As someone said in a previous thread, everybody wants to play out west... get their ring... after all, the money is the same. The first prerequisite of course is, does the team have the cash to pay? If so, I want to play on the Lakers, or the Spurs or get invited to Mark Cuban's house... okay, well maybe not the latter but, pretty soon, there might be the need for two leagues, the haves, basically the west, and the have nots, basically the east. Are there exceptions, yeah... a potential MEGA star like LeBron James and his skills could do it in Cleveland in addition to luring potential Laker and Spur free agents to come. However, a team like the Heat have little to no chance of even landing Alonzo Mourning.

It really has gotten ridiculous... nobody except the "smart" Spurs have CAP room but, the mid level exception of close to five million gives the better teams a chance to land excellent players... some actually willing to take less (unheard of) to get their ring... of course, making tens of millions a year enables many to take a slightly shorter haircut in the twilight of their career ala Gary Payton.

No, free agencey with the CAP and MAX salaries is a colossal failure... pretty soon they'll be division A and division B... the rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

In my opinion there has been a division A and a division B ever since Jordan and the Bulls disbanded. There really isnt much that can be done to fix the problem. These guys are competitive, they want to win so the West has the best opportunities. Detroit will have a solid lineup next season so the East wont be totally dead but things arent looking good. The balance of power will eventually shift back after the east gets a few years worth of top talent draft picks. It will take some time though. Right now is definitely all Western conference.

i agree with oasis, the east and west play by the same free agency rules and cap room. the east just made bad investments. while we were doling out 20 million to pay ewing, jerry west was clearing cap room to get shaq.

just funny the last 5 years no team in the nba or wnba has even been close

Once you get in a hole... you are held captive by the few players you have... look at the Knicks overpaying Houston by at least thirty million... but you are right, mismanagement under the current CBA is death and team like the Knicks pay dearly for their mistakes.

All I'm saying is the system hasn't worked as it was originally intended... to level the playing field... if anything, the opposite effect has taken place.

Posted by ARES:

i agree with oasis, the east and west play by the same free agency rules and cap room. the east just made bad investments. while we were doling out 20 million to pay ewing, jerry west was clearing cap room to get shaq.

just funny the last 5 years no team in the nba or wnba has even been close

There are exceptions to every rule. Not every GMs are created equally. The Jerry West, Popovich, Thorn and the Kiki of this world doesn't come around that often. A lot of times you are stuck with guys like Layden at the helm.

couldn't say your last post any better.

it all starts at the top. look at the mets. 120 million dollar payroll.

This is the problem we all know it, layden pays good players frachise money and pays bad players real good player money.

sucks man.

Posted by Pike:

... 100% correct about the NFL.

Non guaranteed contracts is part of the reason they're so successful. That'll never fly in the NBA or MLB.

Yup. The Players Union for the NBA and MLB are just too strong.

Don't "fabricate", ARES. I was a PROPONENT of Kiki's rebuilding efforts from day one.

I'm just tired of seeing all the good atlethes going some where else and seeeing all these hard working workman like cant make a layup new york knick team.

You know we been watching clutz if kenny walker a hig jumping clutz got pub for his athleticism. yeah he can jump but he cant do other stuff atletic ballers could like run, and definetly running while dribbling.

after years of wathing one arm two guards getting Allan houston was like a complete change in philosphy and even he cant dribble to his left. same with spree. and both of there handles are better than all 6 of our point guards.

I want a lebron i want a Anthony, I want a TMAC, I want a Kobe I want a Garnett. DAMN!

pike in a way the system HAS worked

most teams in the NBA that want to be good get good.

when the Kings and Dallas got new ownership they got Good in a hurry.

The lakers had a couiple of down years and got good again

The knicks don't want to win. so they wont win, they just want a playoff series or two for the money.

Same with the clippers, same with Atlanta.

Saying the Knicks don't want to win is nonsense... Dolan and Layden might be complete incompetent morons but, they want to win... Steve Phillips wanted to win... the fore-mentioned are merely stupid.