CBA wish-list

[ballin]

I want a hard cap.

Why? Because I believe it would lead to much greater parity if teams *cough* Lakers *cough* couldn't spend their way to victory year after year. Greater parity = more fun.

Also, it would give small-market teams a fair chance at winning a ring. Just doesn't feel right to exploit teams who can't afford to spend over the cap, and thus have zero realistic chance at even competing for a ring.

Did I mention that seats would probably be cheaper


What about you guys? What's on your wish-list for the new CBA?

[PosImpos]

Franchise tags.

It shouldn't be possible for small market teams to get totally screwed over by their star players the way the Cavs, Raptors, and Suns were screwed this summer, and the way the Nuggets are about to be screwed.

I feel for talented players who are stuck on poorly managed, financially insolvent teams, but it makes very little sense for small market teams to draft and develop high-quality players only to have those players flee to the big market teams as soon as their rookie contracts are up.  

At the very least, the big market teams should be forced to give up considerable assets either in the form of players or draft picks in order to acquire big name players through free agency.

I understand that adding franchise tags will make it more difficult for organizations to assemble ultra-exciting, star-studded super teams, but I think it's better for the overall competitive balance of the league. 

I would much rather an organization be forced to gradually put together a great team through smart drafting and solid player development (e.g. Spurs, Thunder, Blazers). 

When an organization can build a superteam via free agency by simply offering an exciting location and heaps of cash, it cheapens the effort of every other team in the league that doesn't have the luxury of being able to do the same.

[LooseCannon]

Did I mention that seats would probably be cheaper

I'm pretty sure this never happens.

I don't really like a hard cap and I think franchise tags don't make sense due to the number of players on a roster.

Assuming a soft cap with similarities to what we currently have, I would like a cap on the number of years you can offer for the MLE or similar exemptions that might be available.  If you are over the cap, you can only sign a guy for a two- or three-year contract.  Also, a cap and luxury tax on salary commitments beyond the current year.  If you have more salary committed for the season two years from now than what the salary cap is for this season, then you should get dinged for it.  (I think the Lakers and the Magic have the most money committed to 2012/2013.) 

And I'd like to see disclosure and caps on executive compensation.  I wonder how much some of these team owners pay themselves.

[wdleehi]

1) Hard cap. 

2) No max deals limit.  No year limit

3) No guarantee contracts.  Only guarantee signing bonuses

4) No more NBA lottery.

5) High minimal age. 




Basically, I want to see the NFL model.  Teams have more flexibility to improve.  Lazy guys do not get to sit on their contracts as much.  More time for players to develop and teams to scout.


Then steal something from MLB/NHL.  A true minor league system.  Add a third round to the draft.  At this point, younger guys can be drafted, but they can not play on the big team until they reach the age requirement.  At the draft that player would reach the age requirement, another team can choose to draft him, in which case the original team can either let him go for the other teams 3rd round pick or can keep him and pay him the rookie contract of that spot.  The team that tried to draft him is give a 2nd round pick the following year to make up for the lost 1st. 



Basically, I want the NBA teams to be able to put the best teams on the floor. 

[Chris]

1) No lockout
2) No lockout
3) No lockout

Honestly, I don't care that much about the CBA, because no matter how they do it, it will still come down to which teams know how to work within the system and which ones don't.  But I don't want to miss any part of next season.

[GreenEnvy]

My only real wish is they have a season next year. A shortened one is acceptable a la 1999.

While the NBA is not perfect, no league is. The NFL, the "golden" league, made changes this season heading into a lockout.

We are talking about millionaires vs billionaires, so nobody really "loses."


A hard cap is gonna be hard to pass with some teams having so much money obligated over the next 5 seasons to certain players.

If you get rid of max deals, get ready for crazy bidding wars (like baseball). The small market is already struggling in this league, and you wanna see the Knicks/Lakers roll out the red carpet for Durant or CP3?

