Bob Kravitz: Who's big winner in lockout? Pacers
The NBA season won't begin until Christmas, but already, the Indiana Pacers have won.
So have all the league's small-market, small-revenue teams -- the Hornets and Bobcats, the Kings and the Bucks and several others.
Assuming the new labor deal is confirmed by both sides, not only will we have NBA basketball back on our radar -- and not a moment too soon given the grim fortunes of the local pro and college football teams -- but we will have a reconstituted NBA that gives the little guys a better chance to compete with the L.A.s, New Yorks and Bostons.
The small-market excuse -- we just can't compete when Mark Cuban is paying all that money -- is going to ring more hollow than ever. That's not to say that Pacers owner Herb Simon has been handed a blank check, or that the Lakers' Jerry Buss is applying for food stamps, but the playing field, or court, has been leveled.
Link- http://www.indystar.com/article/2011112 ... d|mostview
It does make sense. But what I don't understand is, now that the lockout is over, i keep reading ridicules trade rumors that make no sense at all. For one, people saying Lakers are trying to get Dwight Howard and Chris Paul.... this team is already $20 million over the cap. Also, Sporting News Sean Deveney says Heat will try very hard to get Nene, for a package of Mike Miller and Haslem. This trade wouldn't even work on my xbox. It'd be a sign-and-trade.
Small market teams have ways of making loads of money even if they win 33 games a year, so, by not losing, they have a chance to get a deal done plus build via the draft, but to me, it still seems the system is very fraud. Especially the sign-and-trade where Lakers and Heat can keep adding dudes with no hesitation.
