Lakers, NY, NJ, Dallas will represent one part of the owners in the upcoming CBA negotiations. Stern is proposing a hard cap for salaries similar to the NFL and an immediate reduction of current contracts to 60-70% of their current value and making them non guaranteed. While I can see the small market teams being for this and willing to force a lockout on the players to get this I don't see teams like the Lakers, NY, NJ and Dallas liking this at all. Even if the players were to agree to a immediate reduction in their current salaries this would bring the Lakers projected salaries down to $60-70 million. The hard cap number that is being talked about is $40mill per team. That would leave the Lakers needed to get rid of $20-30mill in players. I don't see that happening. The wild card for us is where in the hell does PA stand on this? Does he align himself with the large market and ultra wealthy owners or does he do what the Vulcans want and side with the small market teams. A hard cap would mean that the Blazers would finally turn a profit during PA's ownership, something the Vulcans want but PA has seemed seemed concerned with when the team was competitive. I don't see the players having much strength in the upcoming negotiations, they will fold during the lockout. The real battle will be between the owners and the fight to get Stern to support one side over the other.
There are way to many changes that have to happen for a hardcap to be put into place. I think Stern may lose the battle on this one but win the battle on making the maximum salary of players closer to half and maybe less then what it is now.
Here is one http://espn.go.com/blog/truehoop/post/_/id/12604/cba-negotiations-could-get-ugly but it doesn't talk about a hard cap. I tried to find the article that I had read about it but the google gods aren't being kind to me.
Madness. Constant roster instability makes it impossible for a team to develop any consistency or cohesion.
