Competitive Balance...

[Sothron]

David Aldridge did a piece on nba.com or SI.com back during the Finals about this. There has NEVER been competitive balance in the NBA. I would like to see something to stop the Super Friends from happening again but short of getting rid of free agency I don't see how you can stop players from wanting to collude and then get on the same teams together.

[Diesel]

22 hours ago, Thomas said:

Kind of weird that the league has gone from David Stern's favorite battle of the Celtics and Lakers to generate the most money to now it being the Cavs and the Warriors. Cleveland was the butt of so much joking in the league for just about forever before LeBron. Remember the roster that had World B. Free and no one else a ways back?  

It's not really that.  David Stern actually changed things from Celtics Lakers to what we see now.  David Stern promoted players over teams.  So before it was the Mighty Celtics vs. the Showtime Lakers.   However, in the Stern Era.. he said.. It's really about Magic and Bird.   The Philadelphia 76ers, Celtics, and Pistons were probably the last vestiges of great team play being acknowledged. 

The Jordan era was the era of the individual player.   In that era, we started to believe that 1 player could make a difference.  Hence there is a problem with a team having three great players (Superteam).. However, the problem is not about superteams... Hell, OKC naturally built a superteam and nobody cried foul.  The problem really is when FAcy allows teams to poach other teams stars.   Think about this:

Did you ever think you would see D-Wade not in Miami?

Dwade is more popular in Miami than Dan Freaking Marino. 

However, FAcy allowed him to move.  Couple that with the Power that Lebron has learned to weld.   Really this is all about taking power out of guys like Lebron hands.  Lebron realized that one player can't win a championship so he went into the superteam building.   The first superteam he built was the Big three in Miami because Lebron couldn't beat Boston.  Then he came back to Cleveland and built a superteam.... A young superteam with Irving and Love. 

Silver is going to kill the FAcy power.  He will institute some type of Team protection for their own free agents.   However, the players union will make sure that that protection is short lived and that the Players is compensated well for having that tag.  They will also probably seek more BRI...

Silver like Stern believes in the individual player and that each market deserves a star. 

[Diesel]

14 hours ago, Sothron said:

David Aldridge did a piece on nba.com or SI.com back during the Finals about this. There has NEVER been competitive balance in the NBA. I would like to see something to stop the Super Friends from happening again but short of getting rid of free agency I don't see how you can stop players from wanting to collude and then get on the same teams together.

I think what you will see is that the owners will be willing to go into a lockout in order to get a franchise tag.  I would suggest that each team gets 2 tags every 4 years.  Those players tagged gets 33% of the cap. 

or

IF not a franchise tag.. then a team will be able to have right of first refusal on a free agent.   i.e. remove the unrestrictedness of  an FA signs a contract and his former team has 48 hours to match it.   This would only work, however, if the league goes to a Hard Cap.  Can you imagine... your free agent signs a max contract with another team.  You would have to liquidate as much space as possible to match. 

The hard cap is less likely.  Players like the fact that teams can go over the cap to sign them. 

 

 

[HawkItus]

I think they should do like the NFL

-Due away with the max

-Deploy the Franchise Tag

-Offer compensatory picks(using OKC as an example, give them an extra bottom 1st/Top of 2nd round pick if Durant goes to the playoffs.)

[AHF]

On 7/18/2016 at 3:54 PM, Sothron said:

David Aldridge did a piece on nba.com or SI.com back during the Finals about this. There has NEVER been competitive balance in the NBA. I would like to see something to stop the Super Friends from happening again but short of getting rid of free agency I don't see how you can stop players from wanting to collude and then get on the same teams together.

If there are no max salaries then Durant has to turn down like 20M/year or so to join Golden State.  I think he'd find his loyalty to someone else in a hurry.  It is the max salaries that level everyone to the same bids and then let the stars choose the path of taking that same massive payday (or a payday not meaningfully different) to join up Super Friends style.  The hard part of this for the players is it would concentrate more money with the top stars and leave less for the league's role players.  Kind of like movie stars.

Franchise tags are a hot item as Diesel noted and would address it as well but only as far as that control goes.  RFA already accomplishes something like it but that runs out and then you deal with UFA with pretty flat offers from a variety of teams and becomes a beauty contest.  How long do you let a team franchise tag someone?  That would be a key issue.