Trueblood

Not only did Seattle have arena issues but there was the issue of Oklahoma City and their support of the Hornets during the 2 years after Hurricane Katrina. Telling that market to support the NBA for 2 years and then just wave goodbye didn't sit well with Stern. As far as he was concerned, it was put up or shut up time for markets with arena problems. d*ck around with politics and anti sports types in city council and Stern would gladly relocate a team out of that market for OKC. Seattle tried to call his bluff only he wasn't bluffing. Now, there are no OKC's out there. Yes, the league would like to put a team in Seattle but they aren't going to go out of their to do it like they did for OKC. In short, Atlanta is safe. They have a great arena and are in a growing, large market with the right demographics and businesses.

I think he's just showing the list of the highest paid players in the league and mentioning that a lot of them are overpaid. Lebron and Wade are the biggest bargains in the league. It angers me that they both play for the same team. It would've been so much better had one gone to New York. Heat and Knicks rivalry renewed and more parity in the EC. The Hawks would be legit contenders or at least closer to the top then what we have now.

It's not necessarily the $75 million that I'm shooting for but the concept of a multi layered cap system that I outlined. The players are going to fight tooth and nail to keep their rights and having exceptions to a soft cap and lux tax before hitting the hard cap is something that can work for everyone. NOW, that being said, we don't have to put the hard cap at $75 million. It can be lowered to the $60 to $65 range and then you put in the softer cap amounts below that. Since most teams can't get to that amount right now, the league would probably phase in the new cap levels over a 2 or 3 year period. This is also assuming you believe everything you read when it comes to the owners and their "losses". Let's be honest, do any of us really believe that the owners would be totally honest about their earnings, especially with a collective bargaining agreement about to expire? They always lie. ALL business owners lie and over report losses, cry "poverty" and hide earned revenue sources from employees. It's funny how all the Stern haters say that he is an evil liar that fixes games and is Satan in the flesh. Then, when he says that everyone is losing money, he all of a sudden turns into the poster boy for honesty and integrity. His job is too do everything he can to make the owners more profitable and help their various causes. Crying poverty and leveraging the players into an owner friendly CBA is what he needs to do. Otherwise, he's not doing his job. Let's also not forget that higher payroll doesn't necessarily guarantee success. The Knicks of this decade can attest to that. Orlando right now as well. Portland in the jail blazer era. For all we know, $75 million isn't high at all. If one team can profit with a $60 million payroll, then it's not totally out of the question that they can still be better than a team at $75 million who has made a mistake or two in player assesment. Detroit and San Antonio won it all with payrolls below the soft cap level while teams well above it were below .500.

I should've confirmed what I meant. Let's say you have a soft cap, lux tax threshold and then a hard cap on top of that. You make the soft cap be $50 million, the lux tax is at $62 and then a hard cap at $75 million. Here's how it works.... You are allowed to exceed the soft cap of $50 million to not only sign your own free agents BUT ALSO sign someone for the MLE provided you stay below the lux tax threshold of $62 million. For example, if the Bulls are at $52 million this summer, they can go out and sign Jason Richardson to shore up their 2G position. Assuming the MLE is around $5 million, he will fit under the $62 million lux tax threshold but they can't go any higher than that $62 million since they spent the MLE. The only way you can exceed the lux tax of $62 million is if you sign your OWN free agents, similar to what you have now. You can't use the MLE or any other exception to exceed the $62. This works for the Hawks though since JC is their own free agent. Assuming they are willing to pay the tax this year, they can resign JC as long as they stay BELOW the hard cap number of $75 million. The $75 million is the hard cap. No exceptions. Period. End of story. You can't exceed this number. If your payroll is at $74 million and you have an expiring contract of $4 million that puts you in the $70-75 range, you can't trade that expiring deal for another contract that will put you above the hard cap for the next season. In other words, the Lakers can't make a deal like the one that sent Kwame's expiring deal to Memphis for Pau Gasol. Those big market teams will now be stuck in the same boat that everyone else is in and it will even out the playing field as a result. If there is just a hard cap with no layers below it, it makes things tougher. Teams will constantly be right up against and FA's will be fleeing to Europe just to make more than the minimum. By creating layers below the hard cap and lux tax threshold, teams will still try to create cap space below the $50 million soft cap so that they can get the prime free agents that are out there only now they are going to have to sacrifice more than what the Heat did when the cap was at $58 million. Plus, by doing that, you have $12 million in breathing room for MLE free agents for the next year as well as up to $75 million in the hard cap to resign your own free agents. If the owner and GM put together a good roster, they should still have the right to exceed the cap to keep the team together, only now they can't just keep signing MLE guys like the Lakers and Celtics do. They can only do that if they are below the $62 million lux tax threshold. I know it sounds confusing but trust me, I have thought this thing out over and over and this is the best possible compromise that I can think of between both sides. They're both going to have to give a bit and take a bit.

