Woj: NBA Wants Hard Cap

[Moranis]

If leagues truly want more of their teams having a legit shot at titles, they need hard caps. Otherwise, 90% of conference finals and title rounds will consistently involve the same handful of teams—namely, the ones from big markets who have a lot of money to spend.

I don't really know if that's true. After all, the past 15 ECFs have featured 10 of the 15 different teams in the east, all of them at least twice:
Bucks
Hawks
Heat
Celtics
Raptors
Cavs
Pacers
Bulls
Magic
Pistons

And the West has a similar diversity:

West:
Suns
Clippers
Lakers
Nuggets
Warriors
Blazers
Rockets
Spurs
Thunder
Grizzlies
Mavericks

Like others have said, I think the repeater tax is doing its job. 4-5 years just seems so much longer than it actually is when we're in the middle of it.

15 years is farther back than I was thinking. More recently (the last half-dozen or so years), the West has been mostly the Warriors and a few good-not-great teams that can't beat the Warriors, and the East has basically been LeBron teams (Cavs and Heat) plus the Raptors, Bucks, and Cs.

but the Warriors weren't even a tax team a lot of those seasons.  I mean they were below the tax entirely which is how they could even get Durant.  A hard cap won't fix things like that

Yeah two anomalous things here - LeBron being a top 10 player of all time and Golden State getting insanely lucky with their draft picks and a lack of cap smoothing in a TV deal year.

I don't think there's a particularly good argument for a hard cap, myself. Anyone care to make one?

This is exactly where I'm at.  the 10 highest total cap teams are in order:

Golden State
Brooklyn
Los Angeles C
Milwaukee
Washington
Los Angeles L
Minnesota
Boston
Dallas
Phoenix

I'm not sure what a hard cap would do to that.  I mean is the goal for a team like the Warriors to lose their young players to free agency.  So they can't re-sign Jordan Poole.  Or a team like Milwaukee in a small market to not be able to acquire someone like Jrue Holiday.  No Brogdon trade for Boston.  No Gobert trade for Minnesota.  Sorry Dallas, you can't build a winning team around Luka.  Phoenix we know you just went to the NBA Finals, but you can't re-sign Chris Paul, tough luck. 

The next 5 teams are Cleveland, Denver, Philly, Toronto, and Portland.

Hard cap is just a bad idea in a sport like this.

Unless the hard cap is sufficiently high to allow those things to happen, which, knowing the owners, wouldn't happen.

Sure, but then what is the point if it is that high?  I mean the increasing luxury tax payments will work the same purpose.

[Sophomore]

If leagues truly want more of their teams having a legit shot at titles, they need hard caps. Otherwise, 90% of conference finals and title rounds will consistently involve the same handful of teams—namely, the ones from big markets who have a lot of money to spend.

I don't really know if that's true. After all, the past 15 ECFs have featured 10 of the 15 different teams in the east, all of them at least twice:
Bucks
Hawks
Heat
Celtics
Raptors
Cavs
Pacers
Bulls
Magic
Pistons

And the West has a similar diversity:

West:
Suns
Clippers
Lakers
Nuggets
Warriors
Blazers
Rockets
Spurs
Thunder
Grizzlies
Mavericks

Like others have said, I think the repeater tax is doing its job. 4-5 years just seems so much longer than it actually is when we're in the middle of it.

15 years is farther back than I was thinking. More recently (the last half-dozen or so years), the West has been mostly the Warriors and a few good-not-great teams that can't beat the Warriors, and the East has basically been LeBron teams (Cavs and Heat) plus the Raptors, Bucks, and Cs.

but the Warriors weren't even a tax team a lot of those seasons.  I mean they were below the tax entirely which is how they could even get Durant.  A hard cap won't fix things like that

Yeah two anomalous things here - LeBron being a top 10 player of all time and Golden State getting insanely lucky with their draft picks and a lack of cap smoothing in a TV deal year.

I don't think there's a particularly good argument for a hard cap, myself. Anyone care to make one?

