Author Topic: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules  (Read 4138 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« on: July 10, 2019, 01:40:04 AM »

Offline CelticsElite

  • NCE
  • Danny Ainge
  • **********
  • Posts: 10774
  • Tommy Points: 789
Commissioner Adam Silver said multiple times during his annual news conference in Las Vegas during summer league that the NBA has "work to do" when it comes to free agency and the rules governing it.

Silver's comments came after a free-agency period in which several star players changed teams through deals that were apparently agreed upon before the official start of free agency at 6 p.m. ET on June 30.


"My sense in the room today was, especially when it comes to free agency and the rules around it, that we've got work to do," Silver said Tuesday evening at the conclusion of the league's annual board of governors meetings. "And as I said, it's still the same principles of fair balance of power and a sense that it's a level playing field. I think that's what teams want to know. I think they're put in difficult situations because when they're sitting across from a player and whether it's conversations that are happening earlier than they should or frankly things are being discussed that don't fall squarely within the collective bargaining agreement, it puts teams in a very difficult position because they are reading or hearing that other teams are doing other things to compete, and at the end of the day, that's what this league is about: competing for championships.

"My job is to enforce a fair set of rules for all our teams and a set of rules that are clear and make sense for everyone. I think right now we're not quite there."

Silver acknowledged that there always have been at least some discussions taking place before the official start of free agency. This year's free-agency period, though, put into stark relief just how much of that business is done ahead of time, with basically only Kawhi Leonard's search for a new team lingering past the first 24 hours in which players could agree to contracts with teams.

The league has only so many ways it can police tampering, particularly when it comes in the form of players talking to one another, something the NBA has no realistic way to combat. And while Silver wasn't directly addressing that topic during his news conference Tuesday, he did repeatedly say that he believes the league needs to look at having "enforceable rules" on its books.

"I think the consensus at both our committee meetings and the board meeting was that we need to revisit and reset those rules, that some of the rules we have in place may not make sense," Silver said. "I think that's what we discussed. I think it's pointless at the end of the day to have rules that we can't enforce. I think it hurts the perception of integrity around the league if people say, 'Well, you have that rule and it's obvious that teams aren't fully complying, so why do you have it?'

"I think the sense in the room was we should revisit those rules, think about what does make sense for our teams so that ultimately we can create a level playing field among the teams and that the partner teams have confidence that their competitors are adhering to the same set of rules they are."

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #1 on: July 10, 2019, 02:30:57 AM »

Offline obnoxiousmime

  • Bailey Howell
  • **
  • Posts: 2421
  • Tommy Points: 258
I don't know how they enforce it, is the problem. Some of it is, the owners themselves need to be strict about complying themselves, but it's difficult because they're all desperately competing for just a few players.

With more and more players positioning themselves as the brand and the uniform as a secondary thing, and also realizing extra money and the risk of devastating injury is not worth the sacrifice of freedom of movement, you're just going to have these complicated, frenzied periods of free agency/trading where any inside info you can obtain could mean a huge difference in making the maneuvers possible to get it done.

If you waited until the 6pm, official opening of free agency to start contacting players, you were already too late. Teams were already positioning their teams weeks, months, perhaps even a season ahead of time.

The system isn't working but it's hard to put the genie back in the bottle. Basketball stars, especially the handful of elites at the top, are just too important to championships. Salaries have so outpaced what the average person makes that there is no lifestyle change for a superstar to make tens of millions less in a contract. At the same time, max deals artificially suppress what the stars make, making their playing contract not necessarily as important as their sponsorship deals and ability to increase their outside business ventures.

The thing is, you can't even play basketball once you've reached your mid to late 30s. For the rest of your life, the businesses and branding you've set up are going to be your primary job and income. Basketball is really only a brief, 15 year period at the very beginning of your adult life. If you're Dr. Dre you can only make so much money with music as a performer, because music is a young person's game. However, if you use your brand to get involved in headphones, then sell that company for hundreds of millions to Apple, that's real money.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #2 on: July 10, 2019, 04:11:24 AM »

Offline greg683x

  • Antoine Walker
  • ****
  • Posts: 4097
  • Tommy Points: 585
He had multiple opportunities to really drop the hammer on teams blatantly tampering and he chose to slap them on the wrist.

