Did Durant just ensure there will be a lockout?

[LooseCannon]

The players should ask for 55%, settle for 53%, and get an increase in minimum salaries plus changing the MLE.

[nickagneta]

The players should ask for 55%, settle for 53%, and get an increase in minimum salaries plus changing the MLE.

I agree but my guess is this will be a lockout which means it will be the owners looking for a reduction of the BRI% once again.

[Kuberski33]

You need a system that gives the weaker teams fans hope.  Right now it takes way too long and requires too much luck for a team to get real good plus tanking is a viable option as high draft picks matter. 

Only way around it is to have even more player movement than we're currently seeing.  But how you accomplish that, I'm not sure. 

Either that or you do something to introduce more luck into what happens in the post season - i.e  maybe you add playoff teams but have first round be best of 3 and everything else best of 5.

[celticsclay]

You need a system that gives the weaker teams fans hope.  Right now it takes way too long and requires too much luck for a team to get real good plus tanking is a viable option as high draft picks matter. 

Only way around it is to have even more player movement than we're currently seeing.  But how you accomplish that, I'm not sure. 

Either that or you do something to introduce more luck into what happens in the post season - i.e  maybe you add playoff teams but have first round be best of 3 and everything else best of 5.

There really has to be an elimination of super teams. It is as simple as that. How much more exciting would the league be if each team had no more than all-stars. Obviously there is no way to do that, but has to be some sort of system between that and what we have now.

[MasterEmile]

You need a system that gives the weaker teams fans hope.  Right now it takes way too long and requires too much luck for a team to get real good plus tanking is a viable option as high draft picks matter. 

Only way around it is to have even more player movement than we're currently seeing.  But how you accomplish that, I'm not sure. 

Either that or you do something to introduce more luck into what happens in the post season - i.e  maybe you add playoff teams but have first round be best of 3 and everything else best of 5.

There really has to be an elimination of super teams. It is as simple as that. How much more exciting would the league be if each team had no more than all-stars. Obviously there is no way to do that, but has to be some sort of system between that and what we have now.

1 max contract per team ?

[celticsclay]

You need a system that gives the weaker teams fans hope.  Right now it takes way too long and requires too much luck for a team to get real good plus tanking is a viable option as high draft picks matter. 

Only way around it is to have even more player movement than we're currently seeing.  But how you accomplish that, I'm not sure. 

Either that or you do something to introduce more luck into what happens in the post season - i.e  maybe you add playoff teams but have first round be best of 3 and everything else best of 5.

There really has to be an elimination of super teams. It is as simple as that. How much more exciting would the league be if each team had no more than all-stars. Obviously there is no way to do that, but has to be some sort of system between that and what we have now.

1 max contract per team ?

I guess unless there are bird rights. I do think if a team drafts 3 superstars like the Warriors did they should be able to resign all 3. However, I think under no circumstance with those 3 max players should they be able to sign a 4th max player that could get 40 million from another team in a free market.

[celticsclay]

You know it is bad when Barkley is the voice of reason on something. Here are his thoughts:

"We're gonna have guys on bad teams making $25 million a year. And we're going to have three or four competitive teams," Barkley said. "That's the negative of LeBron going to Miami, KD going to Golden State.

"First of all the fans love their teams, they love sports. But they're not going to go see Sacramento, Indiana, Miami, these bad teams where guys are making 10, 20, 30 million dollars a year and they don't have a chance to compete. I mean, that's where we're going. We're going to kill the golden goose. Everybody's going to be making a lot of money, but other than five teams we're going to be putting a shabby product out there. That's what's going to kill the NBA in the next few years in my opinion."

[Fan from VT]

There will probably be a lockout, but im not sure Durant is the cause or just the most recent symptom. Plenty of blame to go around:

Fans: we created the culture of championships = everything. It wasnt always this way. It used to be possible to think a player was one of the greatest of all time and appreciate how good they are even if they didnt win a title. But if we as fans are going to place emphasis on titles as the key of legacy, and be very extreme about legacy, players are going to try to win titles.

Owners: their side is more powerful than the players side. At every cba they just want to maximize and ensure profits over everything else; this is their system.

