Notice NBA attempting to discourage teams from saying they’ll match offers on restricted free agents

_GB · Jun 19, 2015

And has a picture of Jimmy Butler.

ESPN.com has learned that the NBA, as far back as November, issued a memo to all teams warning them that the NBA Players Association has officially taken the position that the well-worn “we’ll match any offer” reflex strategy and its corresponding intent to discourage interest in a particular RFA is a circumvention of the salary cap.

The league’s memo, sources said, took the rare step of further cautioning teams that, while the NBA itself doesn’t concur with the NBPA’s view, league officials see enough potential merit in the union’s stance to advise those who persist with match-any-offer chatter that they could be opening themselves up to legal action.
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Doesn't matter. Teams will just leak their intentions through the media.

This stance against the “we’ll-match-any-offer” rhetoric is right in line with the approach NPBA executive director Michele Roberts has taken since she started as the leader of the players’ union. It’s exactly what she should be doing. Restricted free agency is a tricky issue, because the NBA wants teams, particularly those in small markets, to have a mechanism to keep their young stars, and the players want the freedom to choose their own teams.

There is some merit to the idea that a team saying publicly that they’ll match all offers can kill a player’s earning power and leverage. Under normal circumstances, Eric Bledsoe would have been one of the most sought-after free agents on the market last summer, but teams were so convinced that the Suns would match their offer sheets that they showed no appetite whatsoever for going after him. Bledsoe dangled in restricted free agency until almost the start of training camp, when he finally agreed to a five-year, $70 million deal to stay with the Suns. Roberts wants to prevent a similar situation from taking place with someone like Butler or Middleton.
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http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports....heyll-match-offers-on-restricted-free-agents/

transplant · Jun 20, 2015

I understand where the union's coming from. This said, I don't think that a team saying "we'll match any offer" discourages offers.

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Notice NBA attempting to discourage teams from saying they’ll match offers on restricted free agents

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Notice NBA attempting to discourage teams from saying they’ll match offers on restricted free agents

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