Henry Abbott
@TrueHoop
1) She expects the current collective bargaining agreement is toast.
2) She is optimistic about negotiating a new one.
3) Next season will most likely begin some time between late January and early March (the later dates would affect the Olympics, however).

houston20 wrote:
Henry Abbott
@TrueHoop
TrueHoop sources in the bubble: NBPA head Michele Roberts met with players in groups on Wednesday in Orlando. Everyone wore masks. Key takeaways:

Henry Abbott
@TrueHoop
1) She expects the current collective bargaining agreement is toast.
2) She is optimistic about negotiating a new one.
3) Next season will most likely begin some time between late January and early March (the later dates would affect the Olympics, however).

Something a couple of owners are pushing for is a consolation bracket tournament. I.E. anyone who is eliminated from the playoffs plays then for seeding for the top picks in the next draft. Meaning if you win the "championship" of the consolation bracket, you get the first overall pick in the draft. Then there would be a bonus structure for players depending on how long their team lasts in the consolation bracket.

This would hypothetically create a situation where

A) There is no incentive to fully tank anymore. Teams want a better pick. Coaches want to keep their jobs so they want to win as many games as they can all the time. Players will have an incentive to play hard since they can get cash bonuses for their teams moving forward.

B) Bad teams will need to work hard to get to a treadmill team first to have a shot at the top picks. You create a merit based system.

C) Treadmill teams will have a mechanism to escape being cap locked but unable to get over the hump. Which you hope creates more fringe contenders and thus more parity in the league

D) It would add essentially a secondary form of playoff games while relieving pressure from the league to maintain it's raw number of playoff games each year. This would have ancillary financial benefits to host teams in the consolation bracket ( ticket sales, merchandising, generating business for those around the arena, etc).

E) It would incentivize the networks to either maintain the existing contract status quo in COVID19 or increase it because it would generate more profits for everyone.

smackeddog wrote:March would mean our players haven't played for 1 year, which is worrying. But I do think March makes more sense for the league. I don't see the Olympics happening, so I wouldn't worry about that. March gives you the chance of having players vaccinated, and maybe some fans in arenas later in the season.

Why don’t you see the Olympics happening?
It’s late next Summer.... unless everyone refuses to take a vaccine, which I find possible.... and troubling.

Allanfan20 wrote:

smackeddog wrote:March would mean our players haven't played for 1 year, which is worrying. But I do think March makes more sense for the league. I don't see the Olympics happening, so I wouldn't worry about that. March gives you the chance of having players vaccinated, and maybe some fans in arenas later in the season.

Why don’t you see the Olympics happening?
It’s late next Summer.... unless everyone refuses to take a vaccine, which I find possible.... and troubling.

There's no way, even if a vaccine is found in the next few months, that it will have been distributed to enough countries (let alone people within those countries) by next summer. Most estimates are that it would take a year to administer to the whole population of a country. There won't be enough to go round to every country (expect disputes and tension). Without global vaccination, then the Olympics become a super spreader event- it would reseed the virus across the world.

Plus we don't know if the vaccine (even if it successfully stops you getting ill) will stop you being a carrier/spreader, which will be a problem if it doesn't, because it means just because you have been vaccinated, other countries can't just let you wander around as you could still infect others.

Tweet was deleted or there was problem with the URL:

https://twitter.com/ShamsCharania/status/1294317700525830145

smackeddog wrote:

unstopaball12 wrote:It was discussed here before, but a bubble done in phases is the best thing.

2 phases

First phase-45-50 games then all star weekend.

Halt for 1 month, 20 days rest and quarantine, 10 days training.

Second phase--balance games and playoffs.

Since they will only stay in 1 place, travel is not needed, thus more back to backs to condense the games to a shorter calendar.

I wonder if (like me with working from home), players will grow to prefer this way of doing the season- must be nice not to have all the travel). Problem is the amount of time you're asking players to be exiled from their families in the above scenario.

I think maybe start the season with felxiblilty. Assume it will all be in bubbles. Cut the season back to 70 games to meet contract demands of TV contracts. Split those 70 games into 2- 4 bubbles with breaks in between for players to go back home. However, if a vaccine becomes available you can either open up the bubble, or go back to playing in arenas- these can be empty if the vaccine isn't distributed to the general public in time, socially distanced or full (depending on how distribution goes and state laws allow). I think players would prefer to play in one set place (like Disney World) with family allowed rather than empty arena's though as travelling makes little sense if there's no fans in home arenas.

Another option might be to go to New Zealand for a portion of the season (if they remain relatively Covid-19 free)

Well with MLB in shambles with their version and not looking pretty moving forward, players might think a bubble is the best way to go: financially and health wise. As this current version is working to a T. Also I double Disney will have any complaints as they get to lease their place instead of not making anything at all.