Bad for the NBA! (Brooklyn Nets)

[Chris.J]

Wow.

Sorry but how you win is very important too - not sure how that can be argued any other way.

[Chris.J]

Its bad for the NBA and it scares me. I do not want other Gazillionires to start making the NBA their own personal Playground as well.

What are doing asian multimillionars  in europian soccer?

lol - what?

[eugen]

Yeah, the Nets aren't circumventing the CBA at all. In fact, I'd argue that they aren't even going against the spirit of the CBA, which was always about profits over parity.

No it wasn't! Tell the small market owners that pushed like crazy to put really punitive actions against continual Luxury Tax violators. Tell that to all the max free agents out there who are now having to sign 12 million dollar contracts instead of 30 Million Dollar contracts (Kobe). Of course the new CBA is about Parity. it is clear most teams are being very cautious about it.

There is nothing wrong to have owners form Asia. In fact they are victims of surreal money situiation here. The problem is that some players are super-overpaid like Koby&Co. So, the NBA have to put limits on salaries in order to avoid crazy money action. Do not forget we have people working hard and being happy if they get 25-30,000/year

[indeedproceed]

The Nets are better but they are still not good enough to win the whole thing. He is spending a ton of money that will be getting him nowhere but EFC at best. In a few years they are going to be lousy.

Am I missing something? - They definitely have a legit shot this year. I mean with the kirilenko signing they are a top 4 or 5 team period. The bench is beter then Miami's. The starting five is the best in the league.

Am I missing something? Did LeBron James or any other top-10 player join the Nets when I wasn't paying attention?

[Chris.J]

The Nets are better but they are still not good enough to win the whole thing. He is spending a ton of money that will be getting him nowhere but EFC at best. In a few years they are going to be lousy.

Am I missing something? - They definitely have a legit shot this year. I mean with the kirilenko signing they are a top 4 or 5 team period. The bench is beter then Miami's. The starting five is the best in the league.

Am I missing something? Did LeBron James or any other top-10 player join the Nets when I wasn't paying attention?

Do you not agree that that is one of the best starting fives in the league? Do you not agree that the reason they are able to have such a starting five is because they are able to go beyond the CBA to a point that almost all the other teams can't follow?  I mean how can anyone say they are not legit contenders for a title this year? How did they do this? Look at the starting fives salaries and tell me honestly that any other team in the league could do this?

[BudweiserCeltic]

The Nets are better but they are still not good enough to win the whole thing. He is spending a ton of money that will be getting him nowhere but EFC at best. In a few years they are going to be lousy.

Am I missing something? - They definitely have a legit shot this year. I mean with the kirilenko signing they are a top 4 or 5 team period. The bench is beter then Miami's. The starting five is the best in the league.

Am I missing something? Did LeBron James or any other top-10 player join the Nets when I wasn't paying attention?

Do you not agree that that is one of the best starting fives in the league? Do you not agree that the reason they are able to have such a starting five is because they are able to go beyond the CBA to a point that almost all the other teams can't follow?  I mean how can anyone say they are not legit contenders for a title this year? How did they do this? Look at the starting fives salaries and tell me honestly that any other team in the league could do this?

They made trades and sacrificed their future. No one else is willing to do that. And if it doesn't pan out, they could be screwed for a long while, and having all the money in the world is not going to make a lick of difference.

[eugen]

They made trades and sacrificed their future. No one else is willing to do that.

They made trades and sacrificed their "future" like mr Kardashian for example...

[GreenEnvy]

The Nets are better but they are still not good enough to win the whole thing. He is spending a ton of money that will be getting him nowhere but EFC at best. In a few years they are going to be lousy.

Am I missing something? - They definitely have a legit shot this year. I mean with the kirilenko signing they are a top 4 or 5 team period. The bench is beter then Miami's. The starting five is the best in the league.

Am I missing something? Did LeBron James or any other top-10 player join the Nets when I wasn't paying attention?

The Spurs nearly (should have?) won without LeBron or a top-10 player.

The Pistons in 2004 is the model. They beat a team with 2-3 players on the Lakers better than anyone on their team. I can see a lot of similarities between them and the Nets.

KG even now is still probably as good a defender as B. Wallace was then, and his offense is light years ahead of his compared to the difference in rebounding.

Lopez can play Rasheed's role. Although not the post player  Rasheed was, he has the potential to improve on both ends after already becoming an All-Star.

Pierce at 45 years old is a more complete player than Prince ever was.

Joe Johnson is much more versatile than Hamilton.

Deron is much more explosive than Billups.

Their bench is deeper.

They just need Kidd to step up.


The Pistons defeated a "superteam" with a team-first mentality. The Nets have even better personnel to do the same, IMO.

[Chris.J]

The Nets are better but they are still not good enough to win the whole thing. He is spending a ton of money that will be getting him nowhere but EFC at best. In a few years they are going to be lousy.

Am I missing something? - They definitely have a legit shot this year. I mean with the kirilenko signing they are a top 4 or 5 team period. The bench is beter then Miami's. The starting five is the best in the league.

Am I missing something? Did LeBron James or any other top-10 player join the Nets when I wasn't paying attention?

Do you not agree that that is one of the best starting fives in the league? Do you not agree that the reason they are able to have such a starting five is because they are able to go beyond the CBA to a point that almost all the other teams can't follow?  I mean how can anyone say they are not legit contenders for a title this year? How did they do this? Look at the starting fives salaries and tell me honestly that any other team in the league could do this?

They made trades and sacrificed their future. No one else is willing to do that. And if it doesn't pan out, they could be screwed for a long while, and having all the money in the world is not going to make a lick of difference.

