Why the Future of NBA Contracts Might Ruin the League | The Bill Simmons Podcast
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- čas přidán 28. 05. 2023
- The Ringer’s Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo discuss the new NBA collective bargaining agreement set for next year and the effects it will have on player contracts.
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So basically the Miami Heat, with two studs, a couple of mid contracts and then a roster of undrafted and unwanted jigsaw pieces, will be the model going forward.
Yup!!! It's make the NBA league balance and competitive too. Stop the big markets teams loading up and signed players too
Definitely balances the league. And it’s gonna put a lot more pressure on coaching. Can’t rely on just “out-talenting” teams
NBA doesn’t work with a balanced league. NBA is best when there a great team and a chasing teams looking to catch them.
That’s how it always was. When the Celtics brought in Garnett with Pierce and Allen, they filled in the rest with MLE and minimums. Also why Lebron’s Heat we’re playing 2nd-rounders.
@@frayoungblood5029 Terrible take. Teams aren't racing dogs chasing a rabbit.
Teams made the mistake of making too many players “max” players. That should be exclusive for the elite of the elite.
Teams would sign players to "max" money to circumvent the salary cap. Now teams will be stuck with those bad contracts. And stars won't be able to force a trade, because there will be no one to trade with.
But how will players feel about that? Imagine your superstar with 25ppg+ is making 50-60mil a year, and your really good role players with 12-17ppg are getting paid like 3-7mil. The difference in salaries shouldnt be this big. I would be pissed off if I was a really good role player.
Can they even sign 10-12 veterans at the league minimum this seems ridiculous because the younger players will soon be moving up the scale and getting well above the minimum!
1000% my man.
The league could have lowered the value of a max contract to leave more salary for role players.
This CBA was made for the impending expansion coming to the league. They gotta spread these stars around as much as possible if 2 whole new teams are going to get added
This man gets it.
4-6 teams are coming in
No point you can spread the stars all you want unless there’s a huge talent influx it’s meaningless all you’re gonna do is make it where one star dominates more than others
Exactly. That's what I was thinking. Expanding the league.
expanding the league while not fixing the underlying issue of too many meaningless regular season games will win in the short term, but will be an absolute disaster long-term, so much so I fear for the future of this league
This reminds me of what happens in 2k when you don’t put unlimited cap space. All the teams over pay and after 5 years you have like 20 players 85 overall and above still free agents because no one has cap space lmao.
I just tell myself those players are playing in Europe or make a house rule that once a superstar pplayer is on a team for 10 years there salary is $10 mill per year
You might just be lousy at roster construction if the only way you think you can win is to get every great player lol
@@henryhall298 The true issue with this and madden is that trades for salary dumps dont work. In 2k there is leeway for contract matching but it gets finicky because there is no team to dump cap on.
@@henryhall298 The other option in 2k is to get expirings
@@gamerd9271also no buyouts though 2K would screw that up for sure
These two are the best. It’s hard to find a podcast that can make you laugh and informed simultaneously. Thank you Bill and Ryan!
Well said, Charles!
Bill!
Ryen
I don’t know man, I kinda think their chemistry sucks 🤷♂️
No Dunks is great too!
I think it's going to look really bad if a "3rd best player on a championship team" goes overseas because no contenting team can afford him, but no rebuilding team wants to lose draft position.
Not if but when
That will never happen. The money overseas doesn’t compare to nba checks unless Saudi Arabia decides to start a pro league like in soccer
Also going to make it tougher to trade larger contract players or "stars" in this case. League gets another win win, Forcing people to stay put. 😴
@@bn1342 you can get 2-3million per year overseas. That’s more than the minimum plus you get crazy shoe deals over there
Dray? Is that you?
Everyone is going to find out what it's like to be an Oakland A's fan. Your team is going to bring in new talent. They will excel and everyone will love them. As soon as it's time to get paid they're out the door.
Yeah, you nailed it, people REALLY aren't getting the full picture here.
Imagine drafting a guy, developing him for half a decade, then he has 1 big playoff run, gets attention and next season he is out of the team because you couldn't match the offer another team gave him without destroying the rest of your roster.
It’s amazing how terrible Michelle Roberts is at her job. She set feminists back 5 years lol it’s like she’s wondering how bad she can fuck up and then brainstorms and realizes she can do even worse
The thing is, Guys like Kris Middleton and Tobias Harris getting max deals was insane to me in the first place. Teams need to be smarter in who they throw all this money at because there is a cap...
Incentives drove those though. When you're right on the precipice, and someone is good enough, it just makes zero sense to let them leave for nothing so going over the cap to sign them to a higher price was the only way to move forward. There's now a second layer of discincentives to doing something like that though -- limiting your flexibility and ability to win -- vs what existed in status quo ("just" a luxury tax and willing owners to pay it), which means going over the cap for someone who is on their way out is going to be less likely. That means more talent dispersal (because they're also not going to go to other contending teams with similar payrolls) and more parity in the league overall.
Khris Middleton earned it. Watch his 2021 playoff run he was clutch at, out dueled kd in the clutch many games and was /is the bucks go to guy in clutch /tough bucket getter. Khris averaged 25+ that run on great efficiency like 50/40/90 as aSECOND OPTION, all while defending decently and spacing jr floor to not clash with Giannis he was purely jump shoooter. Those numbers are good enough for some teams n1 options got Milwaukee there only title : he was huge bs the nets and hawks when Giannis went down
The issue with that is if you don't sign them then you have no way to replace them.
If you're 30 million over the cap, and you have to resign a player for 20 million but just let him walk, you're still over the cap by 10 million meaning you can't even replace him with a cheaper option.
Bird rights are what forces teams to massively over pay, it only leaves you with one option.
I’m still trying to figure out what this CBA is even trying to accomplish. I feel like this hurts small market teams that cultivated their homegrown talent and established a culture. One of the coolest parts about basketball is seeing a fanbase grow with the talent and establishing an identity with them.
The Hiei pic is dope. I’m convinced that’s who Sasuke from Naruto is based off of.
Billionaires trying to make money and extract every last drop from their teams. The league and the players union messed this up
It really looks like that. You do a good job like Miami developing your guys and you can’t get depth to supplement your team with free agency
This will create more parity, because obviously with how extreme the punishment is for being over the second apron, it just isnt feasible to have 2 superstars on a team. (or two players payed like superstars lol)
It doesn't hurt small market teams. They'll be able to keep their stars and the league will be more competitive and the punk ass team hopping will stop.
