First of all I am sick and tired of the back and forth of a hand full of players.It seems that the best players in the league want to play together and the more teams with star players loose in the playoffs the more they want to team up with the best. There are exceptions such as San Antonio who have a great team of guys who have been playing together for a long time. 90% of the teams are not like that. This thing called teaming up with another star weakens other teams. Why// It's because of the cap. Think about it the Heat fought real hard to stay under the cap for the owner to save and make millions. Yet LeBron, Wade, and Bosh took less money for the owner to put more money in his pocket.Now I don't have the answer but I can suggest a few things. Take the cap off the NBA. Make the league smaller. If 3 superstars team up to play together by taking less money. Let the team who loose a the star get the other teams 1st round draft pick 2 years straight and also have the right to claim any other player thats on the team that the player went to. Finally most important leave things the way they are and watch the NBA blow up because we will know who the final 4 teams will be at the end of the season before the beginning of the season.How can we make this work and save the league?

1) the nba has expanded so much that the talent pool is diluted-- "big" changes are being posed here so i endorse contraction. there should be only 24 teams
2) the players get a greater share of television revenue the further into the playoffs they go, and in close to exponential increments and increases, while the owners get a proportionately smaller share.

alexs wrote:There could be a few regulatory interventions that will help with keeping it competitive. Like only allowing one of two contracts with a certain maximum, it would at least limit these disgusting salaries for a few. America seems to need super stars but for me (not American)it just symbolises everything that's gone wrong in today's ever increasing unequal society. Cap should be reduced, not taken away because then you really end up with only 3-4 teams that can win it forever. I see your desire though with silly rich Dolan as Knicks president.

So you are against inequality yet you want to cap the players salaries so the owners (aka billionaires) get to keep the lions share of the profits? Don't the players bring the income into the teams and therefore the league? Nobodys gonna pay to watch Dolan and Clay Bennett play half court. Shouldn't the players get as big a percent of the profits that they can?

The salaries may be disgusting as you say but then that's only because the league makes a "disgusting" amount of money. Putting more caps on the players is certainly the least fair option.

gunsnewing wrote:Competitive balance is the word

Papabear Says

That is not the American way. that is not the Capitalistic way of doing things.

H1AND1 wrote:

alexs wrote:There could be a few regulatory interventions that will help with keeping it competitive. Like only allowing one of two contracts with a certain maximum, it would at least limit these disgusting salaries for a few. America seems to need super stars but for me (not American)it just symbolises everything that's gone wrong in today's ever increasing unequal society. Cap should be reduced, not taken away because then you really end up with only 3-4 teams that can win it forever. I see your desire though with silly rich Dolan as Knicks president.

So you are against inequality yet you want to cap the players salaries so the owners (aka billionaires) get to keep the lions share of the profits? Don't the players bring the income into the teams and therefore the league? Nobodys gonna pay to watch Dolan and Clay Bennett play half court. Shouldn't the players get as big a percent of the profits that they can?

The salaries may be disgusting as you say but then that's only because the league makes a "disgusting" amount of money. Putting more caps on the players is certainly the least fair option.

There's more to NBA than owners and players VCoug, watching the game could be made more affordable, less expensive. NBA could do a bit more on CSR than the window dressing that is happening today. Billionaires should probably pay taxes the way you and I have to. It is not that complicated to bring it back from planet "unchecked wealth" to planet earth if that's the intention. It won't happen, I'm not that naive. Just wanted to stress the point that sports as big business deludes the aspect sport for me, it's only an opinion.

If no cap Miami could have stacked the deck even more. when it fails, it looks like Isiah's knicks a few years back.

SAS stayed great because of the Cap. They have players who stayed and made great money when younger but now have a desire to keep playing at a high level (Tim and Manu).

Cap a few years ago had role players being underpaid. Now you have them making good money again and the stars are the ones under pressure. Teams are realizing starphuching don't always work!!

Dilution? Game has changed over the years so its hard to say. But there are many Canadians, Aussies, south americans and euros who fill in the gap. The game is much larger globally. With as many players in China one is bound to make an impact in the NBA one day. With all the Euro teams and Junior teams you have much greater feeder system to the NBA. As a rule of thumb the top 1% will make it to the NBA. If you have more players and more Division 1 teams, Junior teams in Europe and Dozens of top Euro teams how can the talent be dilutive?? Maybe its getting Better?

What we don't hve anymore is dominant big men. Jabbar, Wilt, Ewing, Shaq, Walton, etc......Is it they are noW Durant? Lebron? Is it because the game is faster and bigs break their feet? Walton, Yao, Bropez, and Emiid?