I'm cool with a hard cap as long as you have the layers below it. For example, if the hard cap is $75 million then I could see a lux tax threshold at around $63 million with a soft cap at $51 million and 75% of the soft cap is a tad over $37 million for the minimum salary level for the cheap owners. When you talk about the amnesty clause, are you referring to the old clause where you could waive a player and he doesn't count against your lux tax payment or does your system mean that his contract gets terminated altogether? I'm fine with the owners having the ability to terminate 2 deals over the course of the 10 year cba but I would at least make them wait 2 years in order to give the players a warning of sorts.

Thanks NBAsuperstar40. I didn't even realize that we had a point system over here. I'll try to post more often. :biggrin:

If you think it's sad now, imagine if the Chandler trade had gone through and then have them get lucky and get the #1 pick instead of #3 in the draft. That was the year that OKC bred Blake Griffin was available. For those who don't remember, the Thunder were way below the cap in their first year in OKC. The Hornets were pushing the lux tax and needed to shed salary in exchange for expiring deals. Thus, they dealt Chandler to the Thunder for Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox. Unfortunately, the OKC doctor made a big deal out of the potential for a turf toe injury getting worse and they called off the deal. Let's say that doesn't happen. If they keep TC, he probably wouldn't have made that big a difference on the team at the time since they were young and rebuilding and his presence was more for what he could do in the future when the team developed. If they get a lucky bounce of lotto balls, you have a front line of TC, Blake and KD to go with your backcourt. I'll take that any day of the week over Perkins and Ibaka. Now that would really be depressing for the rest of the league.

I agree. The GM's need to be held responsible to a certain extent. I briefly mentioned that at the end of the paragraph 3. The problem is that the owners are hell bent on getting their way this time and I think the players are better off making a deal now as opposed to missing half or all of the season and then getting that same bad deal later, only this time they have lost an entire year's worth of salary. I even think that for a lot of players, allowing for 1 or 2 guys to be whacked who aren't playing up to par is actually a good thing. Here's why. Let's say you have a team like the Hawks. They want to resign Crawford but just don't want to go over the lux tax to do so. It's not just the Hawks who get hurt if JC leaves. JC now has to find a team that will pay him what he feels is fair market value and with the MLE most likely being compromised in the next cba, he is going to have a hard time finding it. Not to mention the fact that he's gonna be over 30 as well. With my rule in place, they can take out Marvin or Hinrich and then have plenty of breathing room to bring back JC. Now, this is just a hypothetical example. I'm not necessarily suggesting that the Hawks are better off with JC over Marvin or Hinrich but you get the idea. If Marvin or Hinrich were truly under performing at the level that some guys in the league are, then being able to get rid of one of them works to the advantage of an upcoming free agent who wants to stay but can't due to said bad salaries. The league in general would be better. You wouldn't have as many Euro departures. The Hawks wanted JChildress back but were up against it financially and had to let him go. Lot's of teams have found themselves in that boat. Getting rid of 1 lame brain every 5 years helps everyone. The fans win because the team is better, the owner wins because he saves a boat load of dough and the upcoming free agent who deserves a pay day as opposed to floating over to Greece win as well. The only loser is the overpaid jake. The key is getting the players to understand the above. Don't hold out on a good deal for a new cba for overpaid underperformers.

I've been thinking about this for awhile and the best compromise I could think of is that if the new cba is for 10 years, the owners should have the right to terminate one deal during the first 5 years and one in the next 5 years. For the players sake, I'd make a rule saying that you can't terminate a deal unless the player has played 2 years on it so that if they get hurt, they at least have 2 years of salary to fall back on. FWIW, the Allan Houston rule still allowed the players to get paid even after they got cut but the salary wouldn't count against a lux tax payment. Great for the player, good for a luxury tax paying owner and BAD for owners who keep their payroll low and expect a nice lux tax payout only to now not see it due to it being wiped off the lux tax books. My thinking is this. Owners are making way too big a deal out of guaranteed deals. When you get down to it, it's rarely more than one deal that really sticks out as a bad one either because a player slacks off or gets hurt. If you give the owner the right to terminate one per every 5 years, that should be enough. If he has to do more than that, you have to consider the possibility that the GM is no good and that HE should be the one getting fired. Also, if you're someone who thinks that guaranteed deals need to go away because all players slack off, then this is still good because nobody knows whose deal will get terminated. Therefore, it's in their best interest to try as hard as they can so that they don't become that guy. To allow for more competitive balance, the league needs to do away with allowing teams to pay the MLE if they are already in the lux tax. Boston and the Lakers kept taking advantage of this. The Lakers got Fisher, then Artest 2 years later and this year they got Blake and Barnes to split it. My new rule would only allow teams in the soft cap to lux tax window to spend on the MLE. For example, the cap was $58 million and the lux tax was $70 million. The majority of the league was in that range. As long as you can exceed the $58 million but stay below $70 or whatever the lux tax is for a given year, you can spend the MLE. Basically, I'm saying that the lux tax becomes a hard cap of sorts if you're spending the MLE or any portion of it. I don't have a problem with a hard cap as long as there are layers below. For instance, you have a minimum cap of 75% of the actual salary cap. That's how it is now. Then you have the cap. $58 million this year. Then the lux tax at $70. I would then have no problem if you put in a hard cap at $82 million as that $12 million is the same window between the soft cap and lux tax. Therefore, you have a system where you can exceed the soft cap to sign MLE players, can only exceed the lux tax to sign your own bird or early free agents and then you can't exceed the hard cap. Period. From there, it's pretty simple. I'd probably lower the max to 20%, 25% and 30% depending on years in the league as opposed to the current 25%, 30% and 35%. Maybe extend the rookie cap a year or 2 so that owners don't have to pay the big bucks after 4 years but now maybe 5 or 6 and still have the ability to get rid of rookies after year 2 if they don't pan out. Limit raises to 10% for players signing with their own team and make it 5% if you leave as a free agent as opposed to the current 12.5% and 8.5% which are high, bad for the owner and hard to calculate in your head. 10 and 5 is easy. Also eliminate trade exceptions when a player is signed and traded. Players took advantage of this by getting their cake and eat it too by resigning with their own team and then got traded which allowed them to get the max raise AND bolt their team. If we can get a franchise label, this becomes moot but if not, let's throw it in the new cba as well.

