Interesting take on Day-1 from Hollinger........

Here's my conspiracy theory: Stern has assured the owners that they're going to push to make contracts non-guaranteed or only to guarantee the first couple of years. The owners have signed these crazy deals knowing they're short term rentals.

 

I don't think that is a conspiracy theory since the first proposal from the owners had that type of language. They were also talking about making the changes retroactive to some existing contracts. I think you are correct, but let's be honest there is going to either be a strike or lockout to and probably a little bit of a messy situation.

 

He did? I thought he disappeared in the playoffs?

 

I think at the end he did step up.

 

Let's be serious here. Dude shot 36% from the field and 35% from three in the playoffs and all his numbers dropped.

 

The article answers your question. It's a pretty likely scenario that once the 'max-contract players' are off the market, there will still be several teams who have A TON of money but failed to get the max guys, so those teams will then turn there attention to these lower level players and they can offer them even more. So it's actually smart for other teams to strike fast while teams like New York/New Jersey are still holding out hope on the max guys.

 

Stern can't make any such guarantee. The more players there are that sign contracts that ostensibly they are not even close to being worth earning, the more players & their agents will dig in and fight tooth and nail to keep as much of that money as they can.

If that is some owners plan, I think they are talking a big gamble, and they likely loose that bet.

 

Yep. And if you've tanked for the last two years you pretty much have to take option A or B or your fans will burn the stadium down.

 

Are you wondering if it is just us fans who are irrationally reacting to the millions being thrown around complaining about the crazy deals some owners are doing?

Nope, here is SI agreeing that this shit is out of control, and doesn't make a lot of sense with owners "talking out of both sides of their mouths":

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/20...agent.spending/index.html?xid=cnnbin&hpt=Sbin

 

Frye is getting 5 yrs 30 million....LMA is getting paid more than twice that amount...I'd say it's an ok contract.

 

Phoenix is one of the teams doing pretty wacky shit and they have been good the last few years.

30 Million for Charmin is fucking insane.

They didn't over spend for Warrick, but they had to renounce their rights to Amare to sign him, so they have essentially swapped Amare for the homeless man's Amare.

At least there is now one less team to worry about in the post season.

 

NY closing in on Amare.
Via Yahoo!
5 years 100m

 

They weren't going to re-sign him anyway. He wants a max deal and Phoenix was unwilling to give him one. In this market, there is zero chance that he fails to get a max deal somewhere (barring injuring himself before he signs in a pick-up game or something) so there wasn't even a chance that he returned to the negotiating table at a later date.

In light of that, it's perfectly reasonable for them to renounce him and move on while there are still available options.

 

I'm not sure I can blame them. I'd rather have 18 million for a power forward who only scores and plays no D than pay 82 million more for a guy who scores a little better, but also plays no D and doesn't rebound especially well. Either way, the Suns aren't/weren't going to win it all with Amare' as their cornerstone.

 

If there's one thing you can depend on, it's the NBA players still living an NBA lifestyle while they're not earning an NBA paycheck. Many of the players will be broke in a year; they'll feel it after a few months. The owners will get whatever they want. Book it. We'll likely lose the entire 2011-12 season over it, but the owners will crush the players because the players are too stupid to budget their money.