Do you know that for sure? If a team is able to take on a Joe Johnson Contract and not think twice about. If a team is able to MASSIVELY outspend the rest of their competitors. How can you say that they will be screwed for a long while? You could just as equally say the opposite draft picks or no draft picks. 

[mmmmm]

And at some point, the Nets will end up in the position that the Lakers are now.

This is not like the LA Lakers - they still have spending limits. I am talking about the CBA being powerless against this guy. I don't like it and I feel he is basically saying $@%@%@ You to the rest of the league. 

They have a legit shot at winning the Championship and that after paying Joe Johnson CRAZY money. They should not be able to do that. 99 percent of the league if they have Joe Johnson's contract on the books would not be able to put forth a championship team.

The CBA is not 'powerless against this guy'.

He can't spend past certain limits.   Once he's above the luxury tax apron he can only use the lesser MLE and vet minimum contracts to sign free agents.  And any trade has to bring back the same or _less_ salary.

It doesn't matter how much he might _want_ to spend.  Ultimately, he will get stuck against these limits.

The Nets will hit a wall in 2 years when 3 players are scheduled to make 62M - which by itself will likely be over the soft cap.   They will be faced with whether to extend Lopez (who will have a player option) or -- more likely -- to trade him in an S&T in order to reacquire some assets (since they traded away all their draft picks).    The chances that they find someone to take on Joe Johnson's giant, expiring contract in that year is not zero, but probably close to it.

[mmmmm]

Yeah, the Nets aren't circumventing the CBA at all. In fact, I'd argue that they aren't even going against the spirit of the CBA, which was always about profits over parity.

No it wasn't! Tell the small market owners that pushed like crazy to put really punitive actions against continual Luxury Tax violators. Tell that to all the max free agents out there who are now having to sign 12 million dollar contracts instead of 30 Million Dollar contracts (Kobe). Of course the new CBA is about Parity. it is clear most teams are being very cautious about it.

Um .. for every bit of salary that Prokhorov spends over the luxury tax limit, he has to pay a boat load of luxury tax money.

Do you know who gets shares of the money?   The 'small market teams' who are not tax payers.

They don't mind getting those checks at all.

[indeedproceed]

The Nets are better but they are still not good enough to win the whole thing. He is spending a ton of money that will be getting him nowhere but EFC at best. In a few years they are going to be lousy.

Am I missing something? - They definitely have a legit shot this year. I mean with the kirilenko signing they are a top 4 or 5 team period. The bench is beter then Miami's. The starting five is the best in the league.

Am I missing something? Did LeBron James or any other top-10 player join the Nets when I wasn't paying attention?

Do you not agree that that is one of the best starting fives in the league? Do you not agree that the reason they are able to have such a starting five is because they are able to go beyond the CBA to a point that almost all the other teams can't follow?  I mean how can anyone say they are not legit contenders for a title this year? How did they do this? Look at the starting fives salaries and tell me honestly that any other team in the league could do this?

I think its a very good starting 5. Does it take them into a guaranteed top-3 seed? Nope. Not with Pierce/Garnett/Johnson's aging and deteriorating games, and Brook Lopez's injury concerns. Is Prokorhov going to not have to pay out the money somehow? Nope...he's gonna have to.

And if it doesn't work, will NJ be absurdly screwed well into the re-election campaign of the next president? Yup. Without question.

Also, you might want to read this:

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/61220/luxury-tax-good-days-coming-end

Master P is going to be paying out well over $100 million dollars in tax payments alone next year.

Rocky IV was the best movie about America defeating Russia through sports (this is not debatable). David Stern, through mundane bureaucracy has secured 100 million from a russian interloper to be reinvested back into my favorite sport to watch.

David Stern>Rocky?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzDDJm27vmc

[Rhyso]

No I'll tell you what's bad for the NBA, LeBron + Wade + Bosh teaming up via Free Agency and Miami gave away squat to get them unlike our our Big 3 in 2008. Not only are they likely to 3-Peat, but it hasn't cost the franchise jack in terms of giving away assets *rant over*.

I don't see the big deal if owners want to spend their money within the rules and give it to other teams. Besides they are not a clear number 1 in the NBA yet anyway, so it's not unfair.

[kozlodoev]

Right, when an owner wants to spend an indiscriminate amount of money, it's bad for the NBA. But when players collude to play on the same team, that's the greatest thing evaH. Just ask ESPN.

[Chris.J]

And at some point, the Nets will end up in the position that the Lakers are now.

This is not like the LA Lakers - they still have spending limits. I am talking about the CBA being powerless against this guy. I don't like it and I feel he is basically saying $@%@%@ You to the rest of the league. 

They have a legit shot at winning the Championship and that after paying Joe Johnson CRAZY money. They should not be able to do that. 99 percent of the league if they have Joe Johnson's contract on the books would not be able to put forth a championship team.

The CBA is not 'powerless against this guy'.

He can't spend past certain limits.   Once he's above the luxury tax apron he can only use the lesser MLE and vet minimum contracts to sign free agents.  And any trade has to bring back the same or _less_ salary.

It doesn't matter how much he might _want_ to spend.  Ultimately, he will get stuck against these limits.

The Nets will hit a wall in 2 years when 3 players are scheduled to make 62M - which by itself will likely be over the soft cap.   They will be faced with whether to extend Lopez (who will have a player option) or -- more likely -- to trade him in an S&T in order to reacquire some assets (since they traded away all their draft picks).    The chances that they find someone to take on Joe Johnson's giant, expiring contract in that year is not zero, but probably close to it.

Well tell that to the Minnesota Timberwolves and the majority of other teams that the CBA is not being circumvented and that it is not being made powerless. Like I said above draft picks are great but they are not everything - look at the bobcats.

I know there are still rules that even he cannot break about the CBA. I am saying he is able to go beyond the CBA in a way most teams cannot.