Making an example of somebody is the first thing you can do to show this isn’t gonna be tolerated anymore.  Until then, this is all a bunch of hot air
Greg

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #3 on: July 10, 2019, 06:32:50 AM »

Offline Roy H.

  • Forums Manager
  • James Naismith
  • *********************************
  • Posts: 58571
  • Tommy Points: -25634
  • Bo Knows: Joe Don't Know Diddley
My guess is that they’ll just legalize conversations with UFAs as soon as the playoffs are over.  That narrows “tampering” to guys under another team’s control.


I'M THE SILVERBACK GORILLA IN THIS MOTHER——— AND DON'T NONE OF YA'LL EVER FORGET IT!@ 34 minutes

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #4 on: July 10, 2019, 06:43:51 AM »

Offline JBcat

  • Ray Allen
  • ***
  • Posts: 3642
  • Tommy Points: 512
My guess is that they’ll just legalize conversations with UFAs as soon as the playoffs are over.  That narrows “tampering” to guys under another team’s control.

That makes sense, and while they are at it I think they should start with free agency and then have the draft. 

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #5 on: July 10, 2019, 07:07:12 AM »

Offline mqtcelticsfan

  • Bailey Howell
  • **
  • Posts: 2314
  • Tommy Points: 236
My guess is that they’ll just legalize conversations with UFAs as soon as the playoffs are over.  That narrows “tampering” to guys under another team’s control.

I really don’t see the sense in tampering rules at all. Every player has an agent with a team that can see what sort of cap space/roster needs a team might have.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #6 on: July 10, 2019, 08:06:54 AM »

Offline ederson

  • Jim Loscutoff
  • **
  • Posts: 2896
  • Tommy Points: 279
The problem is not the FAs. I'd even agree to something like the UEFA  rule that players can agree with another team 6 months before the end of the contract.

I find much more disturbing that KL convinced PG a player under two more years to demand a transfer

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #7 on: July 10, 2019, 08:26:49 AM »

Online SHAQATTACK

  • James Naismith
  • *********************************
  • Posts: 36776
  • Tommy Points: 2961
If the ganging up of stars was equally distributed over time in various cities it would not be so bad.   But Lakers never have to rebuild , just fire everybody and create cap,space. Let Toronto or Utah or Dallas have a short dynasty.   But , the players all head for CA . No matter the situation. condition of FO, or rest of team .  So without some stoke of luck , Bucks get Giannis who for now is not in the Bron CP3 mindset and is just happy to,be in the USA . Or Toronto s GM made a gutsy move tomtrade for Kawhi, otherwise the star all want to be in one city basically.   No matter how well,he was treated , he left for CA .   

Lets see Jerry West build a team outside of CA. .....go to Charlotte, cleveland or Atlanta or Boston .


Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #8 on: July 10, 2019, 09:31:01 AM »

Offline johnnygreen

  • Bailey Howell
  • **
  • Posts: 2259
  • Tommy Points: 298
If the ganging up of stars was equally distributed over time in various cities it would not be so bad.   But Lakers never have to rebuild , just fire everybody and create cap,space. Let Toronto or Utah or Dallas have a short dynasty.   But , the players all head for CA . No matter the situation. condition of FO, or rest of team .  So without some stoke of luck , Bucks get Giannis who for now is not in the Bron CP3 mindset and is just happy to,be in the USA . Or Toronto s GM made a gutsy move tomtrade for Kawhi, otherwise the star all want to be in one city basically.   No matter how well,he was treated , he left for CA .   

Lets see Jerry West build a team outside of CA. .....go to Charlotte, cleveland or Atlanta or Boston .

