How would you change max contracts and/or bird rights??

[BitterJim]

Similar cap rules to what we have now (exceptions, minimum contracts, Bord Rights, etc.), but no max contracts.  A superstar like Lebron should be getting paid way more than a barely-max player like Al Horford, but the rules don't let that happen (and no, supermax contracts do not solve that).  If OKC wanted to sign KD for something like $35 million, they should have been able to.  Teams that manage the cap well and have lots of cap room, or draft/trade well to get the Bird Rights of superstars, should be rewarded by being able to offer them whatever they want.  Luxury tax would still be a thing, so teams would still need to be careful, but there would be way fewer super teams if guys like Lebron and Durant had to give up legitimate amounts of money (like $10 million or $20 million a year instead of a few million over 4 years)

Of course, this will never happen, because it takes money directly from 90% of NBA players and gives it to superstars instead. A lesser version of this would be to keep maxes how they are and increase minimum/exception/rookie salaries significantly, making a team with a few maxes and then all traditionally cheap contracts more expensive, but that would just move money from the "middle class" of NBA players to the lower end, which is similarly unlikely to happen.

Dang it, now I'm stuck thinking about this

Maybe a somewhat significant penalty (think, say, $15 million/year) that teams have to pay (similar to luxury tax) on all max or near-max contracts? The money would be split among all other teams (like how luxury tax is paid to all non-tax paying teams), so a team with one max wouldn't be in bad shape (assuming that there are ~30 maxes or near-maxes out there at any one time)

And to determine when the penalty applies, make max contract offers similar to offer sheets in RFA: any team with space to do so can submit a max offer to any player, and doing so means that any team that signs the player will need to pay the penalty.  However, the team making the offer can't withdraw it (or make cap moves to make them ineligible to sign the player - again similar the RFS), but instead must wait until the player signs to use the space.  And to avoid a team with tons of cap space (like Phili or Brooklyn) using the rule to mess with good teams by offering maxes to random players, these max offers would be binding - if they wish, the player receiving the offer can sign it, and the team that offered it would owe both a max contract and the penalty.

Essentially, the idea is to make putting together multiple max (or max-talent) players harder on your team without actually changing the way money is distributed among players.  There's a definite downside, though, where teams without any max players could make decent money by staying that way (possible giving incentive towards tanking)

[Green-18]

Let's throw away the CBA for this discussion because most of our ideas are probably unrealistic for the players association to accept.  However, I am interested in hearing how people would change salary cap rules in order to maintain a better competitive balance.  My new stipulations are listed below.  Super Max contract wouldn't exist under these rules.  I am sure that there are glaring flaws in my new rules.

1.  No team can go above the salary cap for more than one max player.  There are two specific exceptions.

    a. There are no limitations to max deals if all players were drafted by their original team (Golden State would have been able to keep their original core together)

    b. Bird rights still exist for all players on a team unless that team decides to sign an outside max contract free agent.  The decision to sign an outside free agent will result in a team only being allowed to sign one more max deal within their existing core.  Once the outside free agent has reached year 3 of the contract then rule will reset itself.

I'm sure I didn't write this very well so I will give some examples of how the new rules could affect current teams.

Golden State - They could have kept the original core together before the Durant signing.  After signing KD they can only give max money to one player within the original core.  The new rules would have removed Golden State from the Durant equation.

Cleveland - For arguments sake I am pretending these rules existed during the year LeBron went back to Cleveland.  The Cavs could have still maxed out Kyrie but the Kevin Love trade wouldn't have been able to work.  They would have needed to keep their draft pick and take Wiggins.  The good news for Cleveland is that they could max out Wiggins now because LeBron would have reached his 3rd year with the Cavs. 

Boston Celtics - The Celtics could have signed Horford and still made a run at Hayward because they would be under the cap.  However, the decision to sign both would result in IT losing his Bird Rights.  This most likely result in us only signing one max deal.

I am interested to hear everyone's ideas.  The only problem I am having is in regards to rules for non-max free agents.  A perfect example is a guy like Tristan Thompson.  He didn't sign a max deal with the Cavs so I'm not sure how the LeBron signing would affect the Cavs ability to still resign him.

Couldn't teams get around this by paying guys less than a max contract (say, $1 or $100k under)? Or would teams with more than 1 max be prohibited from using cap space to sign anyone (and instead be forced to use exceptions, like teams over the cap are now)?

This is the hardest part to determine.  I haven't figured out the best way to handle this but I'm sure there's a couple things that could be done.  Looking at the current salary cap I could see a max of only $15-20 million per year for a Bird Rights player if you already have more than one max.  I think that this would allow a player like Avery Bradley to consider staying in Boston without taking a ridiculous discount.  At the same time a legitimate max player would need to turn down 13+ million per year.   

[JBcat]

I like most of the rules, but I think we can take a page out of baseball for compensation picks.

Something like if your team loses a max player to another team, his former team is awarded 2 first round picks.  If the team losing the player is making say at least the average salary hos former team is awarded a first round pick. Maybe even go further anything less than the average salary his former team is awarded a second round pick.

It can help keep competitive balance in place without changing all the rules.

An example would be the Thunder receiving the Warriors first round pick last year, and next year.