The lottery is DEFINITELY something that needs a tweaking.

Two years in college would be nice, or none at all.

Let's hope we have a championship to celebrate before we face the reality of a lockout.

[Roy H.]

Hmm...  Previously, I had been in favor of a hard cap, but I've changed my mind.  Random ideas that I haven't fully thought through:

1.  Maximum contract length of 4 years, with a max of 2.5 years guaranteed.

2.  Waived players are paid 100% of guaranteed money owed, but only count 50% against the salary cap.

3.  The basic salary cap / luxury tax structure remains the same.  Teams that exceed the luxury tax by up to $8 million pay the same dollar-for-dollar penalty as now.  Between $8 million and $16 million it would be a $2-for-$1 penalty, and $3-for-$1 on amounts $16+ million.

4.  If you sign another team's free agent to within 20% of a max contract, you owe that team your #1 pick in that year's draft.  If you have two #1 picks, you owe the team the better of your picks.  If you don't have a #1 pick, you can't sign a free agent to a near-max deal until you acquire one.  (This one could be tweaked.)

5.  No more Base Year Compensation rules. 

6.  If you sign-and-trade somebody, the player's contract needs to be guaranteed for at least two years (to minimize future Keith Van Horn situations).

7.  If a team trades a guy, they can't sign him as a free agent or claim him off waivers until the next season.  Current rules say you can't trade for a guy you've traded away; why should you be able to pick him up after he has agreed to a buyout?

8.  If a player under contract dies, the team is awarded a compensatory draft pick (probably around #20 in the draft) and all owed money is cleared from the cap immediately.

9.  The Bi-Annual Exception is allowed to be used annually.

10.  Teams can exercise a "right of first refusal" for a free agent once every three years.  This cannot be used on the same player more than once.

[wdleehi]

My only real wish is they have a season next year. A shortened one is acceptable a la 1999.

While the NBA is not perfect, no league is. The NFL, the "golden" league, made changes this season heading into a lockout.

We are talking about millionaires vs billionaires, so nobody really "loses."


A hard cap is gonna be hard to pass with some teams having so much money obligated over the next 5 seasons to certain players.

If you get rid of max deals, get ready for crazy bidding wars (like baseball). The small market is already struggling in this league, and you wanna see the Knicks/Lakers roll out the red carpet for Durant or CP3?

The lottery is DEFINITELY something that needs a tweaking.

Two years in college would be nice, or none at all.

Let's hope we have a championship to celebrate before we face the reality of a lockout.

No Max deals and a hard cap prevents teams in LA and NY to overbid vs a smaller market team.  All teams would have the same cap.  A team that over bids just gives themselves less money to use on the plays they have now.



As for team over the new "hard cap", they are given two choices. 

1) they can waive players to get under the cap, but still owe money to those players.  (can be given as one large lump sum)

2)  They can stay over the cap and pay a luxury tax.  Until they get under the cap, they can only give out minimal contracts to fill out rosters and rookie contracts.  The tax money goes into the money sharing. 

[greenpride32]

I'd like to see better flexibity in trades.  The salaries having to match within such a small window prohibits too many deals from happening.  

It would be nice to have non-guaranteed contracts as well, but this is something I don't see the player's association willing to concede on.

[pearljammer10]

I like the idea of no guaranteed contracts just guaranteed signing bonus. Possibly it will eliminate the Bobby Simmons's of the NBA world.

Also, make the draft limit four years of college. The league gets a bad rap about being uneducated and unknowledgeable and you wonder why. The kids should be going to school four years and being turned into scholar athletes. It would help the NBA game and it would also greatly help out the college game. No longer will University's suffer from the Durant and Oden's that hype up their schools for a year only to see the entire program come crashing down.

I like the idea of the Bi-Annual exception turning into the Annual exception.



And to address the OP... Hard cap so teams like "cough Lakers cough" cant buy their way to victory....Um, what about a team like the cough Celtics cough" who are not very far behind lakers. Only about 8 million...