Feel like this will phase out vets even quicker too with the intensive to find young cheap contracts who produce rather than established guys who’ve been in locker rooms and have experience
Nah, it won’t. Players just won’t be getting super max extensions from the big market teams. Players will either have to take 75-85% of their worth to play for a team like the Lakers or they can make 100% by going to a team like the Magic or Hornets. The players that want to win and have championship teams will take less money and prioritize winning and endorsements.
The parity argument was wild considering the last 5 NBA champions including whoever wins this year will be a different team.
It could also cause more mid level veterans to go play in the Euro league. They could probably make more over there now.
The problem with this is that most of european domestic league have restrictions on number of non-national/non-EU players on the roster
@@bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee you really think that Madrid won't waive Gabriel Deck (actual player on the team) to sign a NBA mid level player
Even bigger money in China, but lots more of an adjustment for the players.
@@bleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee They will change their rules really quick
That would be pretty sweet tbh.
It sounds like there will be a lot more player turnover because every time an average or above team develops a new player to a high level, they have to let a key player from their roster go.
They'll just have to be smarter with their contracts. Like I love Dray and Klay but let's be real, do they deserve Giannis, Embiid, Steph, Jokic, money? Of course not.
What's gonna happen is those klay and dray players will have to take less money or test their luck on the free agent market if they want max money. Even then though a team would have to be stupid and ridiculous to give them max contracts hamstringing themselves.
So they might THINK they can just go elsewhere for the same money but they'll quickly realize staying for less is the better option. We just have to redefine who we think of as max players.
@@josephmatthews7698 Klay got paid on who he was right up to that contract, he was an elite defender and he was a great shooter who was going off on a regular basis, but since the injury he’s a shell of himself and not worth that money.
I think aside from being tired and needing a break this upcoming CBA change is the reason Bob Myers hasn't renewed his contract with the Warriors.
Sometime very soon someone is going to have to be the bad guy and tell Klay & Draymond to either take a severe paycut or find a better situation.
that somebody is the owners son 😂
Curry's time is not that far off either. He's 35.
@@DAVIDSMITH-kj8di but he isn't a 90s player, he had way better medical treatment and never had to play a physical game. I can see him sink 3 pointers for some time still.
Klay is way overpaid for what he is now. $20mil a year at best. Dray too.
We’re going back to the 90’s guys. The expansion is coming into play to spread talent around.
Bill is 100% right about this CBA for the players
The young players are earning these enormous contracts far too quickly. Tatum is only 25 and he is gonna be getting 60 mill already thats insanity. About to earn Hardens entire career earnings in 1 contract...
So free agency is going to start looking more like MLB's. For the past few seasons because of analytics, competitive MLB teams have been paying their super star players top dollar and then filling the rest of the team with younger cheaper talent. As a result, the middle class was essentially crushed because teams would only sign middle class players to value contracts.
sounds alot like our overall economy today lol
Hard to see why the NBPA would agree to this CBA. I just don’t get it.
I thought MLB had no salary cap?
@@MacNif MLB does not have a hard salary cap but they do have a soft salary cap meaning that they have luxury tax thresholds. Teams essentially with each threshold they go past and with each consecutive year that they exceed each threshold. Even big market teams like the Yankees and Dodgers have to plan ahead to lower their payroll on certain years below a certain point to reset so as to avoid penalties. They usually do this when they want to sign a big free agent the next year or when they are about to suffer the maximum penalties. There are 3 thresholds to this soft cap. Th Dodgers and Yankees usually exceed the first two but are careful with going past the third. Other teams including other big market teams like the Angels and Red Sox don't even want to go past the first threshold. As a result, the Red Sox for example decided to trade Mookie Betts a superstar player and not resign Xander Bogaerts a star player so as not to have such a high payroll.
Maybe the NBA should be a place where players Jordan Poole and Draymond Greene don’t make as much money as they do.
Here here
I think a young Draymond would still get $22 mill+ a year because he is a key to that team winning the way they do. Poole? Absolutely not.
People are suffering from recency bias when it comes to Poole. When Poole signed that contract before this season started he had just had a excellent season last year where he helped carry the Warriors when Steph was out. Go watch the first round of the playoffs last year against the Nuggets. Poole was averaged 30 ppg in that series. He was very much apart why they won that chip last year. That's why they paid him so much. Now, fast forward he struggled this year but even this year he averaged 20 ppg coming off the bench and 26 ppg when he had to fill in for Curry who got injured again this season. Not everyone can score at that level and everyone goes through slumps! Just ask Klay Thompson.
The Poole contract was pretty bad..Oh well they had their time but its over for the Warriors..Father Time is undefeated
@@peaceful344 Poole isn’t worth $32 mill a year. If he’s a #1 option, maybe he shows that value. But on a team where he’s the 3rd-4th option? Hell NO
Mark my words...with an artificial cap, you're going to see more guys decide to just team up and go where they want at a short term discount ala the Heat more than you see teams like Charlotte become competitive. You're not going to dictate player movement, no matter how hard the NBA tries to do so. This is going to work against the small market teams in the future...I've been watching this league since 1985, players have always wanted to go to like six places.
Definitely cuts the MLE vets on playoff teams money in half from 10mil to 5 mil or minimums. There's no incentive for non contenders to use the full MLE for a Jae Crowder or Danny Green
The idea is that players will go to Orlando for 20m or staying in LA for 10m. Guys like Malcom Brogdon, G. Williams, etc will go to lesser teams to make it competitive. However thats not gonna work in reality. Since teams arent going to want to pay high end role players or lower end starters 25m. So what could happen is guys just take less money and stay where they are at
They keep taking further and further measures to try and force players to spread out in the league and keep stars in a small market and players keep finding ways to go where they want however they can. And now they’re forcing teams to spend 90% of their cap by day one which is going to end up seeing teams sign on tons of players for more than they probably are worth and not have much option to get money off of their caps. And then if they end up hitting on a pick they’re not going to be able to afford to keep them since they won’t have the flexibility to clear up some cap to pay them. Or they’ll pay those guys and all the role guys will get the shaft by having to take huge cuts in their pay or hope a team will want to pay them the top they can get as a role guy and may get pushed away from the league earlier because teams are always going to figure out how to have the elite guys around so the non elite will shoulder the burden. I wish the league would stop trying to force player movement to destinations they don’t want to be in at the expense of everybody else and just accept that like in all sports there has and always will be a small chunk of desirable teams to go to as much as you twist to try and change it.
