Will there be a next season???

[SacTownKid]

I was just wondering what everyone thought about next year possibly being a lockout year.

I just hope that an agreement can be reached because I would go crazy being left with the Kings in their current state of flux.

I guess I'll just cross my fingers and hope for the best.

If anyone has any news or rumors on the situation I would like to hear them.

 

[NoBonus]

I would hope with the NHL as an example, both parties in the agreement will be more apt to come to an agreement. That is my hope.

 

[jacobdrj]

Yeah, I see concessions comming from the NBAPA. I just don't like which ones.

Salary cap is stupid. Age limit is stupid. All problems would be solved in this case if there was a minor league system.

1)Salary cap is stupid because : A)If a team isn't financialy viable it should not exist (this is a capatalist economic system). B) Nobody is forcing teams to sign crazy contracts. If they don't want to sign Foyle/Cardinal to the MLE, DON'T!

2)Age limit is stupid because : Nobody is forcing you to draft from highschool If you have doubts, wait for college. If you are afraid of missing out, make a minor league system!

 

[Pollardo!]

Jacob-

Couldn't disagree with you more on the salary cap.

Let's change sports real quick- Look at the Yankees. I agree that if a team cannot sustain itself financially, big changes should be made. But conversely, I don't think that a team should be able to sign whoever they want outright. That benefits only that team, and its fans, and leaves small markets/teams with cheap owners at a loss... Which translates to less parity, which translates to less ticket and merch sales, which translates to a lessened cash flow, which translates to a team not being able to be 'financially viable'. (See Milwaukee, and Tampa Bay).

Sure it's an oversimplified breakdown, but the exciting thing about this, the NBA game, is that at the start of the season, everyone at least has a chance- Maybe not to win it all, but certainly to compete. Unlike Baseball, where you have the NYY, BoSox, the Angels, and then everything after. Sure darkhorses (Marlins/D-Backs) surprise us sometimes, but when a team's payroll is so inordinantly out-of-whack, it makes me think, "Why can they have a payroll 4x higher than the team I'm rooting for?" I like to earn my championships, not buy them, thank you.

Avoiding all current contracts, imagine an opposing team w/Kidd, McGrady, Artest, KG, and Shaq rolling into ARCO, or Auburn Hills, or wherever; Do you think fans would say to themselves, "Gee I'm sure glad that they did away with that stupid salary cap?"

I don't think so.

 

[VF21]

STK - There have been a couple of articles in the Bee, where it's been pointed out by both Stern and the NBPA that they are NOT anticipating any kind of lockout.

jacobdrj - I disagree entirely about the salary cap. It's not about a team being financially viable. It's about a team OWNER having so much money to spend that he pretty much outbids the other teams. Can you imagine what Mark Cuban would do if he wasn't under some kind of cap?

As far as the "minor league" system goes, we have the NBDL. We also have College hoops. Personally, I think there's nothing whatsoever wrong with the idea of requiring some kind of minimum age/education/experience level from potential NBA players.

 

[Folsom Al]

When It Comes to Leadership ...

I think the Union Representation for the NBA has more marbles upstairs in comparison to the NHL.

I don't get why these issues are dealt with in a CRISIS ORIENTED MANNER.

They all know it's coming ... yet they all wait till the very bitter end.

 

[VF21]

Folsom Al - That's the difference between the NHL and the NBA. Ongoing and by all reports productive meetings have been going on between the NBA and the players' union for some time. Nobody wants a lockout - and I think they're all working pretty hard to make sure nothing like that happens.

 

[thesanityannex]

Couldn't disagree with you more on the salary cap.


Sure it's an oversimplified breakdown, but the exciting thing about this, the NBA game, is that at the start of the season, everyone at least has a chance- Maybe not to win it all, but certainly to compete. Unlike Baseball, where you have the NYY, BoSox, the Angels, and then everything after. Sure darkhorses (Marlins/D-Backs) surprise us sometimes, but when a team's payroll is so inordinantly out-of-whack, it makes me think, "Why can they have a payroll 4x higher than the team I'm rooting for?" I like to earn my championships, not buy them, thank you.
.

WOULDN'T THE PADRES BE A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A SMALL MARKET TEAM WITH A STRONG CHANCE OF GOING DEEP INTO THE PLAYOFFS.

 

[Pollardo!]

Turn your CAPS key off.

WOULDN'T THE PADRES BE A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A SMALL MARKET TEAM WITH A STRONG CHANCE OF GOING DEEP INTO THE PLAYOFFS.

Again... The amount you spend is not always immediately correlated with how many wins you earn. Sure there will always be outliers, but if you take a team with a $200m payroll, a $100m payroll, and a $50m dollar payroll, and roll the dice on them 25 five times, their w/l records would be roughly equivelant to their payroll. It's like flipping a coin 10 times- Logic would dictate that you should get 5 heads, and 5 tails, but that's not always the case now, is it?

And yeah the Knicks, and the Blazers have huge payrolls, and they suck, but more often than not, the more money a team spends- the better that team will be. I'd love someone to disprove that, over a period of years- Or better yet, can someone tell me how the NBA would be better off w/o a cap? Because I sure don't get it.

 

[Bricklayer]

1)Salary cap is stupid because : A)If a team isn't financialy viable it should not exist (this is a capatalist economic system). B) Nobody is forcing teams to sign crazy contracts. If they don't want to sign Foyle/Cardinal to the MLE, DON'T!

