Is it time to Hard Cap NBA Teams?

[Tince]

not sure. I dont know anything about the owner(s).
But i know this. Its been a loooonnngg time since they made the finals. Id do/pay whatever it takes to keep that talent and continue to improve to make it a long lastsming run/ possible dynasty.

My gut is they lose in the West-Semis next year and ownership is trying to pivot a year from now when CP3 is a year older.

 

[Orion Bailey]

My gut is they lose in the West-Semis next year and ownership is trying to pivot a year from now when CP3 is a year older.

you are probably right. But they have the money to replace cp3 with a younger, better version, if one is potentially available.

 

[SharpesTriumph]

Do a hard cap and give teams that haven't won a title in the last 30 years that many millions of dollars of bonus cap.

So set the hard cap at lets say $140 million.... and since the Blazers haven't won a title in 30 years they get $170 million.

The Lakers have one year without a title... so they get $141 million. Since Dallas won 11 years ago they get $151 million.

 

[hoopsjock]

You don't think teams like the Lakers, Nets, Clippers, etc are signing more talented MLE and Min players than an average team?

When the Lakers missed the playoffs for 6 straight years they sure signed a bunch of good players to the MLE right? Nope, they didn't, because players take a pay cut to win a ring. You can't stop that from happening but them signing isn't the cause of the imbalance.

 

[Tince]

When the Lakers missed the playoffs for 6 straight years they sure signed a bunch of good players to the MLE right? Nope, they didn't, because players take a pay cut to win a ring. You can't stop that from happening but them signing isn't the cause of the imbalance.

Correct. I was not talking about big market teams, I was talking about the best teams currently. My point is that the best MLE & Min players go to the best team and that's a function of the cap combined with individual salary minimums. If a players invidivual salary was not capped and there weren't MLE/Min deals, teams w/out the top 3 players (who would likely be top 3 highest paid) would be offering those vets less instead of the same amount. This would at least give the mid-tier teams a fighting chance.

It sounds like you do think the best teams are signing better MLE and Min players than the average team, which was my original point of greater disparity from that haves and have-nots caused by that tool.

 

[GDiama]

I think a good first step is to remove max contracts and make it a free market. When LeBron gets 60-80M then Lakers won't have that much room for many more good players. Now you can see non All Stars get paid similar amounts to the best players in the world.

 

[mook]

I don't think the salary cap should be eliminated or hard capped.

My idea has always been to make the super max a substantial amount of money, like twice the amount a player could get with another team. However, the twist is that it only counts against the cap for 1/2 of the contract or if they get traded or leave instead of re-signing their new team it counts against the cap double what they make.

For example, let's say Dame was a free agent. The Blazers could offer him $60 million a year and it only counts against the cap as $30 million or he could leave and only get $30 million on his contract. If he left the team he signed with would have that contract count as $60 million against their cap even though they signed him for $30 million.

This would prevent a good portion of stars from leaving the team that drafted them and screw over teams that tried to form super teams.

I really like this idea. Guys like Dame and LeBron really are far, far more valuable than what they are paid currently. They really do deserve to make even more than they currently do. This addresses that problem.

I'd add to it that teams should also have something like a John Wall bi-annual buyout. If teams are paying enormous salaries to the deserving superstars, they need a way out if things go sideways on them so they aren't stuck for years with no hope.

Once every two years if your superstar contract gets injured, you can get out from under that contract and begin rebuilding. That player still gets paid, but he no longer applies to the cap. If the team goes this route, that player has to sit for a season and when healthy again can either re-sign with his old team on a min, or he's free to find a new team (but his cap hold goes down to the $30m number instead of $60m).

 

[Fairly-Hard]

I was just thinking about this? I wonder if a hard cap was put in place if it would have much of an effect on basketball around the world? Would other leagues (Euro, China) also benefit from it?
As it stands a player might already choose to go play in China or Europe rather than play in the G league. I doubt China really has much cap, though they don't make nearly as much.
Thought was - Would China raise the amount paid to players in an attempt to steal some players? Would European leagues start paying more?

 

[GDiama]

I was just thinking about this? I wonder if a hard cap was put in place if it would have much of an effect on basketball around the world? Would other leagues (Euro, China) also benefit from it?
As it stands a player might already choose to go play in China or Europe rather than play in the G league. I doubt China really has much cap, though they don't make nearly as much.
Thought was - Would China raise the amount paid to players in an attempt to steal some players? Would European leagues start paying more?

European leagues cannot pay more as all teams are basically losing money every year. It's not profitable at all for the owners.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

European leagues cannot pay more as all teams are basically losing money every year. It's not profitable at all for the owners.

I didn’t know that? Seems like they always have crowds and we know the games are broadcasted with advertising. They don’t pay players nearly as much so I just figured they were profit minded.

 

[GDiama]

I didn’t know that? Seems like they always have crowds and we know the games are broadcasted with advertising. They don’t pay players nearly as much so I just figured they were profit minded.

Euroleague pay structure is terrible and teams are always on the lookout trying to get better deals but so far nothing. European basketball is divided between FIBA and Euroleague. If those two organizations were merged maybe there would be more money for everyone but instead of co-operating one organization tries to steal teams from the other.
My fav team Olympiacos which is a decent European club with a few trophies and final four appearances the last decade is basically losing a lot of money every year. The owners are very rich and big fans as well so they try to keep the team competitive but budget is decreasing every year. Same goes for most other clubs. Basically up to the craziness of the owners to keep em competing, but most clubs have debts.

Check this out. Just the contract of Mirotic is three times the prize money Barcelona got

 

[wizenheimer]

I've always thought there should be a hard-cap....probably somewhere between the level of the salary cap and luxury tax threshold; but closer to the tax line

set the max contract at least 50% of the hard cap, maybe higher. No intermediate tiers of max after the rookie scale. Raises should be capped as no more than the increase of the cap. And guaranteed amounts in contracts should be reduced in favor of more incentives

If you want to increase players' share of BRI that's fine too...just adjust the hard cap rules accordingly

we'd then see how much players like Lebron really want to win. If they could make 70M/year on a max deal, but have to settle for 40M to be on a super team, I'd bet there would be fewer super teams