But I’d agree that it seems more likely that a strong mid tier player who’s looking at taking a haircut on what they can make either way because of this is going to be more likely to just make less to play on a championship team while still making less than they previously would have made to jump to a small market team where maybe those teams get enough solid role guys to suddenly be competitive. Even so while maybe those teams do elevate to being competitive unless they can get an elite player or two they’ll never truly contend to win rings. Their best case is landing strong role guys that contenders would’ve been able to keep on to be a play in or close to it team that simply lives in mediocrity and don’t have the hope that maybe they could plan out their cap and use lottery picks to possibly land some elite level players that could turn them into eventual contenders. The NBA has never been a league of parity in its entire history but it continues to try and force it into existence because having more perceived contending teams obviously is a bigger money move if you can get fans to follow teams. But I just don’t think it works.
Golden State signing Kevin Durant was the biggest salary cap anomaly of all time
Bill Simmons hit the nail on the head on why I switched from the NBA to NFL as my primary sport that I watch, franchise QB's never leave the team that drafted them until they are in the twilight of their career. This is how small market teams in the NFL have stayed competitive. It hard to root for teams in a non-free agent destination when especially in the NBA when you are always wonder when the centerpiece player is going to bolt.
NBA you need to FIX THIS!!!!
In general for the NFL a team with a top starter in the high demand skilled positions usually are retained long term by their home team. That high demand position becomes a point of subjectivity like how high talent safeties are getting paid in recent years. Or maybe even the caliber of a pass catching TE if they are getting yards and getting high amounts of targets like a top 10 receiver. Plus NFL is just a compelling product to spectate for 17 weeks with the weekly chaos and variability to work around. I don't even pay attention to the NBA in the first 3 months outside of trendy teams and whose a buyer/seller by the trade deadline in February. Then my interest slowly gets back again come playoff time.
The NBA has tried by making the top money and working it with the cap so swayed to the teams that drafted a player. The problem is that when the players got stuck with that they simply stayed long enough to get the max deal and then forced themselves out. The league has tried so hard to strong arm players from going where they want that it keeps bringing in unintended consequences. Fans are pissed that players keep signing deals and then force out but that’s the consequence when you tie the money to signing with the team you’re on to discourage players leaving in free agency after the Heat and KD moves. They grab the top dollar and then force out as we keep seeing because in the end attractive markers will always be more favored over staying around where you’re at. Not to mention we see a Dame who did stick around for forever believing in the blazers building for him and they never did.
The old CBA felt like it was designed to make 4 or 5 teams with three great players each and make the rest of the teams in the league into a farm system. This system seem like it will force owners to be smarter rather than richer.
It will mean bad teams who make bad decisions will have more bad players to chose from 😂
Smarter in what way? Because they can't develop anymore, unless they want to spend years growing a player only for them to leave when they can't keep paying them, so that natural way to getting better is out of the way.
If teams try to do it Miami style, searching in the mud for diamonds in the rough, they'll have to do it knowing they have 1 year with those good players they found before they get too expensive to keep.
Ahhh theirs literally not many 3 stars in one team😂. You got 2 stars and great role players and great starters. Only clippers really have 3 stars with kawhi , George , and Russ and they only paid a mill for Russ . But LA, Ad n lebron , Suns Kd n booker , dallas kyrie n luka, heat bam n jimmy, celtics jaylen n jayson, nuggets Murray and jokic , bucks middleton/ jrue and giannis , warriors curry n klay/dray/wiggs poole was supposed to be a great starter, raptors OG / fred , pascal bulls lavine , demar , 76ers Embiid , James etc theirs rarely 3 actual stars on a team this year and their winning.
If owners drafted right, they shouldn’t have to let their homegrown talent go because they can’t afford it due to high luxury taxes, it hurts small market teams while the big market teams who draft right can keep that talent.
@@DMalltheway I don't see why that's the case. It keeps warriors, suns and Lakers from happening again. The big thing it seems to me is teams that draft a superstar won't be able to bring in talent around him like Bucks and Sixers did. They'd keep Giannis but wouldn't be able to bring in Jrue and such.
Can you give me an example where the star would want to leave?
It sounds like having your draft pick every year and using them to improve your roster is going to be pretty important. You might have at least 2 rookies on your team every season.
They didn't even mention you lose your FRP if you're over the 2nd apron. It automatically becomes the 30th pick some years
that's life in the NFL isn't it? you get 1st round picks that are all pros and you can win a Super Bowl because you have massive talent on the cheap for a few years. the NBA has taken notice.
@@jasoncramer6651 Football is a different sport than basketball. Rookies never ever ever win in the NBA. Tim Duncan being like the one anomaly who had David Robinson.
And you better hope those rookies won't be wanting big contracts for long, because as soon as they show promise, other teams can pry them away from you while you just watch, since you can't actually pay them
@@Byronic19134Duncan won in his second year, I think magic was the only one to win his rookie year as a key player for his team
The only reason I dislike this is because of how much it hurts the teams who have homegrown talent and won't be able to keep them without significantly damaging their roster. Warriors are eventually gonna be forced to trade Klay or Draymond in the future. Denver might have a problem eventually with paying Jokic, Murray, and MPJ and having a deep roster. Boston is about to have its hands full with the Tatum and Brown extensions. I think that's a little unfair, teams shouldn't be penalized for drafting and developing talent that they'd much rather keep than be forced to let go of. It pretty much removes any possibility of teams creating a dynasty in the future, which I understand nobody really enjoys seeing one team win over and over again, but I personally like seeing teams that draft well (San Antonio and Golden State for example) have sustained success because they drafted and developed 3 star players.
This will lead to shorter contracts and a decrease in salaries across the board. Also an increased importance in how a players style fits on the team. Teams will now shoot for one year all in windows
Exactly. The only players getting max money and long term deals will be the superstar players. The rest will be fighting over $10-$15 contracts.
It’s gonna make it harder to give a shit about teams.
Yes. If you get one star and a bunch of 10-15 million dollar players is better than 2 stars and a bunch of 2 million dollar players. Basically, one star and depth or 2 stars and shit roster.
The NBA should adopt the NFL model or not have a cap at all. The quality is going to down and load management is going to be even more prevalent because of the 2-star model.
owners never giving up the cap system
I don’t think it’ll ruin the nba by any means but what it will do is make it near impossible to form super teams. And it’ll be tough to keep certain teams together for more than like a 3-5 year span. I mean look at what the Celtics are bout to have to deal with they got 2 guys who are both eligible for 300 million dollar contracts. You can’t pay 2 guys a combined 600 million and still keep the team around them intact as it’s currently constructed
Good. Now Malcolm Brogdon types will have to go to trash teams and create parity. This type of move is 10 years late. The Warriors basically bought their ring in 2022.