Now that's just ridiculous -- the salary cap is by FAR the best thing going in the NBA. Without it, you are baseball, which just sucks. It is NOT a capitalistic system. Nor should it be. The idea is to have an athletic competition where everybody has an equal shot. Competition. It is no less "capitalistic" than banning steroids in sports, or dividing high schools or colleges up into Div I, Div II etc. Compeition. It si the spice that the whole league is powered by.

In any case, the salary cap is so far as I know not even an issue in this negotiation. Length of contracts is. Age limits are (would think the owners could back down there to make a deal happen). Luxury tax. Etc. But the players themselves do not seriously contest the value of having a cap. And thank god for that or the NBA could turn into an MLB or NHL style embarrassment.

 

[Bricklayer]

WOULDN'T THE PADRES BE A PERFECT EXAMPLE OF A SMALL MARKET TEAM WITH A STRONG CHANCE OF GOING DEEP INTO THE PLAYOFFS.

Pointing to the speculative exception (believe it when I see it) is silly. Every year a small market team is baseball is blessed enough to oooh, actually make a mini run, and wow, the whole rodoiculous system is "justified". Yeah right.

 

[quick dog]

I defer to our esteemed counselor.

 

[Jose]

Considering that the Player's Association has backed out of several terms that had already been agreed to, there's still a good chance that there WILL be a lockout:

http://www.nba.com/news/cba_050518.html

 

[4cwebb]

Looks like negotiations have taken a turn for the worse. I'm having trouble picking sides in this little fight since neither side is truly being "injured" by the outcome of many of the bargaining points (age limit would be the exception, I would think). Just going to depend on which side makes a bit more money in the next go round.

 

[SaCTowNFeveR]

god there better not be a lockout or else i have no reason of living

^ that was a inside joke btw, but i do not want it to go to a lockout ;(

 

[Bricklayer]

Considering that the Player's Association has backed out of several terms that had already been agreed to, there's still a good chance that there WILL be a lockout:

http://www.nba.com/news/cba_050518.html

Yeah -- that's ridiculous. Backed out after consulting with agents? Ugh.

Its hard to imagine an actual lockout after the utter disaster which befell the NHL though. Gotta believe that with that example sitting right there in their faces, a deal of some sort will be struck. Just might run deeper into the summer than it should have and mess up the offseason rhythm.

 

[Bartking]

I'm usually pretty sympathetic to the players when it comes to the them (millionaires) dividing up money with the owners (billionaires). However, in the NHL, they were just plain stupid. They can never regain the money lost by missing a full season, not to mention the smaller future fanbase.

One of the underlying problems with the NHL players, which I am sure is common to the NBA players, is that everyone who makes a ton of money almost always thinks they deserve it.

 

[SacTownKid]

Another thing to note is that the ratings and overall financial success of the NHL are on the decline big time in the US, whereas basketball is a hot commodity. I would think both sides would do everything they could to avoid the situation, but I must say if there is another lockout, and/or subsequently shorter season I may not be an NBA fan anymore.

If a lockout occurs then I hope another league opens up and takes over the game. Like the XFL only hopefully with better results.

 

[BigWaxer]

Pollard on Rants show blamed the agents for the drama that happened today. He said all the players want a deal and thought one was going to pretty much done.

Why don't the players just fire Billy Hunter? I am sure they are able to do something of the sort. The guy and the agents were the reason for the last lockout.

IMO the NFL has the best Salary Cap of any pro sports. It levels the playing field. The current NBA system is pretty good but I agree that max contracts have to be shortened. 3 years would be great but I could live with 5 max. I could careless about age limits. The good players will survive and the bad ones will not have a job.

 

[Bricklayer]

IMO the NFL has the best Salary Cap of any pro sports. It levels the playing field.

Too much so in the NFL's case. I am not a Pats fan, but I am very glad they have been able to put together this little mini-dynasty. TOO much parity is boring, as is extreme roster turnover due to a hard cap. That's nearly as bad as excessive player turnover due to no cap at all with big teams just buying everybody. Either way fans lose out in the constant turnover and inability to keep a team together. Much prefer the NBAs hybrid system with Bird rights etc. giving teams a chance to be stable if they're happy with their situation.

 

[VF21]

I am sick and tired of player's agents acting like they - and they alone - are looking out for the best interests of the players and the game. The agents are looking out for themselves. Their livelihood depends solely on how much they can get the teams to pay their clients. They are not interested in anything but THEIR clients.

Some of the agents currently representing NBA players actually seem to believe, based on comments I've seen published in pretty reliable places, that they (the agents) have the right to dictate NBA policy, etc. Personally, I would like to see the owners show some fortitude and refuse to do business with some of them. I think it would go a long way towards restoring the proper pecking order. Unfortunately, I doubt it will happen...there would always be one owner who would buck the tide just to get a particular player, even if his agent was the devil incarnate.

 

[loopymitch]

^^^ They have families to feed too VF

 

[piksi]

It might be a pretty exciting Euroleague next season

 

[VF21]

^^^ They have families to feed too VF

I'm assuming you're referring to the agents?

Actually I envision a lot of them as serpentine creatures who slither out from rocks during the day and return to said rocks at night to feast upon rodents and other small creatures. And I doubt if most of them have families.

 

[thesanityannex]

Pointing to the speculative exception (believe it when I see it) is silly. Every year a small market team is baseball is blessed enough to oooh, actually make a mini run, and wow, the whole rodoiculous system is "justified". Yeah right.

the padres have always been small market and make runs more often than any other "small market" team. im not justifying anything really, just showing love for the pad's.