Should NBA eliminate max contracts?

[podsox]

Just have a salary cap and have owners pay whatever they want for players. It is the only way to really stop super teams.

 

[Gooch1034]

Just have a salary cap and have owners pay whatever they want for players. It is the only way to really stop super teams.

Yeah this super team crap is going to eventually catch up and ruin the league IMO if they don't change things.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Just have a salary cap and have owners pay whatever they want for players. It is the only way to really stop super teams.

Of course.
Don't forget about a hard or near hard cap.

#cba17

 

[SoCalWizFan]

Yeah this super team crap is going to eventually catch up and ruin the league IMO if they don't change things.

I kind of agree with you. However - I am starting to wonder if the NBA (perhaps not all of the owners) prefer the current trend of only having 3-4 teams with a real shot of winning the title. A lot of fans (including some on this forum) appear to root for players and not teams. They probably love these super teams and the fact that the real stars are always in the Finals. Who knows?

 

[Gooch1034]

I kind of agree with you. However - I am starting to wonder if the NBA (perhaps not all of the owners) prefer the current trend of only having 3-4 teams with a real shot of winning the title. A lot of fans (including some on this forum) appear to root for players and not teams. They probably love these super teams and the fact that the real stars are always in the Finals. Who knows?

Possibly right. I just think it could lead a top heavy league every season with almost 0% chance for a low seed to even smell the Conference finals. Figure it could cause the term "rebuilding" to become obsolete someday maybe.

Like you said tho, who knows?

 

[Sharkonabicycle]

I'd rather just have Cleveland get Anthony-Towns and Chris Paul, GS can have Anthony Davis, and then just do a 15 game series and skip the regular season.

Or just go down to 12 teams like the WNBA and call it a day.

 

[OregonDucks]

Nothing screams excitement more then Cleveland vs Golden State over and over.

LeBron going to 7 straight Finals should be enough to laugh at the rest of the East, but at least you tuned in to watch him lose. Now that he won a title in Cleveland, the Warriors already won a title, this CLE vs GS Finals is getting old fast.

Parity is good. NBA having the same recycled teams over and over will lose interest fast from certain markets.

 

[thunderc]

Unions of any kind punish the real achievers, just the way it is.

 

[wildturkey]

Eh, I doubt it would matter that much. Getting paid is great but guys do want to win. You'll still have guys working their numbers out to play with each other. And does it really matter if 4 guys are on one team or not? What's really changed? There's still like 3 to 4 teams that are realistically going to win the title, same as it is every year.

 

[podsox]

Eh, I doubt it would matter that much. Getting paid is great but guys do want to win. You'll still have guys working their numbers out to play with each other. And does it really matter if 4 guys are on one team or not? What's really changed? There's still like 3 to 4 teams that are realistically going to win the title, same as it is every year.

It will be a lot harder for players to pass up 60 mil yr and settle for 25.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

It will be a lot harder for players to pass up 60 mil yr and settle for 25.

Exactly.

 

[tlance]

Nothing screams excitement more then Cleveland vs Golden State over and over.

LeBron going to 7 straight Finals should be enough to laugh at the rest of the East, but at least you tuned in to watch him lose. Now that he won a title in Cleveland, the Warriors already won a title, this CLE vs GS Finals is getting old fast.

Parity is good. NBA having the same recycled teams over and over will lose interest fast from certain markets.

Parity is good, but dynasties can be too. The 80s are thought by many to be the best era of NBA basketball, and it was marked by the dominance and rivalry of the Celtics and Lakers.

The ideal world, IMO, is when you have a couple excellent teams like Cleveland and Golden State, and a small number capable of competing with them. That is what he have had the last couple years and the playoff ratings were fantastic.

No matter what the NBA does, it will not achieve NFL style parity because individual players have too great an impact on the game. Eliminating max contracts and instituting a hard cap might help improve parity, but it would not fix it. Honestly, I am not sure parity is best for the NBA.

 

[TurnUpTheHeat]

Parity is good, but dynasties can be too. The 80s are thought by many to be the best era of NBA basketball, and it was marked by the dominance and rivalry of the Celtics and Lakers.

The ideal world, IMO, is when you have a couple excellent teams like Cleveland and Golden State, and a small number capable of competing with them. That is what he have had the last couple years and the playoff ratings were fantastic.

No matter what the NBA does, it will not achieve NFL style parity because individual players have too great an impact on the game. Eliminating max contracts and instituting a hard cap might help improve parity, but it would not fix it. Honestly, I am not sure parity is best for the NBA.

What's your definition of fix?
I believe it would end the days of veteran superstars uniting.
The downside would be that it would hurt the franchises that develop a Westbrook/Durant, then can't keep both.

 

[tlance]

What's your definition of fix?
I believe it would end the days of veteran superstars uniting.
The downside would be that it would hurt the franchises that develop a Westbrook/Durant, then can't keep both.

