Superstars are the guys that make a team good or not good. They contribute the most positive +/-, the most win shares, the highest PER. They deserve to be payed the vast majority of the cap space. A few middle class players exist, but for the most part role players deserve only a couple of million a year because that is their impact on the game. I think a league where each team has one or two superstars and the best collection of role players you can assemble would be very exciting to watch. Drafting would matter a lot for even contending teams because that rookie may be the role player that pushes you over the top. Nightly, stars would be duking it out on teams they can claim as their own.
Every team still has a chance. Build a competitive team around your star and hope that he won't leave. Durant extended. Rose is gonna stay. Joe Johnson, while not an elite star, stayed in Atlanta. And if you want an example of how things haven't changed, look no further than our own Houston Rockets. Due to Houston not being Miami or LA, free agents don't want to come here now. Free agents didn't want to come here in the 90s or earlier either. We built our teams by tanking to get a star and building around him, and we were lucky that he was a loyal dude (similar to Durant). How is that any different from now, where we are trying to trade for a stud since we can't get a high enough pick to draft one?
I'm pretty sure the new CBA has a "franchise player" policy, where each team labels one guy as their franchise player, and they have all the rights to him. Basically he can't leave them with nothing.
Of course it is. But in the history of sports, this is unprecedented and many fans and "purist" don't know how to view it and judge it. Part of that comes from the fact if these players have been "working behind the scenes" to form this team now, have they played the game differently or done things on their previous teams that took away from the game? That suspicion is what creeps into peoples minds. If three players had given some indication that this would happen before the 2010 offseason, say during the 2009 offseason, I don't think the shock of it would have caused as much suspicion as it did. The reason I say this is because, most everyone believes this plan was in their minds for a while, but since it was hidden instead of open people feel cheated. This is even more so in the current society where people are bombarded with information, hearsay, and rumours. In essence, we have seen the first player/GM interaction. Now we just have to accept that it can happen and move on. (Sidenote: My disdain for Lebron is not at all for what he did. It is how he did it, every step of the way lacked class, decorum, and intelligence. And if you are the face of an entire professional sports league, you cannot blame ignorance, stupidity, or stress no matter how real or feigned it may be)
Good points. Also, Miami is really the only team right now, that has had players take paycuts to play together(Wade, Bosh, Haslem, Miller, Lebron etc)
Right.... and what happens when a good team drafts a great player? Like, say SA and Gino? "ops, looks like you made a great pick but you're not allowed to pay him like a superstar because you already got 2 on your team, time to let one of your stars go get paid somewhere else lolol!!!" Yea, I'm sure they'd be thrilled...
I think the MLE should be eliminated also. They should determine the size of the pie (i.e, a harder cap) and then owners/players/agents slug it out to see which players deserve what. The "superteam" creation of the Heat would be a one-time event. No chance at all of CP3 or D-Will going to the Knicks to join Melo and Amare if it would cost them $10 million per season. Teams that draft well, know how to balance rosters and have good coaching would succeed.
Every team does have a chance if they're smart and have a little luck. Whats the difference between the spurs having their dynasty and the blazers not? The spurs, a small market got lucky and drafted Duncan. Not only that, they drafted a 19 yr old rookie, and a 2nd rd pick on manu. I wont stop there, the year prior to manu's free agent year, they prepared by trading nazr. What did that do? They were able to match denver and their 9m per year deal. Portland had the #1 pick with an already stacked young nucleus and drafted Oden. Even with the injuries to Roy, imagine what kind of team Portland would be with Durant and Alridge right now. Smaller markets can compete for titles and keep great players as long as they keep drafting accordingly and make shrewd free agent moves. Denver got the best deal possible and they will rebound. They wont be like cleveland because Anthony is not on the same level or have the same impact as James. Getting Chandler,Gallo,felton,and cap space serves them well.
I like this initial suggestion. A hard cap isn't going to happen. And making rules about how many of which kind of players, or putting franchise tags -- that's too artificial. I think raising the max salary to a greater % of the cap is a very elegant way of distributing max salary players. You'd have fewer player conspiracies because the money surrendered by the players would be greater. But, you could still trade for stars and exceed the cap in exchange for the talent you have. You could still use Bird Rights to retain your own guys who have made-good on your own team. And teams could still improve in free agency by signing role-players with cap-space and exceptions -- it'd just be harder to get so much cap-space (when you already have a max player) that you could compete with the incumbent team or a team without a max player on salary.
Increasing max salary without having a hard (or harder) cap will benefit the deep pocket teams. They can sign the biggest stars and still have all the exceptions to sign good role players as long as they are willing to pay.
Melo never forced a trade. He was presented a contract extension with Denver and made it clear he wasn't going to re-sign. Denver was being proactive, trading him during the season to avoid losing him for nothing if he left as a FA. The only reason Melo had a say in the situation is because no team would give up what Denver wanted without having a guarantee that Melo would sign an extension with them. The biggest issue with the whole Melo-Drama was the fact that it became such a long drawn out process and a public ordeal.
