Even worse, Toronto is a huge international market with a rabid fan base. It’s not like they are Utah or Charlotte.
The Rockets are absolutely still a championship contender. There isn’t a Western or Eastern Conference team on par with the 2015-2018 Warriors, and the Rockets haven’t lost any key pieces this offseason.
I think they should only allow 2 max players per roster. The nba is much more interesting for the fans when there are no super teams. Look how much excitement we’ll have coming into next season around the league. There’s no clear favorite and it’s going to a fun year. The west is still murderers row though. No team is sniffing 60 in the west.
Harden has been the most loyal super star in the league since he’s been in Houston and yet people constantly b**** about him. Truly aggravating. Fans need to show loyalty too.
Front page ESPN a year ago was Lebron (Lakers) vs Kyrie (Celtics) Finals and how this was the start of a new, years long rivalry......they sure do like to make **** up off the top of their head.
It's actually just the opposite - this all started in response to Kevin Garnett holding the TWolves hostage with a gigantic contract and owners feeling like they were being extorted to keep the stars they had. So owners started doing things to to save them from themselves - shorter contracts, max contracts, etc. The result is completely different, but this is created by the owners. But for all the talk about decreased interest, people forget what it used to be like. Yes, it was harder to build a dominant superteam - but when you did, it was harder to dismantle or defeat. That's why you had the Lakers-Celtics domination, or Bulls domination, etc for extended periods. Today, the Miami "domination" lasted 4 years (2 titles). The Durant-Warriors lasted 3 years (2 titles). So more teams have shown the ability to come out of nowhere and compete and build teams of their own. This year, it was the Nets, Lakers, and Clippers so we look at it as all big-market teams, but those teams have been in the wilderness for years.
Kawhi went from 2210 mil to 140 mil. He gave up a lot of money. Same with KD at some point the money doesn't matter.
?? That's not the point of this post & no one is saying players drafted by the team should be stuck with that team for their entire career..... The post is in regard to players not honoring their contract, and demanding trades with 1-2 years left on their contract.
This is the answer right here. Right now players wages are below market value and players can get everything they want. They should make Superstars choose. Either you play with a super buddy or you have to give up tens of millions of dollars.
Players we like: Staying with our team: Loyal Coming to our team: Shows how much he wants to win Players we don't like: Stays with their team: Greedy. Just wanted the max deal instead of coming to us to win Goes to another team: Disloyal. It's funny how players taking tens of millions less to find their own happiness is now considered disloyal, as though they owe their teams anything when they are free agents.
It is sure entertaining but I have to admit if Rockets were the Clippers, I would enjoy it 1000x more!
This would have worked 10-20 years ago. Today, contracts are so big that the numbers don't matter so much. The whole point of things like the Supermax were to try to tone down player movement - superstars like KD and Kawhi are happily giving up tens of millions to play where they want, because $140MM is plenty of money already. It would make a lot more sense if you were choosing between $3MM and $5MM than $140MM vs $180MM.
have only 1 or 2 maybe max level contracts on a team. Its not just about the actual dollars. These guys are EXTREMELY keen on whether they are "max" "super max" "mle" players etc. The latrell spreewill controversy and the insights from the players showed that. Being the "average" contract label teaming up with the max guy is not a good look for them or their legacy. Right now you can be a durant and join a super team and still be hailed as the best. Having to join for 8-10 mil instead of 20 is pretty big and takes them out of the category of big pay day guys.
I dont think it's just about leaving money on the table. The sponsor contracts are much more lucrative in big markets. This is where disparity occurs. There needs to be a mechanism to prevent teams from loading up players. One idea, which would be unpopular, is to allow other teams a second chance bid on players. If KD wants to join GSW for 10 million less, then another team should be allowed to present a contract to KD for max. If KD rejects it, then that team should be allowed to pay that difference into the league general fund, all while counting against that teams cap. The kicker would be KDs contract would effectively be maxed and GSW would be forced to pay luxury taxes on that full contract.
Why wouldn't some shitty team just offer the max to any star who takes less, despite never being considered? I'd think yYou're basically just giving every team's capspace to the league, which takes away anyone's ability to actually plan or build a team. Teams like Utah could just screw over the entire the league by offering a bit more money to every free agent who's not interested in them.
Did you guy guys like the old nba better? Francises that won titles since 79/80 (3 point era) by decade: 80s: 4 (Lakers, Celtics, Sixers, pistons) 90s: 4 (Pistons, Bulls, Rockets, Spurs) 00s: 5 (Lakers, Spurs, Pistons, Heat, Celtics) 10s: 7 (Lakers, Mavs, Heat, Spurs, Warriors, Cavs, Raptors) We had the Lebron Heat and Hampton 5 Warriors this decade and 7 different franchises won titles. Why was it better when the Lakers won 5 in the 80s and the Bulls won 6 in the 90s? Because their opponents stayed with the same team after getting swatted down? People get nostalgic about the past, But people have been complaining about nba super teams forever.
That is why the salary difference would count against Utah's capspace if they chose to do that. Utah would still have to pay the difference and take a hit on capspace. It's an effective tool only when teams pile on players at a discount and are deep into the luxury tax. It will have a minimal effect on teams who struggle to bring in stars or stay within a reasonable cap space.
Ah gotcha - I thought you meant GSW would have to use that capspace. In this scenario, why would any team ever offer more money? KD would just announce he wants to play for GSW and is willing to take $10MM less to do it. So why would any other teams offer him the max - they would lose capspace and still not get the player?