This is exactly where I'm at.  the 10 highest total cap teams are in order:

Golden State
Brooklyn
Los Angeles C
Milwaukee
Washington
Los Angeles L
Minnesota
Boston
Dallas
Phoenix

I'm not sure what a hard cap would do to that.  I mean is the goal for a team like the Warriors to lose their young players to free agency.  So they can't re-sign Jordan Poole.  Or a team like Milwaukee in a small market to not be able to acquire someone like Jrue Holiday.  No Brogdon trade for Boston.  No Gobert trade for Minnesota.  Sorry Dallas, you can't build a winning team around Luka.  Phoenix we know you just went to the NBA Finals, but you can't re-sign Chris Paul, tough luck. 

The next 5 teams are Cleveland, Denver, Philly, Toronto, and Portland.

Hard cap is just a bad idea in a sport like this.

Unless the hard cap is sufficiently high to allow those things to happen, which, knowing the owners, wouldn't happen.

Sure, but then what is the point if it is that high?  I mean the increasing luxury tax payments will work the same purpose.

I imagine some owners’ goals are (1) reduce upward pressure on salaries, and (2) help teams that spend less to compete.  They never want anybody into the repeater tax - including, if they should ever luck into a contender, their team.

[Moranis]

If leagues truly want more of their teams having a legit shot at titles, they need hard caps. Otherwise, 90% of conference finals and title rounds will consistently involve the same handful of teams—namely, the ones from big markets who have a lot of money to spend.

I don't really know if that's true. After all, the past 15 ECFs have featured 10 of the 15 different teams in the east, all of them at least twice:
Bucks
Hawks
Heat
Celtics
Raptors
Cavs
Pacers
Bulls
Magic
Pistons

And the West has a similar diversity:

West:
Suns
Clippers
Lakers
Nuggets
Warriors
Blazers
Rockets
Spurs
Thunder
Grizzlies
Mavericks

Like others have said, I think the repeater tax is doing its job. 4-5 years just seems so much longer than it actually is when we're in the middle of it.

15 years is farther back than I was thinking. More recently (the last half-dozen or so years), the West has been mostly the Warriors and a few good-not-great teams that can't beat the Warriors, and the East has basically been LeBron teams (Cavs and Heat) plus the Raptors, Bucks, and Cs.

but the Warriors weren't even a tax team a lot of those seasons.  I mean they were below the tax entirely which is how they could even get Durant.  A hard cap won't fix things like that

Yeah two anomalous things here - LeBron being a top 10 player of all time and Golden State getting insanely lucky with their draft picks and a lack of cap smoothing in a TV deal year.

I don't think there's a particularly good argument for a hard cap, myself. Anyone care to make one?

This is exactly where I'm at.  the 10 highest total cap teams are in order:

Golden State
Brooklyn
Los Angeles C
Milwaukee
Washington
Los Angeles L
Minnesota
Boston
Dallas
Phoenix

I'm not sure what a hard cap would do to that.  I mean is the goal for a team like the Warriors to lose their young players to free agency.  So they can't re-sign Jordan Poole.  Or a team like Milwaukee in a small market to not be able to acquire someone like Jrue Holiday.  No Brogdon trade for Boston.  No Gobert trade for Minnesota.  Sorry Dallas, you can't build a winning team around Luka.  Phoenix we know you just went to the NBA Finals, but you can't re-sign Chris Paul, tough luck. 

The next 5 teams are Cleveland, Denver, Philly, Toronto, and Portland.

Hard cap is just a bad idea in a sport like this.

Unless the hard cap is sufficiently high to allow those things to happen, which, knowing the owners, wouldn't happen.

Sure, but then what is the point if it is that high?  I mean the increasing luxury tax payments will work the same purpose.

I imagine some owners’ goals are (1) reduce upward pressure on salaries, and (2) help teams that spend less to compete.  They never want anybody into the repeater tax - including, if they should ever luck into a contender, their team.

The luxury tax works fine for #1.  As for 2, you need to spend a ton or just be really really good at drafting players to compete without spending money, except in those fluke years with a major cap jump. 

The system works just fine and as is intended and any system in which the Bucks wouldn't exist is just bad.