Situations like this Festus thing is why the NBA needs every contract to be less than 50% guaranteed. It'll never happen, but in theory, if they just put a $150M hard cap and apply the max salary percentages towards that number players would likely make more.
That would only make sense if the money saved went to the players union pension fund. The owners gave out these huge contracts, they don't need to be bailed out for their stupidity.
It would also protect from Big 4s. Instead of being able to go over the cap to resign your own players, if you have two max, 35% guys (Curry and Durant, for example), that would make up 70% of the cap space, meaning that they wouldn't be able to retain either Green or Klay for max money (30%) unless someone took a paycut AND the rest of the team was minimum level players. The NBA needs a hard cap and unguaranteed contract system, as it would help protect against insane super teams, keep paid players motivated to play at the highest level possible, and make it so that guys don't just decide to sit out and earn a paycheck doing nothing (ala, what Haynes essentially claims Ezeli is doing).
Yeah, but when he and Durant resign this summer, it'll be for 35%. If it was 35% of the hard cap, it would make it impossible for them to resign Klay or Dray.
Hard caps do kinda suck if you draft a bunch of stars. You could restrict the Bird Exception further--making it only eligible for players you drafted. That would still suck if you traded for a prospect and watched him flourish under your development (and it might have the unintended consequence of reducing trades for young players) but it gets complicated to write the rule for all the things we want to reward teams for but preventing abuse.
It would negate tanking though. Teams wouldn't want to be bad for 5 years because they couldn't keep all the stars they accumulate. I do like having a bird exception that you can only use on one player to allow the team to go over the hard cap. You could work it so that the team gets that exception if they don't have any players signed in free agency making over a certain portion of the cap. (So that GSW wouldn't be able to use that on Dray or Klay since they have Durant. This would stop teams from being able to sign star free agents then use the exception to go over with their load of drafted stars). Anyway, the drafted players contract that goes over the hard cap would be designated as that teams "Bird Player". During the life of his contract, they wouldn't be able to sign any other player over the hard cap. They'd be able to trade evenly if salaries matched. If they traded that player and got under the hard cap, and didn't have a near-max level free agent they'd get their bird exception back to use on a different player they drafted. It would really balance out the competition. GSW would have to let one of their big 4 go, and likely wouldn't be able to keep Iggy. CLE would've had to decide between Thompson and Love. TOR likely would've had to let one of Lowry, Derozen, Jonas, Ross, and Carroll go. MIA would've still been able to sign their big 3, and still would've had almost no bench. OKCs trade of Harden would make a lot more sense. It would create a more even salary average among all 30 teams and would create a more spread out wealth of stars.
There are likely good reasons NO shows no interest in Noel. You shouldn't assume Philly wants what forum members thinks is a good trade. Philly is probably asking for CJ, plus. Philly spent a #1 pick on him, and the case hase been made he's the next David Robinson or something. Philly thinks so, too.
Ouch. That part about Festus getting hushed by CJ sounds a bit awkward. Not that I think Festus should have to be only seen but not heard. I think he has a right to speak, but if I were in his shoes, the only things out of my mouth in that situation would be positive and succinct, and probably not in an "everybody gather around and listen to what I have to say" fashion. The article made it sound like he was being a bit critical. Didn't it use the words "stern" and "speech"? Yeah, that wouldn't go over so well with me either. Dame can talk to everyone like that. Not sure who else has a leadership type role on the team though. I got the feeling last year that Hendo was providing some steady veteran leadership, and I think we miss that. Dame is a good leader, but he could use a strong wing man. Does CJ ever take the reins, or does he just score points?
I have no problem with Festus giving locker room pep talks...we have sucked defensively through that stretch....Earl Watson is a head coach now because he was that guy in our locker room....never really played but would get in guy's grills ....Jay Triano now works for Earl....you need that with a young team..Festus has won at the highest level on a damned good defensive team
Fair question. For what it's worth, CJ was the one who hushed him. He is certainly not Dame in style, but he seems pretty savvy to me and someone who could command some locker room respect in his own way.
I would listen to Lillard, CJ, Aminu and Plums because those guys bring it every night. I would laugh at Meyers. And kinda shrug at anyone else.
