Surely the NBA saw this coming, right?

[Ogaju]

I have written about this repeatedly and received pushback from the posters. Maybe now people will see what I mean.

It sucks when players violate the spirit of the cap by accepting less than they are worth to either go chase a ring, play with friends, or play in glamorous good weather cities. The NBA should either scrap the cap or assign fair market value to each player so that the player cannot accept less money to circumvent the salary cap. How you assign the fair market value of each player is open to discussion. You can have a select committee determine the range, or you can just leave it to the open market, but the bottom line is you cannot just have an individual player upset the competition in the league by accepting pittance to chase a ring.

What the Warriors are doing signing Puchilia for 2.9 million, now David West, maybe Ray Allen to little contracts is disgusting, but they did not start this trend. I  began to rail against this when it was egregiously done by Karl Malone and Gary Payton when they both accepted discounted contracts to go chase a ring with the stacked Laker team. They failed due to injury but the NBA should have done something after that.

[ederson]

Why not having an expansion-like draft every 2-3 years ? Reshuffle the talent ....

If i want to get less than my value, is and should be my choice.


As another poster said in anohter thread the league should be more concerned with tanking

[mr. dee]

Payton and Malone are on the twilight of their careers and far from the players they once were. Now if a 28 year old Jordan joined the Showtime Lakers or the Bird Celtics, it would be a different question.

[Ogaju]

Why not having an expansion-like draft every 2-3 years ? Reshuffle the talent ....

If i want to get less than my value, is and should be my choice.


As another poster said in anohter thread the league should be more concerned with tanking

Then there should be no rules, and the league should be left to the individual choices of the players. Teams should be free to offer LBJ 100 million a year. Why should their choice be restricted?

[Ogaju]

Payton and Malone are on the twilight of their careers and far from the players they once were. Now if a 28 year old Jordan joined the Showtime Lakers or the Bird Celtics, it would be a different question.

The point is they took less than they were still worth to circumvent cap rules. Rules should be enforced.

How do you like knowing the 2017 NBA champions in July 2016?

[crimson_stallion]

I honestly think that there is only one fair response to this - and it's not pretty, but it would work.

If the NBA is serious about giving every team a fair chance, they need to find a method to set a "agreed minimum market value" on players.

Here in Oz if you sell somebody a car, that person has to pay transfer of registration, which costs 3% of the vehicle purchase price.  To avoid dodgy deals (where people put down they were "gifted" the car to avoid paying transfer fees) the vehicle registry sets a fixed minimum market value on all vehicles.  You can list you sale price as being above the minimum value no problems, but if you list it as being too low they will ignore your claimed sell price and automatically put it down as market value.

I think the NBA needs to apply a similar concept.  Certain guys with certain levels of talent, will have a "minimum market value" attached to them based on production levels, age, etc.  Teams can pay above that minium amount to sign the player if they so choose, but cannot pay less then that value.

This way you could, for example, say that based on Evan Turner's production last year, he should have a minimum market value of say, the full mid level exception - or for argument's sake, 10% of the cap.  If this is the case, then no team can offer Turner a contract less then 10% of the cap - which, this year, would mean $9.4M per year. 

If this is the case, then star studded teams (like the Cavs and Warriors) who have less then $9M in cap space, would not be permitted to sign players of that caliber - they could only sign players who the NBA deems as having "veteran minimum" market value. 

Not sure how the NBA would determine these values in a way that would be fair...but it's the only method I can think of that would put a stop to these situations. 

It would force teams to make very careful decisions about how they balance their rosters - if they fill it with 3 or 4 stars then they may not be able to build a competitive support group around them...and may risk getting beaten by a team that has maybe two stars, but a deep and solid group of support players.

Another benefit of this I guess, is that it gives players more opportunity.  Young and unproven 'min contract' players might be given a decent opportunity on star studded teams, and you might see some kids who otherwise wouldn't get a chance start to shine.  This would give teams an incentive to really scout the young talent out there and try to pick guys buried on benches who might be hidden gems.

Like i said, I've got no idea how the logistics would work - how you who would calculate minimum values for different players, etc, but I'm sure there would be a way.  Maybe you could have a team of league talent scout's whos job is to agree on these values - no idea.   

[mr. dee]

Payton and Malone are on the twilight of their careers and far from the players they once were. Now if a 28 year old Jordan joined the Showtime Lakers or the Bird Celtics, it would be a different question.

The point is they took less than they were still worth to circumvent cap rules. Rules should be enforced.

How do you like knowing the 2017 NBA champions in July 2016?

