There was the article the other day about how the luxury tax system is actually hurting small market teams more now as they are less willing to go over the tax threshold. I think there is a simple fix for this. Players union would never go for it but here it goes. Step 1: establish a hard cap. Set it at about 68 million as a starting point. Step 2: break that cap into salary slots. Each team would be limited to using the slots and assigning a player to. Specific slot each season. Slots would be broken up with 2 slots at $15mil each, one at $10mil, another at $7 then 6, 5, 4 etc... etc... till the last 3 are at about $750k. Teams don't have to use the full limit of each slot but money isn't transferable from one slot to another. Example if a team only uses 12 mil of a 15mil slot they can't use that $3mil balance elsewhere. Trade rules would be the biggest hurdle to figure out.
I like it. As for trade rules, I would keep the 125% salary match rule, say that trades can supersede slotting, and players that are traded that don't fit into an available slot automatically occupy a team's highest available slot at the beginning of the next FA period. I would also allow a Larry-Bird-type exception allowing a team a third 15M slot to resign its own player, but only if that player has spent his entire career with that team. As for the NBAPA, they're currently guaranteed 49-51% of BRI, depending on how revenues compare to forecasts. The current year's combined team salaries only equate to about 45% of projected BRI, so it's not as if a hard cap like you suggest would lower overall salaries. An average team salary of $75M would equate to about 50% of projected BRI, and wouldn't hurt the PA at all.
Tough to even the playing field when individual teams have separate TV deals. The Lakers TV is around $3 Billion with a B which helps them mitigate the cap and is something smaller market teams could never get even if they were willing to go over. By comparison, the Blazer TV deal is minuscule.
You know what would level the playing field? Unbiased refereeing. That would make a huge difference right there.
The fuck. Now you're talking fantasy world shit. This isnt science fiction son, this is the real world.
In the West, San Antonio, OKC, Portland and Memphis would all make the playoffs today as small market teams. In the East, you've got Indiana and Charlotte. I'm not sure that there's that much of an argument that you can't compete with the bigger cities.
You know what else would level the playing field? Stop promoting players and start promoting teams/cities/rivalries like they used to. Stop sucking LeBron's dick. Stop massaging Durant's scrotum. They're just players. They will be gone in ten years. The teams are the constant. The NFL has rivalries. Players come and go, but the Seahawks and Niners are going to hate each other until one of those teams changes conferences. Giants/Eagles Skins/Cowboys Raiders/Broncos etc etc etc
But you get my point. The NBA used to have some epic rivalries. Pacers/Knicks Lakers/Celtics Heat/Knicks Jerome Kersey basically said it in the Q&A Sly did. "We disliked everybody! When we stepped between the lines we didn't like anybody. It's a little more buddy buddy right now, guys shake hands and get a little chummy before the game but when we stepped on the court there wasn't much of that buddy buddy stuff. We felt like every night you're the enemy, you might be a friend but you're not my friend until after the game, not while the game is going on at all." It's not like that at all now.
Nate nailed it with the ref/promoting posts. And really, this is THE MOST parity I can ever recall there being in the NBA. The East just sucks because they suck, not because of the CBA. They've got shit for owners.
TV ratings and ticket sales suggest NBA fans want to watch the stars rather than the rivalries. What would you rather watch OKC v Heat or Lakers v Celtics?
Small market teams love the cap because it re-distributes money to them from the bigger markets. And many of the teams that are over the luxury tax threshold are not even doing well. Brooklyn, Knicks, Lakers...
