As the hours, and then minutes slipped away before Thursday's NBA trade deadline, the reality of a new world bore down on the people who build the teams and make the trades. They were far from the boardrooms and marble lobbies and fine china of the 2011 NBA lockout, but now they were dealing with the consequences. Nowhere was that pressure pushing down harder than on the shoulders of Hawks general manager Danny Ferry, the latest NBA executive to find himself in a stare down with a star looking to leave town. Ferry's been here before, of course, and lost the most crushing defeat in the history of free agency when LeBron James left Cleveland for Miami in 2010. As the old joke goes, I've met Josh Smith, and he's no LeBron James. Whether Ferry will be the loser in this stare down won't be known until July, when Smith almost assuredly will walk away from the only team he's ever known to sign with one of the many teams with cap space. It won't be known until well beyond that, when we see what Ferry does with the league-high $36 million in cap room he'll have this summer after Smith walks away. Look at the Cavs now, nearly three years after LeBron left, as they rise from the ashes with the next megastar of the league, 20-year-old Kyrie Irving. There are no guarantees in basketball free agency, on either side of it. There are only unknowns, and a lot more of them now than ever before. There has been a cosmic shift among the parties who negotiated the new labor deal that ruined Thursday's trade deadline. David Stern is retiring next February, long before the next deal will be negotiated in 2017, long before the next inevitable work stoppage. His bargaining adversary, Billy Hunter, has been ousted by the players and finds himself ensnared in a serious criminal investigation on three fronts. In their wake, they left a completely different model for how players will change teams in the NBA, one that shrewd owners like Mark Cuban and general managers like Sam Presti anticipated months or even years ago. Everyone laughed when Cuban broke up a championship team by letting Tyson Chandler go to the Knicks. Everyone's jaw dropped when Presti traded James Harden to the Rockets. But now Cuban's team is one of a handful in the catbird's seat, unconstrained by the tax penalties and other restrictions that will mercilessly be placed on teams who continue to do it the old way. Presti keeps gaming the system, like he did Thursday in acquiring a trade exception from Portland for Eric Maynor -- a $2.4 million placeholder that effectively extends Maynor's usefulness to the team long beyond his days in a Thunder uniform. This is how business is done now in the NBA. No blockbuster trades in February. Few, if any teams are willing to absorb future salary, which would clog up their books and restrict access to tools needed to improve their rosters. Nobody is willing to give up draft picks as incentive to move a contract or rent a player for the stretch run. No more Monopoly money. What Stern, Hunter, Adam Silver and the rest accomplished two summers ago became as clear as daylight Thursday. They turned the NBA into the NFL -- the No Fun League -- when it comes to the trades and in-season player movement. No more stars forcing trades to the markets of their choosing with the reward of max dollars forming the cherry on top. "This is a pure CBA deadline," one general manager said Thursday after the dust settled. "If you can't get a first for J.J. Redick, this is a different world. That guy is a surefire lock to garner a first round pick in the past." Full Story
This isn't the first quiet trade deadline or even the first article attacking a quiet deadline. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070223 http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090227
"They turned the NBA into the NFL - the No Fun League....no more stars forcing their way to the market of their choosing" Can somebody explain to me why this dude acts like this is a negative?
And I'm so glad that we have Daryl Morey for a GM. While other GM's are scratching their heads wondering how they can even operate in this CBA, DM the GM is thriving. He found the Lin/Asik loop hole. He he pried Harden away from the Thunder. He stole Robinson from the Kings. And he did all of that this year - while so many other GM's still seem to be scrambling to figure out how things work. We're very fortunate to have a GM equipped to take advantage of this new CBA.
The new CBA has had an impact, no doubt. But whats its done in my mind is separate certain big market teams with BIG TV contracts and extremely rich owners even further from the rest of the league. Lakers & Brooklyn will still spend whatever they want, regardless of penalty. Where as before the new CBA, maybe 4-5 teams would do so.
Yeah, I dont think that is going to happen like you think it will. They can keep spending like drunken sailors with a printing press if they want, but the NBA rules wont allow them to do it without consequence. Restrictions in what exceptions you can use, what kind of contract you can take on and the sheer increasing amount of penalties will rein all that in eventually. Prokanov(or how ever you spell it) can claim he doesnt care about the penalties all he wants, but when he cant receive Dwight Howard (or any other star player in that situation) in a sign and trade because he is massively over the tax apron, he might not be so inclined to thumb his nose at what the CBA is trying to do. You can already see other teams like the Knicks and MAvs all the sudden caring about the contracts they are giving out.
NY has 79M, 76M, and 72M committed to 2012/13, 2013/14 and 2014/15 respectively. 53M, 57M and 62M is committed to just (3) guys. http://hoopshype.com/salaries/new_york.htm While most of this damage was made before the newest CBA, its yet to be seen if they dump significant contracts to get near the tax line. The bank of Cuban is open. While we dont know his willingness to go over tax thresholds, historically speaking he hasnt been shy to spend. We will see in time about the Mavs in regards to spending. It may turn out to be the case that LA / Brooklyn change their tune in the years to come for the reasons you have pointed out. But for the right now, the CBA tax penalties and restrictions seem invisible to them.
All those contracts were given out prior to the new CBA. We have already seen them not match Lin's contract due to the new penalties coming this year. They were under extreme pressure to keep Lin, but they didnt.....why do you think that is? Cuban has already shown he isn't keeping big contracts when he got rid of Chandler...and all the talk I have seen point to an end to the free spending ways of his early ownership. IF LA was just gonna keep throwing money at everyone, why don't they have a decent bench? They have their main guys and if they weren't scared of the future penalties, why not throw more money at some better(and more expensive) players? I think the CBA is going to effect team's salary allocations, we are already seeing it and it will just get worse(or better depending on how you look at it) in the near future.
Perhaps the likes of NYK and the Mavs will rein in their spending. My main point was Brooklyn and LAL though. At any rate, teams like Brooklyn and LAL, even if hampered a bit by the new CBA, will out spend mid market teams by a good bit id say. It will be interesting to see if the NYK breakup up their big 3 (Chandler/Stat/Melo) to avoid heavy taxes. Also, what will Miami do when their big 3 are up for new contracts?
They turned the NBA into the NFL -- the No Fun League -- when it comes to the trades and in-season player movement. No more stars forcing trades to the markets of their choosing with the reward of max dollars forming the cherry on top. They make it seem like it's a bad thing. I can understand All the "national experts" like screaming A and multiple sources being upset that adam silver doesn't want anymore g*ngbang parties in the association but the rest of the markets should be happy.
I like how the NFL works. You know any given year a team can rise to the top. NBA could be better that way even if the trade deadline becomes a snoozer.
like it killed Eric Gordon's ? If a team other than the rockets has cap space, they'll pay whatever it takes to sign him.
