LOL...RLY? Do you really believe that statement? And you know, Peyton Manning and Tom Brady get the same treatment from NFL refs as every other QB in the NFL.
Yep. And there seems to be a lot of that around here these days. Thank You. Excellent post Sir. We aren't talking about players operating under a system of subjective call making. We are talking about teams governed by a set of rules and guideline that are applied equally to all franchises. The best way to assure your continuing failure is to blame others for it.
By building a team to counter the "superteams". A team full of All-star type role players. A team where anyone of the 5 can go off on any given night. A team that can play decent team defense.
The only way to fix it is to implement a hard cap and a franchise tag. Until then, the NBA will stay the joke that it is. This is the way Stern wants it though.
Agree with spaceghost. Contraction is needed. The prob is that the gap between teams is too large so superstars (rightfully so) favor just a few teams. Contraction prob won't happen though. The proposed salary cap fixes prob won't happen either. Rockets need to spend some $ on lavishing love on stars (like Cuban does) and on personal relations. We should be able to match miami and dallas in these areas but are behind. The owners should have another meeting and kick orlando out of the league. They have decreased the value of every team but LA and Miami.
I can't fault the players. Imo, the problem is the owners. They can't control their spending. They make so much money off the extras of winning a Championship, that the Luxury Tax amounts to the loose change in their pockets. The upcoming changes to increase the LT penalty should help some, but I think it should go even further. I believe that whatever amount a team goes over the cap this year should be deducted from next year's team cap. This would have the effect of forcing a team that chooses to go for it all this year to have to start trading or cutting top talent in the next year or two. For instance: Year 1 NBA Cap = $50 mill. Team Cap = $50 mill. Team Salary = $60 mill. Over/Under Cap = $10 mill. (Owner's tax $20 mill.) Year 2 NBA Cap = $55 mill. Team Cap = $45 mill. Team Salary = $65 mill. Over/Under Cap = $20 mill. (Owner's tax $40 mill.) Year 3 NBA Cap = $60 mill. Team Cap = $40 mill. Team Salary = $70 mill. Over/Under Cap = $30 mill. (Owner's tax $60 mill.) Year 4 - Team let's players walk & dumps salary. NBA Cap = $65 mill. Team Cap = $35 mill. Team Salary = $35 mill. Over/Under Cap = $0 (Owner's tax $0) Year 5 NBA Cap = $70 mill. Team Cap = $70 mill. Team Salary = $70 mill. Over/Under Cap = $0 (Owner's tax $0) In this scenario, I'm assuming a $5 mill. annual increase in the NBA cap & that the team in question's team salary increases by $5 mill. a year with raises. I ran this one for 5 years to show how big an impact it could have on the team & the owner's pocket book (year 3 = $60 mill.). Since the team could start it all over again in year 5, I would go further by increasing the penalty for a sencond offense. In that case, the year 4 team cap reduction of $35 mill. would last for 2 years before they were brought back up to the full NBA cap. I would also adjust the tax hit the owner has to pay by increasing the multiple each susequent year. For instance using the example above: Year 1 (x2) = $20 mill. Year 2 (x3) = $60 mill. Year 3 (x4) = $120 mill. Year 4 (x5) = etc. If this wouldn't force teams to start saying no to loading up on multiple superstars, then it's my opinion that the league is slowly killing itself. But, that's my opinion.
While the NFL is the undisputed ratings leader, the NBA is now about neck and neck with MLB. As obvious as the corruption and rigging is in every area (draft lottery and officiating in particular, among other aspects of operation we are not necessarily privy to), more people seem to be tuning in (assuming nielsens are valid and they may be, based upon the amount of buzz and discussion about the heat for example). It seems the more angered many fans become, the more emotionally tied and involved fans become. Stern has definitely followed Mcmahon's marketing trick: if they think you're the devil, then GO ALONG WITH IT and market the sh-- out of it. tldr: the more enraged people become, the stronger of an emotional connection you developed with the league and therefore become more rather than less invested.
Like I sad earlier,this should be the cry baby thread. Let me ask all those involved in this idiotic discussion, how many time did the rockets exceed the lux tax to help yao and tracy get over the hump? 0. Is this the only way to win a title? No, but when you can take the larger % in a trade, more than likely you will get a better player. Another question, how many times did they spend the full mle on players during yao and mcgrady's prime? 1 time for stro swift. Say what you want,but adding guys for mle money to help your 2 best players is better than splitting it up for 2 guys. The howard trade didn't convince me the rockets aren't committed enough, the track record when they had high end players told me so. The spurs avoided this situation because parker and manu turned out to be a lot better than where they were drafted. Part of that is luck and part of it is skill. Look at the mavs ring year or just their dirk era and see what they had supporting their superstar. Terry was making 9m coming off the bench. From a rockets fan perspective and I lost a bet to bima about les and the lux tax,but I don't think les wants to win at all cost. With the rockets,its always a financial backdrop. I mean they let dragic go over 1 yr of guaranteed salary when its clear he's a better player than lin.
No max contracts. Guys like Lebron get what they deserve. Hard to build a super team when your top player is getting 40 million bucks.
No team deliberately sets out to overpay for their talent. In 3 years the Lakers will have gone from a $100 million in salaries to $30 million with the departure of Nash, Gasol, Bryant and World Peace. In the interim they'll pay through the nose in luxury tax. They have an aging team so it's the best trade-off for them whilst still remaining competitive. The other option they have would be to break it up now and start rebuilding. You seem to think things would be a lot better if the league took away the first option and as soon as a team reached a state where their stars were aging they'd be forced to dump them all because they couldn't afford to keep them and stay under a cap. I'd prefer it this way where a team has to decide to risk putting a lot of money in the pockets of other teams due to the tax against keeping their aging stars and trying to win a championship for another season or two. There is no guarantee that either strategy is right or will pay off. No team is going to simply pay an ungodly amount of luxury tax forever. For short durations, yes possibly, but that's the risk their taking. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me.
All I know is something needs to be done. For the first time, I'm starting to lose interest because the whole system feels rigged. It's a shame.
Apparently you didn't check out the SportsNation polls during the playoffs, Mr. Psychologist. The entire nation was basically rooting against Miami. But anyway... over the last 30 years, the NBA has the least championship winners of the 4 major sports. Things haven't ever been great for parity in the NBA.
I don't feel like its rigged as much as I feel like the star players have turned the system upside down. They are able to hamstring their own managers into dumping them to a glamor city.
