unfair competition and 'insider trading' in the NBA is a problem

[Ogaju]

the stock market has rules against insider trading and the lawyers here know how liberal the definition of 'insider' is. One case found that a janitor who traded on trash with non-public information about his company was an 'insider' yet the NBA allows superstar players to act as proxy for teams to recruit players under contract with other teams. This is unfair competition and the NBA needs to outlaw players tampering with other players while they are still under contract with other teams or players conspiring with each other to form super teams. Healthy fines followed by suspensions should restore order. Adam Silver needs to confront this problem.

The Lakers have been taken over by James and their silly fans cannot even see that it is all about him and not the Lakers. He will probably leave that team worse of than when he got there but knowing the reality with the Lakers they will just attract Zion after he plays out his rookie deal.

The myopic Laker fans are just ecstatic they are getting a big three without seeing the small window they have to win with LeBron.

[Celtics4ever]

The Lakers have been taken over by James and their silly fans cannot even see that it is all about him and not the Lakers. He will probably leave that team worse of than when he got there but knowing the reality with the Lakers they will just attract Zion after he plays out his rookie deal.

I think Rich Paul is the mastermind here.   LeBron often demands dumb trades that cripple his team, in the past.   The sad thing is he is going to have a legacy as a guy who had to make superteams to win.

[Moranis]

It's a problem for the Lakers but not the Celtics who apparently have already locked up Walker.  You can't have it both ways.

[seancally]

Gonna be really hard not to have guys texting each other about whatever they want.

[Banner18now!]

Something needs to be done but there is no way to control players talking to each other. It would have to be more on the agent who comes out and says there is no way his players is going to play for anyone but one team. Agents shouldn’t dictate anything while their player is under contract. The fact that Rich Paul is Lebrons boy makes this even worse. How fitting it was that AD only wanted to play for the Lakers with Lebron. To me Lebron James is a joke. How many times can a player stack the deck for them to win and yet he has only 3 rings. To me his career is tarnished with garbage he pulls with his agent. I also highly doubt Adam Silver will do anything he panders to the agents and players which is ruining this league.

[arctic 3.0]

Won’t end the practice but swapping the timing of free agency and the draft would help curb the excesses

[RMO]

Did something happen overnight? 

[CelticSooner]

Everybody tampers that doesn’t really bother me. Now having an agency with this much power in the league certainly does. Owners have got to swing the pendulum back some with the next CBA.

[coco]

Lakers GM; the easiest job in the NBA.

You just sit and pick from a pool of free agents dying to move to LA

No persuasive skills required

[Wretch]

NASCAR used to have a rule  and I think it's still in place, that limited  the number of race teams a single owner could run. It stops 2 or 3 team owners from taking over the decision making of NASCAR.  What if the NBA and the Players Association limited the number of players an agent could represent and still be certified .

It wouldn't solve all of the issues that currently exist the OP describes.

One of the issues I have with the AD/Lakers/Lebron  stuff is I don't think Rich Paul is really looking out for ADs interest. This to me as an attempt  to solidify LJs legacy more than look  out for ADs long term interests and his potential legacy.

Limiting how many clients and agent can work for would minimize  potential agent conflicts of interest.

[MichiganAdam]

just make a rule that you can't have more than 2 players over 20% of the cap and no more than 4 making more than 15% of the cap.  Force teams to stop hoarding.  Could also simply hard cap a team after a certain percentage over the cap, like 150%.  Let them work like the NFL except with guaranteed contracts.  There is another thought.  What about if you have more than 2 "max" players that player is forced to have 1 year deals so the risk tothe player and team for assembling the team is high.  Trage picks for 1 year of the player becomes very risky.

[tazzmaniac]

Lakers GM; the easiest job in the NBA.

You just sit and pick from a pool of free agents dying to move to LA

No persuasive skills required

Except that they've missed out on a lot of top free agents over the last six or so years.  Lebron is the only one they've gotten so far. 

[tazzmaniac]

just make a rule that you can't have more than 2 players over 20% of the cap and no more than 4 making more than 15% of the cap.  Force teams to stop hoarding.  Could also simply hard cap a team after a certain percentage over the cap, like 150%.  Let them work like the NFL except with guaranteed contracts.  There is another thought.  What about if you have more than 2 "max" players that player is forced to have 1 year deals so the risk tothe player and team for assembling the team is high.  Trage picks for 1 year of the player becomes very risky.

The players association isn't going to agree to these restrictions and the teams wouldn't either. 

[RMO]

Did something happen overnight?

All I see is that Kawhi is meeting with the Lakers (one of a few and this was always expected) and that Lakers think they have a better chance to get him than the clippers if he leaves Toronto.  Did I miss something?  Everyone is acting like it's done.

[dreamgreen]

The NBA needs a much better salary cap structure than it currently has. If they can fix that I think it will solve the bulk of those problems because they simply wont matter haha.