@@GeronimoPlazyea they bought a bust wing who everyone thought was shit u mfs kill me
@@latedecember8907 ikr? Wiggins next to Paul's bloated contract then was considered one of the most untradeable *OUTSIDE* of teams who had the financial situation to take him in. Then when Wiggins switches teams to one where he's 3rd/4th option, then him helping the Warriors is considered buying a chip? If anything blame then majority owner Glen Taylor for giving Wiggins the rookie max extension cuz he's old, flushed with money and doesn't know shit. The best part is fans will NEVER point the finger to these fuckboi owners making bad decision with their checkbooks.
Which is stupid, because a team should be able to keep the players they drafted, especially if they turned out to be good. As it is, the teams that draft well are essentially just a training club for players that have to go elsewhere to get paid. Totally idiotic.
@@GeronimoPlaz what kind of spat is this? The warriors drafted the vast majority of their rotation. They made one big all in trade and won. This is not some new concept or unfair.
this puts us back in the early 2000s. starting lineups then had guys like Mike Wilks, ErvinG Johnson, Kurt Thomas, Cato, Battie, Trou Hudson
Man if that means the Lakers 3 peating again im all for it
@@splashnskillz37 true. the 3 peat Laker second unit were spare change contracts. Mad Dog Madsen is 👑
To me, the real upshot here is that the only reliable path to win the championship is to have a true superstar - that is, someone who is significantly UNDERPAID with a max. Honestly that's only a tiny handful of guys - only 3 or 4 at a time, honestly.
That's always been the most reliable approach anyway, but it makes it even more true. Like, take Phoenix. Booker is clearly a top 10 guy, but he's not a top 5 guy. If you're paying max money to him and an aging Durant, do you really have enough left to build a championship team around them?
and pretty much guarantees Dame will be in Portland for the rest of his career 😂
@@SomeChink yeah, because nobody wins a championship by bringing in Dame on a max.
Perhaps a long-term consequence of this will be fewer players getting a max.
You’re the only one in the comments with a logical take.
The key to succeed under this new CBA is truly DEVELOPING that superstar into an all-around player. That whole “great scorer but doesn’t make others better” (or is a major negative on defense) will be a thing of the past now
@@Geeandrezzi those players will always exist, they just might stop getting max deals (from smart teams, anyway).
Agreed that you should get a discount on the cap when it's a guy you drafted. It's dumb.
The other problem is these ridiculous numbers for max contracts. Should have limited a max contract to no more than 25% of the cap. Having two guys getting 120 million when the cap is 160 million is insane from the player's point of view. Maxing at 25% of the cap would max the two guys at 80 million and the middle class would be getting decent money.
Silver and the NBA brass can't let other leagues poach the top-flight players. Know what I mean? I'm with you though.
@@christophergiofreda564 what other league? You think any max level NBA player would seriously go to Euroleague or something?
@@jamesh7469, it's tough to say. The Euroleague salaries are actually a lot worse relative to the NBA than I remember. China is probably the place. Players like Andray Blatche did pretty well there. God only knows what Jalen Brown would make if he shows any kind of interest in China after the Celts send him to FA.
The flip side of this though is that you can have 3-4 max players on one team, particularly if a Steph Curry is on an 11 million/yr contract, you bring things together, and then resign him at 40 million (his true value). I don't see a gigantic downside to actively creating a situation where putting 3 max players on one team is just impossible, even if it breaks up cores. Either someone takes a paycut, or a bad team gets better.
This makes perfect sense and passed because the owners incentives are completely counter to the league, teams and players incentives. And guess what, they are trying to stop the two owners that put their money where their mouth is and actually made winning more important than the money, in Ballmer and Lakob.
This doesn't make perfect sense for the players. That's the point. The CBA is agreed upon by the owners and players union. The Owners can't by themselves ratified a new CBA. The players union had to be in agreement. Like the video said, the players union messed up. They gave up a lot and may not realize how it will affect them in the future.
The only way it works for a team like OKC that has stockpiled all these assets they might now not be able to bear fruit to is to go the Tampa Bay Rays late 2000's route and sign rookie guys to moderate extensions before their rookie deals are up. Basically, give them big bumps in their rookie deal dollars in exchange for an extra year or two prior to them becoming max eligible. Otherwise, what Simmons said about having SGA, Chet, Giddy, and Jaylin Williams is not only spot on, but makes all the work they've done completely counterproductive.
The new rule is, if you’re stacking your team in spite of the cap, that’s your team, period. No wheeling and dealing, no mid level pickups, no trade deadline maneuvers.
This isn’t 2k bro
You sound like a lil girl
It makes a ton of sense
Yeah except you lose your FRP some years
@@amc1140 unless you let the rest of your roster be made up of undrafted dudes and 2 way contracts lol.
@@amc1140 it's an all in play. Don't do it if you aren't willing to lose it
This CBA pretty much has one goal and it is designed perfectly to reach that goal. This CBA is meant to force expansion. They’ll need it with all these high contracts and a pretty much fixed payroll ceiling.
Parity is a synonym for "bad basketball". Bad teams, bad on court product, bad playoffs, bad champions.
For those who only care about following superstars and stats, it won't matter. But the product on the floor is gonna suffer because each team will be 2 max guys surrounded by draft picks and minimum contracts.
It seems the intent of this CBA around the 2nd apron was to continue to encourage parity and detract teams from "buying" success. Bill's point about the unintended negative consequences on player salaries is an interesting one. With more teams in the same salary cap spending area, and disallowing teams to continue to pay to add depth, it may have the impact of lowering how much guys get.
NBA players will be just fine lol
I expect the inevitable expansion teams to help out. I wonder if this CBA had 30+ more NBA jobs in mind
If you want to discourage 'buying' success, punish teams for overpaying players to poach them from other teams. That's not what this CBA does. It punishes teams for drafting well, as teams won't be able to keep more than one or two talented players they've drafted past their rookie contracts. No more watching your team's core grow together for half a decade until they achieve play-off success, welcome to the new and improved one-and-done NBA (one contract, then you're out of the NBA in favor of the next affordable rookie contract).
Well, if ''buying success'' is what they intended to do, they failed catastrophically. This CBA took away every reward the teams had for developing a young core of players.
Now they either hand the keys to multiple big stars (meaning the team bought success) in a team full of nobodies, or they roll in the mud in the middle without any real big talent but a lot of middling ones.
