Poll: The State of The League

[Joey]

An opportunity cost is not the same as a penalty. One is a cost that could have been, the other is a punitive deduction.

Paul George will receive absolutely no penalty for forcing his way out of Oklahoma City despite signing a contract only one year before.

Blake Griffin signed a long term deal and was traded 6 months later ... Should the team have been penalized? C'mon.
It is what it is, and it's not gonna change any time soon. Maybe the next CBA, but that's years away.

[DogeLover1234]

Blake Griffin signed a long term deal and was traded 6 months later ... Should the team have been penalized? C'mon.
It is what it is, and it's not gonna change any time soon. Maybe the next CBA, but that's years away.

Plus Im pretty sure OKC was more than happy to make that trade. If they didnt want to trade him, they wouldnt have.

[golden]

An opportunity cost is not the same as a penalty. One is a cost that could have been, the other is a punitive deduction.

Paul George will receive absolutely no penalty for forcing his way out of Oklahoma City despite signing a contract only one year before.

Let’s be real here. OKC jumped all over that sh*t faster than a bat out of hell. They were looking for a way out of the tax. This PG thing was a god-send to save face in front of their fan base and tear it down. Win-win.

[Apollo]

An opportunity cost is not the same as a penalty. One is a cost that could have been, the other is a punitive deduction.

Paul George will receive absolutely no penalty for forcing his way out of Oklahoma City despite signing a contract only one year before.

He was locked in long term. They could have said no, he had no leverage. If he was at the end of the contract and he tried this then they'd have no leverage unless... They had a franchise tag like the NFL. A franchise tag would solve some of these problems, I'm telling you.​​​​​​

[Apollo]

Blake Griffin signed a long term deal and was traded 6 months later ... Should the team have been penalized? C'mon.
It is what it is, and it's not gonna change any time soon. Maybe the next CBA, but that's years away.

There are trade kickers in some deals, no? They are in some NFL contracts.

[DanH]

There are trade kickers in some deals, no? They are in some NFL contracts.

A lot of big contracts nowadays get a trade kicker. Not that it always matters, as often it gets capped by the player's max salary that year anyway.

[inthepaint]

What's different about the current player pairings vs past pairings is almost all of the current dynamic duos were created by the players themselves, not by team management. That's totally different.

When figuring out how to pair up with a buddy (or two), players are almost exclusively either:
- Going to join the guy in the winning situation, or
- Going to a NY/LA/Miami type destination together

Nobody is figuring out how pair up and get themselves to Indianapolis, Atlanta, Oklahoma, etc.

Bingo. I actually don't have a problem with the concept of "superteams" or "dynamic duos" in and of itself. That's what front offices should be striving for. It takes skill, and it's fun to see front offices try construct the best team possible based on league rules for trade, draft and free agency. Doesn't matter the city.

What I don't like is when top players start to circumvent tampering rules, hold team hostages by specifically saying they want out to a specific team, ignore contracts (theirs and of other players), and/or take a soft way out by joining an already established superteam (invariably funnelling to NY/California/Miami).
That chronically derails the long-term team building effort of the other 25 teams. They assume all the risk by drafting, developing, trading, and/or giving the guarantee of long term money to a top talent, just to see the player directly or indirectly force his way to LA/NY in his prime.

Donavan Mitchell didn't know he was gonna be Donavan Mitchell before his first year. Utah believed in him, used their pick to draft him, provided him good quality development coaching so he could grow, gave him guaranteed NBA money, and allowed him to become the young face of the franchise. His best years are ahead of him. As it is though, there's nothing really preventing Donavan Mitchell from saying "thanks, but now that I know who I am, I wanna be in LA. Don't bother making an offer if you're another team, I'm not gonna re-sign there. Oh by the way, Tatum and Doncic, we should get together sometime".

The only thing preventing him from doing that is his sense of right and wrong and his competitive spirit. Sometimes that's enough, sometimes it isn't.

[Quirk]

Imo, and this is going to sound crazy, to way to make things better is to be more like europe.

Teams should be rewarded for investing in community development, and there should be multiple leagues with relegation.

Canada and Toronto has invested a lot more in development than in the past, and the result is a record 6 Canadians drafted, and growing number in the league. However, Toronto/Canada gets no advantage as a result of this. This benefits Toronto for the most part, as the US is still the biggest source of talent, and Canada's premier talents have kind of been duds recently, i.e. Bennet and Wiggins, but long term investing in community development should provide some advantage to the the local club.

Second, multiple leagues with relegation would mean a lot more cities could have teams to root for, and for their locally developed talent to play for, while still dreaming of winning the big prize one day, if their team improves and gets promoted to the top league.

The McFranchise model that North American sports use is part f the problem, there is an artificial scarcity of teams because there is only one "real" league, teams not in that league are either feeder teams (G league) or irrelevant leagues whose teams can never be promoted into the top league. Teams have no incentive to develop youth clubs and support community development outside of marketing efforts because they gain no advantage in signing locally developed players.

[Apollo]

I think he lost 90 mil actually but not sure. Dude is different

Yeah, why wouldn't he have worked a S&T between Toronto and LA?

[DanH]

Yeah, why wouldn't he have worked a S&T between Toronto and LA?

What would he have gained by doing so? You can't offer the 5th year or higher raises in a sign and trade. A sign and trade contract is identical to the one Leonard signed.

[Apollo]

You can't offer the 5th year or higher raises in a sign and trade.

Didn't know that. CBA isn't a part time hobby for me. Thanks for explaining.

[guyroch]

You know how you have trade kicker in contracts ... Maybe a trade kicker of the reverse angle might discourage it ... What I mean if you demand a trade then a you will absorb a financial hit for requesting it ...

[Demographic Shift]

You know how you have trade kicker in contracts ... Maybe a trade kicker of the reverse angle might discourage it ... What I mean if you demand a trade then a you will absorb a financial hit for requesting it ...

CBA material but the owners would like that... you could introduce a sliding scale as well...

[DanH]

You know how you have trade kicker in contracts ... Maybe a trade kicker of the reverse angle might discourage it ... What I mean if you demand a trade then a you will absorb a financial hit for requesting it ...

Sounds like a hill the players would die on, just like when they introduced renegotiations of contracts and the players made sure they weren't able to renegotiate downwards, only up.

[nubreed000]

It's not so black and white. Paul George forced his way out of OKC and OKC might wind up saying don't let the door hit you on the way out. The team with him and Russ was going nowhere. They were stuck with both contracts. They turn one into a treasure trove of picks and a young very promising point guard. There is more than a non zero chance that one of those guys with a history of injuries...stay injured and OKC winds up winning the deal. Can't say it hasn't happened before. Same for the Pelicans. They never won with Davis and now they have a chance to start over. Kyrie has become a walking meme. The song "Kevin is a Snake" was a big hit. LBJ missed the playoffs last year. Butler will likely miss the playoffs this year. Karma has a way of making things even. Brooklyn things they've fleeced Boston in a trade...Brooklyn falters and Boston has the treasure trove of picks...Ainge gets too proud of his treasure trove of picks and they fizzle out..Brooklyn rises from the ashes...maybe

Karma definitely does have a way, and the Clippers are a cursed organization so it will be interesting to see what transpires there with their 2 stars who can't a full season. *grabs popcorn*