I'm not familiar with the contract structure of Payton and Malone at that time.

I'm not ready to conclude the Warriors as champion but they are the clear favorites this coming season. Being favorites doesn't guarantee anything though. Last season's finals is a testament to it.

[Ogaju]

I honestly think that there is only one fair response to this - and it's not pretty, but it would work.

If the NBA is serious about giving every team a fair chance, they need to find a method to set a "agreed minimum market value" on players.

Here in Oz if you sell somebody a car, that person has to pay transfer of registration, which costs 3% of the vehicle purchase price.  To avoid dodgy deals (where people put down they were "gifted" the car to avoid paying transfer fees) the vehicle registry sets a fixed minimum market value on all vehicles.  You can list you sale price as being above the minimum value no problems, but if you list it as being too low they will ignore your claimed sell price and automatically put it down as market value.

I think the NBA needs to apply a similar concept.  Certain guys with certain levels of talent, will have a "minimum market value" attached to them based on production levels, age, etc.  Teams can pay above that minium amount to sign the player if they so choose, but cannot pay less then that value.

This way you could, for example, say that based on Evan Turner's production last year, he should have a minimum market value of say, the full mid level exception - or for argument's sake, 10% of the cap.  If this is the case, then no team can offer Turner a contract less then 10% of the cap - which, this year, would mean $9.4M per year. 

If this is the case, then star studded teams (like the Cavs and Warriors) who have less then $9M in cap space, would not be permitted to sign players of that caliber - they could only sign players who the NBA deems as having "veteran minimum" market value. 

Not sure how the NBA would determine these values in a way that would be fair...but it's the only method I can think of that would put a stop to these situations. 

It would force teams to make very careful decisions about how they balance their rosters - if they fill it with 3 or 4 stars then they may not be able to build a competitive support group around them...and may risk getting beaten by a team that has maybe two stars, but a deep and solid group of support players.

Another benefit of this I guess, is that it gives players more opportunity.  Young and unproven 'min contract' players might be given a decent opportunity on star studded teams, and you might see some kids who otherwise wouldn't get a chance start to shine.  This would give teams an incentive to really scout the young talent out there and try to pick guys buried on benches who might be hidden gems.

Like i said, I've got no idea how the logistics would work - how you who would calculate minimum values for different players, etc, but I'm sure there would be a way.  Maybe you could have a team of league talent scout's whos job is to agree on these values - no idea.

TP for a cogent response. You can have a committee set the value or have the market determine the value. The value of players is akin to one Supreme Court Justice's definition of obscenity, he said he could not define it, but he sure knew it when he saw it. I cannot tell you what Puchillia should command on the market, but I sure know it is more than 2.9 million a year.

[Moranis]

Who cares if guys want to play for less than their market value?  More power to them and the teams, just means the money that would have gone to them will go to someone else.

[Ed Hollison]

I agree that there's a problem here. But the much bigger problem is the league's (and the NBAPA's) failure to smooth the jump in the salary cap. That's the reason you're seeing the Warriors mega team take form right now. In other words, the Durant signing (for the max) is a bigger deal than the David West signing (for the vet minimum).

With that said, I like you're idea that veterans who sign below-market deals might count for more cap space, to prevent super teams from loading up. I just don't know how you'd make the determination of "minimum contract value". There would be controversy no matter who decides something like that.

In general I think this whole thing is going to bite the league in the a**, big time. Basketball by nature has never been football, where a team that stank last year can come out of nowhere and compete for a title. But now the competitive balance in the league is downright silly, and I'm certain it's going to start turning off fans.

[pearljammer10]

It's their choice to sign. No ones forcing Zaza to take the contract he took.

[Top Gun]

Let teams "Franchise" 1 player @ 30M/year. Superstar FA will be limited. If you try to tell a FA he can not work for less than his market value you are looking for trouble with the courts.

[celticmania]

Warriors are more than just favorites. Barring injury, they are winning the 2017 NBA championship. Everyone was worried about them losing depth by signing KD but they literally got deepr and only lost Bogut who is more than replaced by West and Zaza, and Harrison Barnes who is more than replaced with KD. And they went 73-9. They will probably lose like 5 games next season and sweep all the wat through the playoffs if healthy.

[LooseCannon]

It would be a violation of the spirit of free agency to not permit players to choose to take less money because they value other things, such as location or winning, more than the almighty dollar.

Your idea is stupid.

[celticmania]

The starting 5 for the olympics is gonna be

Steph
Klay
Durant
Draymond
Whoever

That could realistically be the starters... Thats scary