@@felipecouto1102 What you're describing is a more even NBA though. And honestly, that's not a bad thing. The days of Malcolm Brogdon joining a stacked Celtics team are over, but he is still gonna go somewhere, and maybe it's a mediocre Raptors team instead, and maybe that Raptors team makes the playoffs and beats the Celtics (or at least has a better chance than it would've before). Yes, the good teams won't be able to retain talent, but that talent isn't disappearing, you just might end up with a top-heavy vs even and egalatarian team with no real stars, and that sounds like it could be very interesting.
They should raise the cap but reduce the maximum percentage allocated to any one player. There is too much talent in the NBA to be treating Bruce Brown like he’s the ghost of DeAndre Jordan. There should also be more escalators in every contract, that is to say some sort of real allocation based on value. Dame is great, but you’re going to have him making 40% of the cap and he can’t stop a nose bleed on defense. The homegrown players need to have a tax incentive as for the sake of the sport and for situations like Dame. You shouldn’t penalize the players or the team for development.
Teams are going to fill out their rosters with rookie scale contracts from all the picks they are no longer able to trade
That Jon Hamm response from Russillo lol 😂
It's going to get to the point where if you have a good roster and have an injury where you land in the lottery and win the first pick or two where the team can't afford to sign that pick. 20million a year contracts are going to be rare...those players will have to take a pay cut.
When you pair this with the NBA also about to negotiate new network TV/cable/streaming rights fees, these changes are Adam Silver trying to get more parity in the regular season and have more competitive teams take the regular season seriously versus the shit show the NBA regular season is now.
The NBA should then go after the 24/7 media covering the league then. Every debate boils down to championship counting. The players heard that and the teams act accordingly.
Most people will never care about the regular season, its too long and like half the teams make it to the playoffs.
I think this is also because they’re going to bring in about 2-4 more expansion teams and spread out the talent.
This is an incredible point that went unmentioned
the new CBA will definitely look like 2k13 MyAssociation.
Many 85+ players were stuck in the free agency because all teams have been overpaying, this sucks for the Thunder and Jazz (draft picks), and as well as Phoenix.
I thought the whole idea of the luxury tax was to allow teams to re-sign their own players but at a steep cost??? Why get rid of it if it’s working??? So teams can’t stand the fact that Golden State drafted wisely, and now they’re reaping the benefits of their smart picks??? Is that it??? 🤔🤷🏻♂️🙄🤦🏻♂️
Fr the successful organizations need to be punished for developing talent well. Flatout, if you sign a player to a minimum contract and then they develop into earning a bigger contract, that shouldn’t count towards the luxury whatsoever. Same for players your team drafted. The good organizations just have to be talent farms for other organizations that never would have developed the same player? They should only be harsh about the cap when it comes to sought after free agents
@@gators9570 - I don’t have a problem with free agents counting towards the luxury tax, but you should be able to go over the salary cap to keep the talent that you have drafted and developed. 🤷🏻♂️ That’s what the league wants to encourage. 🤷🏻♂️ This new system runs counter towards that goal. 🤷🏻♂️🙄🤦🏻♂️
As an okc fan would love to see incentives put in place to keep guys together. We work hard drafting and developing guys who fit into our system and we’ve finally got 4 really good ones again and would suck to just see the cba tear up all the hard work. Trying to understand why okc voted yes for this in the first place
Yea I don't get it either, we don't get free agents like that, we have to draft and trade this screws our entire style of operation
OKC THUNDER is great at drafting and developing players. You have little to no worries! Plus all your drafted players will get paid if they choose to stay.
So let's say you get the same situation of KD, Harden, and Russ again. You literally wouldn't be able to keep them. 'Hard' cap is 170. That would be at least 140 for 4 players. So you gonna split 30 mil between 8-10 players?
@@rashaanc.richardson9057 Yes you can, but as soon as you pass the 170 mill threshold. The hardcap kicks in and you can only offer vet minimums. No Mid-Level or tax payer mid-level. Plus if your that deep in luxury tax, your sent straight to the back of the draft regardless of your record.
@@rashaanc.richardson9057It actually helps small market teams and somewhat hinders the large market teams.
The problem is overpriced contracts , especially late in careers and teams can’t move guys . You’re top tier 10-15 players should be eligible for max money each year but if now you get a base lower. Certain players get overpaid on a bad team then isn’t worth the money on a good team!
Like ALWAYS the well run franchises will find a way to keep winning and the bad teams won’t
When it comes to predicting outcomes, AwakenBeerus is an extremely reliable source of information!!!!
This is actually great for the league, more of a hard cap will create more parity. The middle class only disappears if you give guys who don't deserve it max contracts. Just don't give max money to guys that consistently miss a third of the season or can't get you to the playoffs as a teams number one guy.
Not that easy, some guys get a max then get injury problems so then what? Others get a max because they were drafted to a small market team and cant attract other free agents anyway.
@@Byronic19134 well yeah but because other teams will not be able to sign three max guys in theory it should be easier for smaller teams to overpay and attract free agents
@@Byronic19134 Injuries are a part of sports, but if there are fewer huge contracts out there that won't be as big of an issue. Smaller markets will have more leverage if big market teams aren't able to go way over the salary cap to offer them max money.
I’m just not a fan of having to lose guys that your organization identifies and develops. The heat turned Gabe Vincent and Strus into valuable rotational guys and now they have to pick and choose? If you draft and develop well, you should be able to hold on to every guy like that imo, it shouldn’t be a cap hit. This should be to stop teams from bringing together super teams through free agency
Although as a Blazer fan I swear to God if we pay Dame and Grant our whole salary I'm deserting to Sactown...
Is it more advantageous to a team to have a player on a late 2nd round rookie contract, or a two way contract as an undrafted free agent?
That Poole comment aged well haha! Nice prediction seeing Poole being moved , he said it so casually but made plenty of sense.
CJ McCollum trying to beat the Warriors by any means possible because they kicked his ass so many times- even at the expense of the members of his union. The new CBA will make it close to impossible to grow your team organically like the Warriors, Grizzlies and Celtics. Teams will be drafting and developing groups of young talent only to lose half of them eventually because the CBA makes it impossible to re-sign your own drafted free agents.
In a few yrs I feel like it's going to be ripped up. These teams literally created this to try and punish teh warriors and other big spenders. Ultimately tho this is going to hurt everyone and it's going to look really ridiculous in the process as well
That’s what I was thinking and in the long term players that would be getting those nice mid level exceptions are gonna be out of luck and sign for minimums. This will cause everyone wanting to get rid of it as soon as this CBA is done
All the more idiotic because they are punishing the warriors for paying the players they drafted (excepting Wiggins, who was considered a bust when they picked him up). The Warriors are hardly the model of a super team 'buying' a championship (re Lakers, Nets, Miami, Clippers, etc). It looks like the idea is to break up the Warriors in the last few years of their core, then redo the CBA to something less nonsensical.
