Poll: The State of The League

[nubreed000]

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

What could Toronto acquire from the Clippers in a S&T though? That team gutted itself just to get PG and make cap space for Kawhi.

[Demographic Shift]

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.

Then maybe the NBA small market and non destination owners push for something like the NHL and MLB and NFL have in the way of compensatory draft picks to compensate for players forcing their way out of situations...
....
MLB used to add additional picks to the first round.. then they moved to having the team signing a FA give up their first rounder...

THe NHL makes it. really really really hard for player movement with a hard cap.. then they double down with RFA's who if they move early see the team losing them get a whack of draft picks coming back to them from the signing team... The NHL's UFA is pretty clean. You made it to FA. Pick your spot.

The NFL is unique with their ability to not gaurantee contracts... They still double down and use franchise tags to help teams hold on to star players but movement is really easy for UFA's...

There isn't any loss of players money if the NBA goes to a compensenation draft pick model to ease the blow of losing a guy while under contract. or who is a UFA or an RFA...

[guyroch]

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*

I was thinking the same thing .... I often wonder why when the new owner bought the Clippers that he didn't change the name ...

[slaw]

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 ...

Short of making a guy sit for the duration of his existing deal, which will never happen, I'm not sure much else would work. The premier guys make so much money that even a few million would be insignificant. I don't think you can stop players from demanding out. The way to handle it would be for an owner to say fine, you sit on the bench for two years, I ain't trading you. That's the only solution. But every owner would have to buy in to that and that won't happen.

One thing I do think that needs to be done, though, is to enforce the tampering rules and extend them to players and raise the penalties substantially. Players are employees of an organization, no reason they should not be subject to tampering rules. If you're caught tampering, your team loses 5 first round picks and the player you signed becomes a free agent you cannot sign or trade for 5 years. If a player is doing it, they lose half their salary to the league for the duration of their contract.

The NBA could stop it if it wanted to but it doesn't want to cause this stuff benefits their big markets and it also generates massive publicity for the league.

[Apollo]

What could Toronto acquire from the Clippers in a S&T though? That team gutted itself just to get PG and make cap space for Kawhi.

You're asking about a hypothetical that couldn't happen, influenced by a hypothetical that wouldn't happen if the hypothetical that couldn't happen happened? 4D chess anyone?

[inthepaint]

Short of making a guy sit for the duration of his existing deal, which will never happen, I'm not sure much else would work. The premier guys make so much money that even a few million would be insignificant. I don't think you can stop players from demanding out. The way to handle it would be for an owner to say fine, you sit on the bench for two years, I ain't trading you. That's the only solution. But every owner would have to buy in to that and that won't happen.

What I think they need is more clarity and meaning on the trade and non-trade clauses. There should be 2 types of contracts:
A: Double no-trade clause: The team won't surprise you by shipping you out of town before your term, but you won't ask to be moved either.
B: Open ended: Both player and team can initiate a trade at any time, no hard feelings either way.

Evreyone knows what they get themselves into. Anybody trying to do something outside of what was originally agreed upon, get significant penalties like you say (rather then this little slap on the wrist).

Team guarantees you money in exchange for term, service and predictability on their roster cycle. You get term and security in exchange for a service on the court, and get your free-agency after you established yourself on the league. You and the team either agree to that from the get-go, or you sign type B above.

Sounds simple but the players union would never allow it.

[Joey]

What I think they need is more clarity and meaning on the trade and non-trade clauses. There should be 2 types of contracts:
A: Double no-trade clause: The team won't surprise you by shipping you out of town before your term, but you won't ask to be moved either.
B: Open ended: Both player and team can initiate a trade at any time, no hard feelings either way.

I like this. Seems reasonable. I agree it probably won't make it past negotiations, but I like it.

[Demographic Shift]

After Leonard chose the Clippers, the Lakers quickly agreed to terms with:

• Danny Green (two years, $30 million)
• DeMarcus Cousins (one year, $3.5 million)
• Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (two years, $16 million)
• Quinn Cook (two years, $6 million)
• JaVale McGee (two years, $8.2 million)
• Alex Caruso (two years, $5.5 million)
• Rajon Rondo (two years, minimum)

The thing that jumps off the page is just how little value Boogie Cousins has in this iteration of the NBA.
He is lower on the pay scale than JaVale McGee and only marginally more than two filler guards in Cook and Caruso.

Thats a sea change in the state of the league. Once upon a time...6’ 7 or 8 inch wings were called tweeters and they very rarely stuck with any team. Now they are at the top of the food chain.

[Apollo]

It's because he's still recovering from injury, I think. He got hurt bad, used last year as a recovery year in GS but got hurt again. He hasn't been 100% in a couple years now.

[Demographic Shift]

It's because he's still recovering from injury, I think. He got hurt bad, used last year as a recovery year in GS but got hurt again. He hasn't been 100% in a couple years now.

I’d say yeah..but Durant got a max and he has to rehab through one of the most debilitating injuries with the achillies.
This is Boogies second time thru and all he could do was get a short low cost deal. He took less th an McGee. Hope he proves it this year..if not...he might be done,

[Apollo]

Durant is arguably the best player in the league though. Boogie racked up stats for years on a bad team, then had limited success elsewhere, then got hurt. Different career path to Durant. lol

[TrueTorontoFan]

two feelings... i do think that this free agency helped from a parity standpoint sorta... on one hand we saw GSW break up... and if they stayed together lets be honest they would be favorites not including this year upcoming... for the next 5 years....



I think it also showed the importance of depth... which means we are back at two stars required...


Two ways to win in this league.... One superduper star + solid team... or a Star A+ with Star B+ w/decent team.



As a basketball purist I think Kawhi staying here would have led to the best outcome league wide.

What I think we will see in the future is when some of these Canadian kids end up on their third contract (Mitchell + RJ Barrett and others). We will likely see them coming home.. They saw the reception they are home grown and we present the best options for them. What I think will also happen is we will always have the edge on the African market as long as we have Masai.

[Apollo]

[The Claw Reborn]

My two cents of all these chaos...

Maybe the league should impose a “Kawhi Rule”. As soon as free agency starts, teams should only have 24 hours to lock up max eligible salaried players. The non-max have 3 days tops. As soon as a player verbally agree to a deal, a contract have to be drafted and let that player sign on the dotted line within 24 hours. No more 6 day moratorium.

Then league has to strictly impose the anti-tampering laws during the regular season especially approaching free agency. If a team is caught, its automatic disqualification to sign free agents for a whole season.

However if players are conniving with each other prior to their free agency, then that would limit the possibility with the shortened period as I stated above.

Franchises also has to have an insurance, as soon as they sign a “max free agent”. These players cannot ask for a trade until the end of their contracts. In cases as examples like Paul George, Porzingis or Anthony Davis, teams should have legal footing to not pay these guys the remainder of their contracts as soon as they approach management asking for a trade.

I say all these but yet again, nothing may result to changes if the small market teams are afraid to join forces and topple the big boys like the Los Angeles and New York Markets. Or these minions will just have to suffer the consequences of constantly rebuilding and hoping that one ping pong ball can give them a generational talent. However they would still waste their energies developing because down the road, a phone call to another could result to a messy divorce.

Thanks Adam, at least you are thinking about it and not just sucking your thumb while Klutch Sports and Steve Balmer are making a mockery of the sport your are overseeing.

[G__Deane]

"Disheartening"???
How about illegal, tampering, bogus, bush league and bullchit?
And another b....ban it!