Players: obviously, they are the ones makinf the FA decisions. And they didnt want to go for smoothing out the salary cap jump, which made this summer of the 73 win team creating max capspace possible. And rightly so; players should take the money when they can, because any delay in taking money increases the chances of the owners renegotiating to never give it at all. The owners could have thought ahead and preempted the cap jump with larger cap imcreases the last few years in anticipation, but they didnt want to sacrifice some short term profit for better long term product.

[action781]

I'm not convinced GSW will dominate the NBA for the next 7 years.  Curry getting a max deal next offseason (and he's not taking less after this bargain contract he will have just finished) is going to make it really difficult to eventually resign Durant since they won't have his bird rights to go over the cap.

They will resign him under the non-bird exception which is 120% of his current salary at 4.5% raises for up to 4 years.

The salary cap will not rise enough for 120% of this years max to not be next years max.

TP, thanks for pointing that out.

[LGC88]

The NBA needs to balance things out.
Basketball is a team game, but in nba, it's all about individual stars and the amount of rings.
Soon the identity of teams will be gone. Right now, a team is hijack by one or few players to contend for title. Team like Spurs, Celtics are the last 2 stable franchise where they have 100% control and players have about 0%.

In order to balance things out and incorporate team play, influence of coaching, chemistry, good organization, smart FO strategy, skill scouting, here is my proposal :
- Make the 30 GMs to vote each year for their top 15 players.
- Each year those top 15 players can't play together or join each another via trade or FA.
- If 2 or more players become top 15 via natural progression in the same team, you have the right to keep them.
- A Free agent who want to change scenery, have to go to one of the 15 teams without a top player. So he has to earn his success by carying the new team.

This will reward team that work on chemistry, coaching, FO building and trading strategy and scouting.
Superteam can still be done but you need to own it by being good at everything. For instance trade for a player you predict will become a top15 players, or scout well and draft the right player, develop players better than others, etc.

edit: and I would like also to set the minimum age at 22 for college player that declare for the draft.

Do you see any downside ?

[nickagneta]

The NBA needs to balance things out.
Basketball is a team game, but in nba, it's all about individual stars and the amount of rings.
Soon the identity of teams will be gone. Right now, a team is hijack by one or few players to contend for title. Team like Spurs, Celtics are the last 2 stable franchise where they have 100% control and players have about 0%.

In order to balance things out and incorporate team play, influence of coaching, chemistry, good organization, smart FO strategy, skill scouting, here is my proposal :
- Make the 30 GMs to vote each year for their top 15 players.
- Each year those top 15 players can't play together or join each another via trade or FA.
- If 2 or more players become top 15 via natural progression in the same team, you have the right to keep them.
- A Free agent who want to change scenery, have to go to one of the 15 teams without a top player. So he has to earn his success by carying the new team.

This will reward team that work on chemistry, coaching, FO building and trading strategy and scouting.
Superteam can still be done but you need to own it by being good at everything. For instance trade for a player you predict will become a top15 players, or scout well and draft the right player, develop players better than others, etc.

edit: and I would like also to set the minimum age at 22 for college player that declare for the draft.

Do you see any downside ?

Yes. The players would never go for it. When players hit free agency they want to have the ability to sign wherever they want to sign at whatever price they want to sign at. The majority of the players who will have a hard time with Durant going to GSW will be the ones that can't believe that Durant just signed on with the team that just beat him in the WCF. Otherwise, I am sure they are happy for him to get his big contract.

Listen, most sports are most popular when there isn't parity. If a sport has a couple of super teams that have to Duke it our for a title every year for 3-4 years, fans eat that up. Television ratings go through the roof during those times. NBA was hugely popular in the 80's during the Boston/LA super team era. The NFL always seems to have their best ratings during dynasty years where the superteam has a regular nemesis that is just as good. Example: the Pats dynasty versus Peyton Manning teams. Baseball was most popular when the Yankees and Red Sox had super teams in the early 2000's.

Superteams mean ratings because it brings in the casual fan  specifically because they can get to know and get familiar with the players on those teams. They will see them every week on national television and get to see at least two to three time a year where they play each other during the regular season and then see them fight it out during the most exciting time of the season, the playoffs or the championship.

You can guarantee that a GSW/Cleveland game on national tv and the GSW/Cleveland Finals are going to draw giant ratings. Why? Superteams duking it out for another ring for the third year in a row with the best players on the planet on those teams.