What are Morey's and our player's thoughts on the lockout?

So far, Les Alexander has been absent from the spotlight within the owners circle in negotiations. However, I would bet that Les & even Morey wouldn't mind major changes within the system issues. Your looking at a team that by all reports has been financially stable and looking to prey on financially wrecked teams by stealing away their star players in trade. Not really sure what Les & Morey's thoughts are on the lockout, but I bet its a mixed bag.

-The players have been pretty quiet as well except for the major "Tweeters" like Terrence Williams, who seems to be the most vocal on their tweets, but has yet to show up at a bargaining session to my knowledge. Terrence, just seems to be doing alot of self promotion (see poorhungrydriven.com), working out, and more self promotion

-Kyle Lowry has attended some bargaining sessions himself, but for being one of the more active lockout demonstrators, he seems to be keeping himself very busy with Charity games, working out with professional trainers in Vegas. He seems to be the busiest of all the Rockets, and making the most of his prolonged offseason.

-All other veteran players that I have been able to follow seem to be somewhere in the middle. Working out with personal/professional trainers and thats about it. Includes Jordan Hill, Chase B., Thabeet, etc.

-Some of the young guns like Chandler Parsons and Donatas M. have taken advantage of overseas opportunities to get experience in competitive games.

Overall the Rockets organization, players, and ownership have remained very, very quiet and prepared for the occasion. It seems to me, like the players just want to get on the court as soon as possible, but the Ownership/front office would like a better CBA in the future. However, if they could get a season together sooner than later, it would help the Rockets front office get started on rebuilding this roster, and making moves for the future. Like everyone else on the outside, It seems like the organization wants to just get on with it. This lockout was not driven by teams like the Rockets in the first place.

 

Martin thinks both sides are being greedy...

Scola is nervous and anxious to play ball again...

And T-Will blames the mediator.

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/31683/nba-owners-bargaining-positions

This article states Les falls in the category of "dove" in the negotiations.



Another article on where Les stands in these negotiations.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/12/sports/la-sp-nba-owners-20110213

Seems like we are actually doing pretty well financially.

 

Morey will never say anything publicly after he got the fine-hammer from Stern for giving some opinions about the CBA. Basically Morey wants hard cap and no restrictions under it(pay players whatever you want). By doing this, it allows bad management to screw themselves while good management to gain advantage over time by not overpaying for mediocrity.

In terms of finances the Rockets are in fairly good shape. New stadium, solid TV contract, etc. OTOH Les isn't ridiculously wealthy outside the Rockets. If I were to guess, I'd say he's more on the fence and isn't too concerned either way. Keep in mind the Rockets do have a lot of expiring contracts, so a lost season may actually be a good thing for Les' pocketbooks.

 

does this mean he blames Fish? If so plus one for Twill!

 

had a nice conversation with one of the coaches. They are going to be ready for whenever the players and owners reach an agreement.

 

In what sense? Do they have a good idea of what the roster will look like and different schemes they will use? Are the coaches allowed to meet each other and do some homework?

 

Yes, they are allowed to meet & have been meeting.

 

This. Also, I can imagine that Daryl Morey (and Sam Presti and Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird) must be SEETHING at the thought of another amnesty cut that also gives salary cap (not just luxury tax) relief. All those years planning and gearing up for major salary cap flexibility, all to see the idiots of the league forgiven for their own stupidity . . . yet again.

While I doubt it will happen, I really wish that the league would award some compensation to teams that have prudently managed their cap situations and do not NEED to use the amnesty cut.

I had proposed giving each such team a first round pick between the end of the lottery and the rest of the first round (i.e., picks #15 through, say, #21, with the first round extended to account for the increased number of picks), although I can imagine some teams may not even WANT to have to guarantee a salary at #20.

An alternative would be for all teams using the amnesty cut to lose their next available first round pick (maybe with some level of protection; lotto? top-10?), but the union would likely have to agree to any proposal that reduces the number of guaranteed salary slots in the NBA Draft.

 

All that insurance money for Tmac and Yao's contracts wene straight to their bottom line.

DD

 

Don't you think that we can be the beneficiary of the amnesty cuts by picking up a player we wouldn't have had the ability(or desire to pursue considering they have a theoretical "bad salary") to pursue prior to the cuts?

Isn't that part of the prudent planning?

I haven't gone over the top salaries in the league lately to see who potential targets could be, so my assumption is predicated on there actually being talent available. Probably my mistake.

 

I wonder how much of a war chest the teams built up for this, at some point even well to do owners like Les will need to start making some revenue, he is paying the coaches and the front office still and has no churn.

The question becomes, who breaks first? The player and their enterouges and families or the owners and their larger burn rate?

DD

 

While not likely, it is possible they allow amnesty cuts and resigning with the same team. In a perfect world, we could amnesty Martin and resign him for min, making our cap position for the summer of Dwight very good.

 

Why not make it a one time amnesty cut that can be utilized at any time over the next 10 years?

That could serve as a reward for some teams - especially if you allow a team to trade their amnesty cut away as well.

DD

 

More than likely there would be strict provisions to this rule, much like the rule that when you trade a player that the recieving team cuts, you have to wait a certain amount of days to resign the player you previously traded. In recent memory I can think of Cleveland doing this with big Z a couple seasons ago. Something like that would HAVE to be a provision or the league would have even more superteams.

Highly unlikely a player like Martin would take a liking to this rule being used on him and resign with the team.

 

I like the ability to trade Amnesty. That would be great for a team like the Rockets who wouldn't need to use it to land a mega deal.

 

Why would Martin care, he would just be getting more money without having to do anything.

Amnestied players still get paid thier original salaries. Under this scenario, he would just be getting minimum money on top of it.

 

I'm with dobro on this. There is NO WAY that the owners would allow for such a loophole. It would completely undermine the competitive balance of the league.

I award you NO points, and may G-d have mercy on your soul.

 

What did you think about making the amnesty something a club could trade?

Therefore good cap managers like the Rockets could trade it for a high draft pick to a club that wanted to use it.

Give each club a one time use....no time limit etc.

DD