80's if you remember. But the new arena isn't exactly in the nicest part of town either, much better than Overtown but still kind of dangerous in the surrounding blocks. Miami overall is one big dump and it's the most overrated city in the country. Nobody who lives in Broward and Palm Beach counties likes to travel down to Miami and it's one of the reasons why they don't draw well. Most of the people with money don't live in Miami and it's a bitch to drive down there during the week so thats another reason why they can't draw well.

And I seriously doubt we get contracted because this area of the country is booming in terms of population. The recession is hurting us but with the amount of newcomers every day, especially from up north, we should eventually draw much bigger crowds once our team becomes a playoff regular...hopefully sooner rather than later.

I actually would like to see 4 teams contracted. There's waaaay too many teams which has thinned out the talent. Much rather see less teams like the 80's but with more talent on each one. Makes for a much better league overall IMO. Memphis has to go, but I can't see Minny because they do have good fans up there. I'd replace Minny with Indiana who's struggling to stay afloat. Then the other 2 is Sacramento and New Orleans.

[BigSlam]

swedd - i agree. mj is the ace in our hand. no way stern would do that to mj.

Plus the hundreds of millions of dollars in fines it would cost the NBA to take the team out of Charlotte!

[SWedd523]

I agree with Battery, I think there should be about 4 teams contracted. The league has become a little watered down in recent years so it'd be nice to take Sacramento, Minnesota, Memphis and New Orleans out, move the Clippers out of Los Angeles to either Vegas or San Diego.

[fatlever]

for fun, lets say memphis, minny, new orleans and sacto were contracted this summer and they held a dispersal draft (worst to first) for all the players. who do you think would be the first 15 guys picked? how would it work? would teams have to assume the current contract? if that is the case i can imagine a lot of players with big contacts being left out to dry, such as okafor and randolph.

here's mine (rankings based on teams assuming current contracts)
1. c paul
2. t evans
3. d cousins
4. k love
5. m gasol
6. rights to r rubio
7. w johnson
8. r gay (yes, i still have no love for him) - falls due to massive contract
9. o mayo
10. m beasley
11. x henry
12. c landry
13. d west
14. m thornton
15. j bayless

[Rich4114]

They would all go to Charlotte and we would compete for a championship.

Contraction wise, Indiana and Scramento would be more likely before Memphis or NO. OKC should be up there too.

It should be based on market size, not current rosters. Miami also would be kind of low, it's actually a bad sports town for the most part. Most of Florida is, so Orlando is only safe because they built a new arena.

I think Clippers and Bucks would also be very at risk with there being plenty of other teams in those same markets (Chicago and Lakers). Minnesota might be pretty high too.

In terms of the contracts, that is simple. Use the same exact methods as the NFL. It's HIGHWAY ROBBERY for teams to be stuck with deals like Elton Brand, Gana Diop, Matt Carroll, Eddy Curry. Teams should have the ability to get out of those contracts without owing 100% and minimal cap implications depending on when they're cut. This is one thing the NFL does way better than the NBA (though I think the NBA has it right with the rookie scale).

There would be a players lock out most likely, but too bad. They don't like it, they can all go play in Europe and the league will be better. You'd have to expect to take a short term hit for long term success and in my eyes it's worth it. There are plenty of people in this country willing to play professional basketball for millions less than the current players get. And I'm not even saying reduce salaries, I'm just saying eliminate the pure wasteful salaries and robbery of cities, teams, and fans.

Of course, owners could completely avoid a lockout and gripe with the players union if they all agreed to just only pay so much for players but it'll never happen because you'll always have the Mark Cubans of the NBA/MLB/NFL/etc.

[W_HAMILTON]

I never understood the talk about talent being diluted, anyway. How many teams have been added since the 80s? Maybe six? At the same time, how much foreign talent has been added to the league as the NBA grows more popular overseas? I think the influx of foreign players in the past couple of decades balances out any talent dilution caused by expansion teams during that same time.

[fatlever]

How many teams have been added since the 80s?

8

mavs
hornets
heat
twolves
magic
grizzlies
raptors
bobcats

so 96-120 rosters spots have been added.

[fatlever]

It should be based on market size, not current rosters.

if you are basing on population (primary census statistical area) the bottom 4 would be

new orleans (47th in the country)
oklahoma city (44th)
memphis (43rd)
utah (34th - salt lake city)

followed by: milwaukee, indianapolis, san antonio, portland then charlotte (24th).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_U ... ical_areas


if you are basing on tv market size it would be

new orleans (53rd)
memphis (48th)
oklahoma city (45th)
san antonio (37th)

followed by milwaukee, salt lake city, indianapolis and then charlotte (24th)

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2008/0 ... mates/5037


considering memphis and new orleans are also near the bottom in attendance and are historically poorly run franchises, i dont see how those two franchises arent in the top 4 for contraction list.