Besides LeBron going to LA as a free agent, who was the last super star player that signed there as a free agent? The only player that comes to mind is Shaq back in 1996. The Lakers do get away with block buster trades for basically garbage, so that is a whole different issue.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #9 on: July 10, 2019, 09:37:28 AM »

Offline gpap

  • Don Nelson
  • ********
  • Posts: 8224
  • Tommy Points: 417
Adam Silver needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

What's been gooing on over the last year has been ridiculous.

Kyrie and Durant have been planning teaming up for a long time (whether that was Brooklyn, I'm not sure.)

Lebron openly recruiting guys like AD and Kawhi while under contract with other teams.

The star players have all the power and run the league and thus, there's little parity.

As a result, I think owners need to make a stand and the league needs to approve a rule where NO free agency discussions begin until after July 1st....NONE.

As a result, I also wonder if this also means owners will be more proactive and more trades will be made when they suspect one of their players is planning on leaving after the season is over.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #10 on: July 10, 2019, 09:49:46 AM »

Offline johnnygreen

  • Bailey Howell
  • **
  • Posts: 2259
  • Tommy Points: 298
During this discussion, let’s not forget that the Celtics were part of the problem this offseason. It was basically announced that Kemba Walker agreed to sign with Boston as soon as free agency opened.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #11 on: July 10, 2019, 09:51:30 AM »

Offline PAOBoston

  • Don Nelson
  • ********
  • Posts: 8098
  • Tommy Points: 533
Adam Silver needs to wake up and smell the coffee.

What's been gooing on over the last year has been ridiculous.

Kyrie and Durant have been planning teaming up for a long time (whether that was Brooklyn, I'm not sure.)

Lebron openly recruiting guys like AD and Kawhi while under contract with other teams.

The star players have all the power and run the league and thus, there's little parity.

As a result, I think owners need to make a stand and the league needs to approve a rule where NO free agency discussions begin until after July 1st....NONE.

As a result, I also wonder if this also means owners will be more proactive and more trades will be made when they suspect one of their players is planning on leaving after the season is over.
That’s not going to stop players from teaming up. Only way to stop that is to get rid of max contracts and allow teams to pay players as the market dictates within the salary cap. If a team wants to throw $60 mil a year at Giannis for example, it will make it significantly more difficult to fit another star player of his caliber on the roster unless that player is willing to take wayyy below market value.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #12 on: July 10, 2019, 09:59:25 AM »

Offline Tr1boy

  • Paul Pierce
  • ***************************
  • Posts: 27260
  • Tommy Points: 867
My guess is that they’ll just legalize conversations with UFAs as soon as the playoffs are over.  That narrows “tampering” to guys under another team’s control.

Unlikely

Then how would Raptors fans feel (parade)

Knowing Green is a Laker next season? .... for example

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #13 on: July 10, 2019, 10:22:04 AM »

Offline dreamgreen

  • NCE
  • Ray Allen
  • ***
  • Posts: 3558
  • Tommy Points: 182
They could crush many of these issues with a real salary cap structure. IMO for team owners the biggest problem is losing players that you groom for years and than they all want to play together in LA, NY, etc. also players forcing their way out is a little bit of a problem but again salary cap could help this. Teams should be rewarded for running a franchise well vs. being a destination franchise.

Re: Silver: Free Agency needs enforceable rules
« Reply #14 on: July 10, 2019, 10:25:09 AM »

Offline Green-18

  • Bill Walton
  • *
  • Posts: 1253
  • Tommy Points: 130
I'm really not sure what can be done.  Nothing the league does will make small market teams a destination.  Players are going to dictate terms no matter what.  The only thing you can do is provide some sort of compensation for small market teams. 

Just a random thought on my part, but perhaps you require teams to surrender their 1st round pick if they sign a max free agent that isn't their own.  If they don't have the current years 1st round pick, then they surrender the following seasons pick + absorb a cap penalty for the upcoming season.  The 2nd rule also applies if they sign more than one max free agent (Brooklyn Nets).  Sign and trades are allowed, but the draft compensation would remain unless you are sending back a max free agent of your own.   

No idea if something like this could work, as I know there's plenty of holes in the idea.