I guess by "fix" I mean they would be less likely to have the same teams in the Finals year after year. Not sure that is really good though. The NBA has proven that fans are interested in the current model and the players would never allow an NFL model.

In fact, I will be surprised if NFL players don't strike sometime soon so they can reform their CBA. Way too much power to the teams there in a game where careers can end in one unfortunate play.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

Parity is good, but dynasties can be too. The 80s are thought by many to be the best era of NBA basketball, and it was marked by the dominance and rivalry of the Celtics and Lakers.

Well that was back when the NBA really only had 2 superteams, the Lakers or the Celtics. They were your choices for superteams. That's the two teams that in the pre free agency era could put those talents together which is why most finals you had one of those two teams in them before free agency, if not both.

Magic, Kareem, Worthy, McAdoo, Wilkes... Scott even on that roster... Baylor and West getting older so they just bring in Wilt and Goodrich.

80's Celtics with Bird, McHale, Parish, Archibald, Dennis Johnson. and of course their 50's/60's teams led by Russell was just insane. Talentwise, they had probably 1/4 of the leagues best stars stacked up there.


Today the difference is that talent can form outside of those two locations, and I think it's a lot harder to build that long term franchise. Warriors are by far the best team on paper now. Will they still be in 3-4 years? Probably not. The torch will be passed on to some future super-team when Davis, Wiggins and Towns all group up somewhere lol.

I don't like the unlimited max. Because then the pressure really is on the stars to take less than what they are worth to be more competitive.


This is the time of parity to be honest. Teams are moving up and down every year. Lakers and Boston ruled the 80's and before. Dallas is the 2nd most dominant reg season team of the past 10 years. Followed by Houston. That's parity there.

 

[Rockinkuwait]

In fact, I will be surprised if NFL players don't strike sometime soon so they can reform their CBA. Way too much power to the teams there in a game where careers can end in one unfortunate play.

It's tough for the players because of the short careers. Sure they can sit out for a year, but with an average career lasting 3.5 years, a strike is basically writing off 30% of your career earnings in the sport. I don't think they can afford to strike. I believe their best options are using the media for what they feel is unfair and try to use bad press as a weapon to get what they want.

And guarantees will just cause teams to invest less. If NFL players contracts were fully guaranteed, Washington last year would be spending about 25% of their cap space on McNabb, Josh Morgan, and Haynesworth. So while an injury can end a career, and that does happen often where it robs a player of his ability to be effective, having half your cap space tied up in players no longer in the NFL doesn't help you as a team pay out more on deals.


So instead of 5 years, 75 mil with 30 mil guaranteed on an NFL deal, that deal is only a 2 years 30 mil deal. Meaning a lot more movement for players... If you aren't a starter, good luck finding more than one year deals there. Sure most get just one year guaranteed, but if the fit is good for the team, they stay. Now, if the fit is good, that guys still going back on the market. Life sucks if you are a RB, and QB's grow exponentially (maybe OT's as well, positions where being at peak physical shape isn't completely essential).

 

[Xulu Bak]

Considering the league has gotten as healthy as it has, under the very rules some of you are claiming will destroy it, I don't foresee a drastic change anytime soon. Hell, people were making the same "this will destroy the league" assertions when LBJ and Bosh went to Miami, and just the opposite seems to have happened.

I think one thing the league should explore, and may come from OKC getting blown up, is providing teams a bit more advantage in trying keeping their own players.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Just have a salary cap and have owners pay whatever they want for players. It is the only way to really stop super teams.

they should of had a smoothing mechanism this year...but the players association didnt want it....the players association is the side that likes having the max contracts as well...

its so dumb that the players union didnt want to smooth the cap--- now the 50-60 free agents that sign this year will get a MASSIVE share of revenue that other players wont...they were very lucky to be FA's this year. If there was a smoothing mechanism, Durant would have had real real problems getting to GSW...

in the past, the nba players union has been one of the very weakest, internally corrupt, and incompetent organizations....now that Hunter is gone i would have thought they would ahve gotten their act together, but they didnt.

 

[The Q]

I guess by "fix" I mean they would be less likely to have the same teams in the Finals year after year. Not sure that is really good though. The NBA has proven that fans are interested in the current model and the players would never allow an NFL model.

In fact, I will be surprised if NFL players don't strike sometime soon so they can reform their CBA. Way too much power to the teams there in a game where careers can end in one unfortunate play.

The NFLPA is far too inept to get anything done.

They've proved that over and over again.

Both the NBPA and the NFLPA got run train by the owners in their last CBA negotiations.

 

[WiggyRuss]

Considering the league has gotten as healthy as it has, under the very rules some of you are claiming will destroy it, I don't foresee a drastic change anytime soon. Hell, people were making the same "this will destroy the league" assertions when LBJ and Bosh went to Miami, and just the opposite seems to have happened.

I think one thing the league should explore, and may come from OKC getting blown up, is providing teams a bit more advantage in trying keeping their own players.

i think Durant will be gone within 3 years at the most....he wants to get the monkey off his back