When they start to lose multiple Top 100 (but not top 50) players to foreign leagues because the guy would rather take the paycheck instead of take the veteran minimum to ring chase.. they will adjust. Or just lock out the players.
@@DJCloroxx yep agree completely
@@darylfindley7551 Right they targeted the wrong team
Interesting. I'm curious about how the figure is determined. Do they split it into 15? Is it one max superstar, one level one, two level two, three level three.. etc? How is the base annual team salary decided? Clearly the current haves and have nots system wasn't working but this seems like a radical change.
Short term year by year, it’s a good thing for parity. But their points about the middle class of the NBA being gutted is absolutely valid. And it also punishes the seemingly “right” model of teams drafting and then developing their own players. While getting Kd was unfair, I don’t think the warriors should be punished to pay Klay and draymond and Poole all players they drafted.
Tinfoil hat moment: perhaps teams didn’t like how some teams were stacked on picks, and thus tried to find a way to even that balance a few years down the line. Meaning OKC or the Spurs who have a ton of picks cannot keep everyone once their rookie contracts are up, forcing them to either let a good player go, or pair it with a pick to a team who didn’t have a pick (Minnesota, lakers, clippers etc)
Players played them selves... in that market most lottery draftees will end their carrier after the rookie contract
I still think one of the biggest issue with NBA salaries/CBA is the salary matching in trades.
This.
“Cool i get Marcus Morris for free, I still don’t want him “😂 -Bill Simmons
So some teams with pick swaps are going to be screwed too, if you go over the 2nd apron, it doesn’t matter if you have the worst record, they will go to the bottom of the draft.
So thinking about the feedback from the guys here and others.
I feel like the Pacers are in a crazy good position contract wise for the new impending CBA.
Hali will be up for an extension but now they see the reality of the new cba and maybe the deal he takes may be different than the deal he would’ve signed had it not fallen this way cba wise…
Pacers just have a lot of flexibility moving forward and will be in a good position.
Not the only team but one of the few imo.
OKC already had to break up KD, Russ, and Harden because they couldn’t afford them all…. I honestly don’t see how this CBA makes that much of a difference
Well OKC could only keep 2/3 realistically for eating most of their cap in the long term. Of the 3 Harden saw himself as one who could dominate touches and have productivity with it. Westbrook would be the 2nd guy just because he's the other natural ball handler.
Well now no one can regardless of how cheap the owner is and that is the bummer. Or maybe a single year hit.
Whats Crazy is Pheonix really said: "Hold My Beal" and really tripled down and pigeon-holed themselves in terms of roster creation..and future picks. Insane case study to follow.
I think the player's association certainly sold themselves short in this CBA agreement. However, as a basketball fan, I think that this essentially blocks midseason superstar trade requests, which is a good thing. Some of these new trade parameters with the apron looks like they have dampened trade deadline deals too.
Interesting times, but this episode was RIGHT ON THE MONEY about so much stuff!
I like the concept IF you allowed for some discount against the aprons for your draft picks. I might even say a discount for players you trade for on a rookie contract to award teams that rehab young players in bad situations.
Parity. That's the obvious goal of this new CBA. Great teams will have to continually make difficult choices. NFL teams have been doing this for years. We'll see how it works out.
Not the NFL.
Those 20 million guys are going to become 15. The real thing that will start to happen is that those Super Max contracts aren't going to be the full Super, still more than what other teams are allowed to pay but the teams are going to negotiate for a number between the max and the super.
The one think that a team should never get penalized is drafting and developing players and not be able to keep them.
This is very substantial going forward. I think players didn't thoroughly evaluate the new cap. Some of the guys might go to play in Europe since teams wouldn't easily offer 5m+ deals for role players
Mirotic is the only guy that earns 5m, salaries are not that high
Think like each team gets 2 max players or 1 max and 2 almost max, then each team tries to low ball all remaining players to make the roster, even the not contending teams will not offer mid upper level players good money anymore I think
Simulating things what may happen is that top players will still get the max available since demand for those 30ish players is high. But it may be that the mid upper level players will not get offered the mid upper level of money they are offered now since most teams would have spent 2 max players money already and would only be able to pay low money on the remaining players.
I mean you're right that most GOOD teams would have already spent their 2 max players money. But the Detroits of the world don't have their 2 max slots filled yet and are ready to throw that money at people, especially with tanking and younger cores less able to stay together.
Or, maybe this will push teams who throw out max contracts to their lottery picks like Halloween candy to reconsider. How many guys will ACTUALLY be worth 60+ mil a year? Do you want 2 or 3 Jalen Brunson level players with a good supporting cast or a Jayson Tatum type with a handful of minimum contract randos?
Completely agree.
You're forgetting about the part that getting the players in the first place is the hard part. So after all the effort to get them, they gotta let them walk instead of overpaying them by 5 mil a year? How does that help rebuilding teams?
The fact the nbapa has zero solidarity with arena workers explains everything. They need so much education in how all the basics of labor work.
People talking about the miami model here. Miami's salary next year
Jimmy is on $45m
Bam is on $32m
Lowrys on $29m
Herros on $27m
Robinsons on $18m
They aint doing it cheap. They have cheap bench players because they have no choice, and some of their big salary players are overpaid.
Agreed with all of this except saying the Celtics can’t afford to bring back Grant because he’s gonna get 20M… in what world is a team giving him 20m
That's actually close to the level for good roleplayers now. Just goes to show how crazy of a good value contract Jalen Brunson is on now only 1 year after all these people who don't know basketball said he's overpaid 😂
Maybe over two years sure
@@EDTheOneable That’s true on Brunson, but Grant Williams isn’t a good comparison at all for that lol. Good role player? That’s generous
@@EDTheOneable thats actually the problem they're trying to fix. There's no world where Grant Williams is supposed to be making 20mil a year. He's averaging 8/4/1 against Miami as their 6th man. You really think he should he making 80mil/4years ?
Thought this too, grant Williams doesn’t deserve to make the same amount as brook Lopez either
Ì think this is clearly supposed to pave the way for expansion. Maybe even more than two teams.
Idk, I heard many owners don't want expansion because that's two more teams taking a piece of the pie. It's a revenue sharing league.
@@hak2297 Not really, it would only be less money in the short term. As long as global and domestic interest remain high and the talent pool is as dense; the revenue will be much higher in the long term. All these owners are long term investors basically..