Teams like the Rockets (7th highest payroll at 74.5 mil) or the Sixers ( 9th in payroll at a little under 70mil) still arent that great and have not "bought" their ways to victory... While a team like the Bulls (26th in payroll at 56 mil) are the third best team in the East and a legit playoff contender. So I don't think its all about "buying" your way to victory as much as it is creating a solid system and developing the right type of players to play in that system.

[mgent]

Nothing to do with it but I think the players should demand new refs.

[Chris]

Nothing to do with it but I think the players should demand new refs.

Thats obviously not happening, but I would not be surprised to see them push for something that puts a player rep or something on a committee dealing with fines (which includes technicals). 

The Players Association had a big problem with the stricter rules the league put in this year for technicals, mainly because of the fines that come with T's, so I imagine they will want a way to make sure refs are not able to let their bias cost the players cash. 

[Fan from VT]

I've played with this idea before, but here's one interesting tweak I like:

Mutually buy-outable contracts. Something like at any time, either party can pay 25% of the remaining total salary and the contract is completely wiped off the books.

For example...

A. Stupid, overzealous owner/GM signs Player X for 5 years, 100 million. After year 1, realizes it's a major mistake. There are 4 years, 80 million remaining, so the team can pay a lump sum of 20 million to Player X, and BOOM. Off the cap. Player X is a free agent; renegotiations possible to reach fair, mutually beneficial agreement. The team saves 60 million overall and have cap flexibility for that year.

B. Player is off his rookie contract and signs 5 year, 20 million dollar extension. Starter ahead of him gets injured, he steps into the lineup, does great. So he's got 4 years, 16 million left. He can pay 4 million to the team to void his contract and become a free agent. May renegotiate with same team to reach fair agreement.


Basically, it seems astonishingly unfair to have the owners be able to get rid of future salary obligations for overpaid players while underpaid players would have to fulfill such obligations. I think some type of the above scenario would help trend the league toward fair-value contracts, and only greatly over/underpaid players would have incentive to void contracts. Helps balance flexibility and crippling contract problems with continuity.

[LooseCannon]

2.  Waived players are paid 100% of guaranteed money owed, but only count 50% against the salary cap.

This is a bad idea.  It basically makes the salary cap higher and favors owners with deep pockets who are willing to dip well into luxury tax territory.

4.  If you sign another team's free agent to within 20% of a max contract, you owe that team your #1 pick in that year's draft.  If you have two #1 picks, you owe the team the better of your picks.  If you don't have a #1 pick, you can't sign a free agent to a near-max deal until you acquire one.  (This one could be tweaked.)

This would end up being a bigger penalty for bad teams which have higher draft picks.

5.  No more Base Year Compensation rules. 

Base year compensation rules exist to close off a loophole.  However, it seems both owners and players want to get rid of it, so you may get your wish.

9.  The Bi-Annual Exception is allowed to be used annually.

The players reportedly want to replace the biannual exception with a second MLE.  The owners reportedly want to get rid of the MLE.

Basically, the owners want to massively shift money from players to the owners pockets (they have proposed a 38% reduction in salary, an amount I find so ridiculous that I can't possibly be on the owners' side in this).  Unstated is what I believe is a strong desire to minimize revenue sharing that the owners understand is necessary on some level by getting the players to pay for it as much as possible.  The players, on the other hand, have mainly suggested modest salary decreases in exchange for more mobility for free agents.

I have a few more ideas.

Get rid of the age limit and allow players to enter the NBA straight out of high school again, but give teams additional years of those players being on the rookie scale or subject to restricted free agency.

Combine the MLE and biannual exception into one bigger exception of which no single player can receive more than 75%.

Contracts with a player ETO are also required to have a team ETO.

[Moranis]

I truly believe very little is needed in way of changes.  the NBA has by far the best and fairest system of the three major sports leagues in the U.S.