Also why I think more than 2 teams: it's just really tough to move a team to another conference in the current landscape, so they would have to find other ways to balance. Obviously all of this is pure speculation lol
Obviously I don't know any detail beyond emerging reports, but I'm not fully sold on their criticism of the players union.
It feels like they're approaching this from the perspective of team fans who are worried how contenders (read: Boston) can possibly stack up solid and competent "middle class" guys as their 3rd, 4th 5th and 6th guys on the roster. They can't, it gets unaffordable.
The structures are intended to punish superteams: they can't use financial firepower to carry multiple max or near-max guys and then recruit vets and winning players on top of that.
But that doesn't mean the "middle class" contracts are gone, they'll just be distributed more broadly across the league. Valuable starters and role players who contribute to winning can still get their mid-market money, but probably only by joining smaller market teams with 1 existing star, instead of being able to slot into big market and contending teams that already hold 2 or 2.5 stars.
The NBA wants to put an end to superstars demanding trades in order to form SUPER TEAMS. Now, the GM/President role is far more important and as teams will have to develop players and systems over time in order to win it all.
But that also becomes a problem. What if a team develops 3 or 4 players. In this CBA, they wouldn't be able to keep them all. They would have to pick 2 out of the 4. And the others will leave in free agency for nothing.
Maybe the market price for top level talent will decrease because teams can't afford them. Maybe teams that focus more on mid level players will win more, primarily due to attrition and depth. Teams with two great players may win when they are healthy, but the moment one of them goes down, the teams with more money concentrated around second tier players will dominate.
Basketball is a game with very few players on the court, that makes it attractive to invest in the top more always.
As I was typing this comment Ryen basically said what I was thinking. Teams are giving players the max that don’t deserve it in terms of max players should automatically make you a contender. Meaning we only have like 5 or 6 max players in the league. It infuriates me hearing max players crying for help, you are the help.
I agree with the rough premise of your statement, but 5-6 max slots isn't accurate. With 30 teams, there will essentially be 50-60 max slots available, and that just means the top 30ish players will continue to get max's, but there might be some teams with no defined stars but 7 guys earning 20 million and that could create some very interesting series where top-heavy teams like the Suns play a team composed of high-end role players, whereas previously, those high-end role players would've been traded for or captured on one of the contenders. More parity all around is not a bad thing at all.
After this convo, all these points lead me to believe we need another expansion to fit all the guys who need to be somewhere
I thought when listening to Bobby Marks he said it started AFTER next year. Also reading that in many articles.
Did they ratify the agree to start before the old CBA is set to expire (after 2023-2024 season).
there should be no salary cap, let the players make as much as they are worth, they are doing most of the work.
Exactly! This is the entertainment industry.
Does Bill realize that maybe considering Ayton a max-player is the problem and not the other way around. Should all 450 players get max-money?
Yes and Ayton doesn't have a max.
This was very insightful. Thanks guys.
Does this encourage teams to build around only one max player? Isn't that a good thing for spreading top talent around the league?
There should be a tiered salary system. 1-15, and each slot makes a designated amount. You don't think you're a #2 in Milwaukee? Fine, go to Detroit and be their #1. Your contract would be your slot for up to 5 years, with an option to move up or down one position every two years.
Well teams that draft well shouldn't be penalized for finding and developing talent by not being able to keep it together or if they do, not able to field a rest of a team when the time comes.
i think the middle-class argument could go the other way. i think teams could decide to have 1 supermax guy with 6-7 well-paid, quality role players instead of 2 max guys with 5-6 low-paid, mediocre role players. like unless your 2 max guys are legitimate superstars like KD and Booker. but if your 2 guys are Trae and Murray it's like, why would Atlanta give them both the max and handicap their roster when neither of them is a top 20 player. this could lead to talent spreading out around the league like it never has before. big 3s would be basically impossible unless the rest of the roster is literal bums on the minimum. Bill could be right but like Russillo said we can't really know until it happens so let's just see how it shakes out over the new few years.
It's endearing how Bill ponders aloud why he and Ryen are the only ones who have thought of this. I'm totally here for Russillo & Simmons industrial relations consultancy
I tend to agree , I think you will see less teams giving out max contracts and see the value of good mid level guys in their prime especially since they will be restricted from getting vet min ring chasers to offset over paying too guys like they can do now
Only halfway through, but I don't think that the concept that the projection that the salary cap jumps substantially with new tv/streamng deals is taken into account.
Max contracts created an artificial ceiling for salaries. I think having no max dealskeeps salaries down.
I agree, actually. The max contract was a bad idea to start with.
I think All contracts should scale downward through years of the contract .
The weird thing with Bill's OKC example is if you have a lot of your own guys and a lot of draft picks that is how you weather this new CBA because you keep getting cheap rookies and you are allowed to go as high as you want paying dudes you have the Bird Rights for whether drafted or traded for. You always have to trade as much/more than you get sure but there are ways to make that work if you have a ton of great talent.
Teams who aren't loaded with draft picks are in a rougher spot though for sure. I assume the PA assumed team ownership and gambling partnership revenue directly to players offset that, but to Bill's point that's only going to the top guys so it further screws over mid tier players. From that perspective I'm surprised the PA agreed to it because what, 80% of the people they represent are in the middle class.
I think Bill's point was about 4-5 years from now if these guys all pan out. He was referring to the second contract of these young stars. You're right about the ability to use rookie contracts to build depth, however.
@@zalemdreams that was exactly his point
@@zalemdreams My point was with those picks you can offset the biggest part of the flaw (inability to bring in new talent due to blocking getting more money back, inability to sign guys off of buyouts etc). And you are able to pay all those guys as much as you want, the second apron doesn't impact Bird rights.
@@zalemdreams Yeah it removes options for sure. I just try to look on the potential upside. I have no clue how a team that hasn't stockpiled draft picks works, though I suspect this new CBA is just going to force teams to change how they build rosters moving forward. The 2 star system may not work once everyone settles in, might have to go one max/supermax player and one ~20 million guy and a bunch of more middle class players.
One star teams will become the norm. Then top talent free agents will be forced to take less than the max if they want to go somewhere with another star.
I agree completely with the players union fucking this up, because holy shit, you're basically telling team they can't spend past a certain point, so so much for all these ridiculous contracts. Not only for max players, but guys like Davis Bertans and Duncan Robinson will never be able to get big deals like that again because the money is so restrictive.
22:35 This is years waaay too late. This should have been implemented as soon as Golden State, somehow someway was able to have 3 homegrown max players in their primes, then found the mother of all loopholes and add THE WORLDS SECOND BEST PLAYER to the already 73 and 9 team, and still have a relatively deep bench. Also, how is the league doing this when simultaneously the player salary has TRIPLED in the last few years?? While the intention to avoid super teams like GSW sounds good, It seems like an extreme over reaction, and little to no thought was put into this.
It wont be an issue for OKC until the next CBA is due to be negotiated. 7 year contract. They dont have to pay Chet or JDub for another 4 seasons. Theyll use first round picks to fill the bottom of the rotation by then.
Good take!
What? Rookie contracts are 2 years not 4 they're gonna have to pay them in 2 years and you already have shae under contract those draft picks are gonna have to be traded for role players like the warriors are gonna have to do this off-season
@@korinthecat4988 rookie contracts aren't 2 years for every single rookie.
@@tombystander 2 then team option to pick up the remaining 2. Usually very good rookie players get an extension in their third year I believe.
There’s a designated rookie extension though so 3rd year in, they’re eligible for that. All depends on the team.
@@Lightexo Yeah thats the huge benefit of drafting well is getting that player at a controlled cost. Even if the rookie players are pissed and want to get signed by another team, as an RFA they are at the mercy of the market dictating their value and their home team matching the offer sheet.
The information in this video really puts the Suns' Bradley Beal trade into perspective. They're really going to suffer.
The organization definitely got over on the players . As a business I understand but I think there’s enough bad contracts to sort of point out why owners aren’t liking any sort of middle class players because they aren’t huge enough differences makers for them to go over the cap for in luxury taxes which will be interesting for the teams that need to figure out where this money is best spent and it could sabotage a lot of plans for the current dynasty at stake. Can’t wait for the the off season !
I think they should say that the contracts that exist now should be grandfathered in; as long as the teams that are over don't add new pieces, they should be allowed to continue the way they are until the contracts run out.
Unless the whole point of this new CBA is to break-up certain current teams.... I think once the Warriors core is no longer together/playing, the NBA will suddenly realize this new CBA is garbage and a new CBA will be adopted early. And yes, I'm adjusting my tinfoil hat at this very moment.
Bill's making the argument based on how it affects teams like Boston. For the rest of the league, this is a good thing. It leads to parody, smarter contracts(no crazy Jordan Poole contracts), and incentivizes teams to actually build rosters with their front office and coaches instead of their wallets.
Team's are still free to go way over the cap if they want to resign their own players with all of the wild contracts they want, they just wouldn't be able to offer other teams free agents more than a minimum salary and would only be able to trade picks within 6 years instead of 7.
Bill's logic is based on how it affects teams like Boston that have an awesome MVP type max contract guy like Tatum, along with a roster of other guys that are probably overpaid. Jaylen Brown will get that same max contract, but he's nowhere near Tatum's, Curry, or Embid's level. Brogdon & Smart's salaries combined are more than max player's like Devin Booker, Trae, Luka, AD, Ja, ect. which is crazy. Bill's talks about giving Grant 20 Mill. & that's wild since they get better production from Horford for half of that. Horford might even be a luxury since they have Robert Williams, who would probably be Defensive Player of the Year if they gave him more than his usual 20 min/game. Not to mention the Mid Level Exception they wasted on Gallinari being injured before he even played one game for them. So Bill can talk about "The League" ruining basketball all he wants, but he should probably listen to Russillo(Teams need to be better about their decision making). Bill's friends run the Celtics though, so he will never criticize their poor decision making. Instead, he'll make excuses for them & use his platform to say "the league" is punishing teams like the Celtics.
This would affect Denver too. Have like 160M in their starting 5. Winning a chip takes luck, smarts, AND money. Maybe it resets eventually but teams that built their contending clubs under the old system are gonna be screwed. If you aren't a fan of those teams then congrats but don't be surprised if fans of those clubs aren't as excited by this sudden change to what should have been long contending windows.
Teams still have to give the "real" top 10 players 💰. But G.M.'s always bank on "My guy" the guy they draft and is on the team already. Let them walk start hunting for another guy??!!😮.
Nope!
@@rubaiyat300 Yes and no, it would affect Denver but their two max contract guys play at that max level where a team can be reasonably rebuilt around them. For Boston, Brown isn't on that level, but if they pay him like he is, they'll have hard time putting a contender within the cap. If they had pulled the trigger on the KD trade or put a package to trade for Gianis next year, then the rest of the roster can be more flexible. Not saying two high level stars will equal a championship, but it gives them a fighting chance within the cap. look at the lakers, they swapped out everybody around Lebron & AD at the deadline and instantly turned into a contender was only beaten by a team whose 2 max players were better than theirs. If Boston stick's with Brown as the 2nd max contract they'll definitely have trouble contending within the cap against teams like that. They'd be a good team for sure, but not quite on the level of teams with 2 true superstars. Who knows though maybe I'm wrong about Brown and he comes through going forward.
It’s silly to say the exemption was wasted cause Gallinari got hurt. That argument applies to every team dealing with injuries, i.e. every team. Robert Williams is still a developing player with limited ability and cannot give them the versatility Horford does. Smart is hugely valuable to any team for his intensity, defense and intangibles. Booker is a bit underpaid, agree with you there.
@@CMediaPRO How exactly is Denver to rebuild around their stars with large longterm contracts signed under different rules? Say next year when the new rules are implemented and Denver has 165M allocated to just their starters and 176 in the remaining 4 reserves with a 2nd apron limit being 179.5M? Trade away their starters? To whom who will accept these contracts under these new punitive rules? As I said if you aren't a fan of the teams getting hit by this congrats, your team now has an incrementally better shot of winning, but don't expect the fans of teams built under old rules with no phase in period to be excited by them in some abstract pursuit of "parody"...We waited for our turn too.
SMH the players union really screwed it up. How did they ever agree to this?
If the league doesn’t have the money for new teams is it possible combine another league to help the amount of players that will probably leave or struggle to get the money they deserve.
Re-tooling is going to be much more difficult. What about a future more like the NHL where you need a star to take a team friendly contract to maintain a top tier contender for 5+ years
Stars already do. The very best players are underpaid even at max contracts. The only real thing to do would be to expand the tiers of "max" contract, make the tiers significantly different in contract size, and make the highest ones applicable only to the recognized greats of which only a handful exist in the league at any one time, though even that has flaws as it can be gamed and the NBA media ain't perfect in their narrative building (and maybe the good ones are hesitant to be in charge of player money and the bad ones don't care).