I usually do these right away but due to it being such a weak draft coupled with an interesting playoff run for the Hawks, I put it off a bit. Regardless, here is my annual "Max Trueblood mock draft". 1. Cleveland-Kyrie Irving, PG Dan Gilbert was pretty excited about getting the #1 pick which led me to believe that he has his eyes on someone and the rumor for a few months now is that they like Irving. 2. Minnesota-Derrick Williams, SF Enes Kanter fills more of a need at the center spot but Williams is the best available. Could come off the bench or start right away if the Wolves get a deal for Michael Beasley. 3. Utah-Enes Kanter, C All signs point to them taking Brandon Knight but I just don't see why he's a perfect fit in the Jazz system. Look for Kanter to get the nod here and team up with Turkish countryman Mehmet Okur. 4. Cleveland-Jonas Valanciunas, C Big time reach here but he's young and has the most long term potential. He fills a need and coupled with it being a weak draft, actually makes some sense here. 5. Toronto-Branden Knight, PG Tempted to take a European like Jan Vesely since they've built their roster around Europeans but Knight is too good to pass up. With Calderon getting older and Bayless better suited to being a combo guard off the bench, the Raps go with a floor leader. 6. Washington-Jan Vesely, SF/PF I swore I'd never project another 6'11" Euro as a wing player but this guy has the skills to get it done on the next level. 7. Sacramento-Kemba Walker, PG The Kings feel that Tyreke's long term position is the 2 spot so they fill the PG gap with Walker. 8. Detroit-Marcus Morris, SF/PF Tough as nails type who'll fit the Motor City image. Not to mention that Tayshaun Prince is a free agent and may not be back so there could be a hole at SF. 9. Charlotte-Kawhi Leonard, SF Has been compared to Gerald Wallace on most draft sites so the Bobcats have someone that they can pacify the "Crash" fans with. 10. Milwaukee-Bismack Biyombo, PF The Bucks seem to have good luck with foreign players and he is arguably the best player available. 11. Golden State-Jordan Hamilton, 2G/SF A bit of a reach here but I'm impressed with this guy's game and he has NBA written all over him. Can run the floor well which comes in handy with this uptempo offense. 12. Utah-Jimmer Fredette, PG Now you know the real reason why I have the Jazz going big with the #3:-p. Gotta see the Jimmer stay in state. 13. Phoenix-Alec Burks, 2G Really tempted to take Klay Thompson here but they have enough shooters. Time for a defensive player with an all around game. 2G is the weakest spot in the NBA talent wise and Burks and Thompson are the best available. 14. Houston-Chris Singleton, SF/PG He can come right in and battle Chase Budinger for the starting SF spot. 15. Indiana-Donatus Motiejunas, PF/C The Pacers can fill the backup PG need through free agency. For now, this guy can spread the floor on offense when the Pacers go small. Has been on the NBA radar forever. 16. Philadelphia-Tobias Harris, SF Another reach but he has long term potential and the Sixers could use some depth at the 3 spot due to Thaddeus Young getting the majority of his minutes at the 4. 17. New York-Klay Thompson, 2G Great pick for the Knicks. Catch and shoot guy comes in handy in the uptempo offense. Will battle Fields for the starting 2 spot. 18. Washington-Nolan Smith, PG Surprise pick here but the Wiz go for need as they have no backup PG to Wall. Steady ballhandler gives who is effective in the halfcourt. 19. Charlotte-Tyler Honeycutt, SF Should've stayed in school but I still him having success on the next level. Gives Bobcats another SF option after the loss of Gerald Wallace. 20. Minnesota-Markieff Morris, PF Best available as Marcus' twin does the free fall. 21. Portland-Tristan Thompson, PF Another free faller who will work well here as the Blazers have no backup for Lamarcus Aldridge. 22. Denver-Deandre Liggins, 2G I'm going way out on a limb on this one but if the Nugz are tired of JR's antics and want to go with a 2G sleeper, this could be the guy. 23. Houston-Lucas Noguera, C Another sleeper who may not even be eligible for the draft but has long term upside and could develop overseas for a couple years. 24. Oklahoma City-Kenneth Faried, PF Another tough guy that Brooks and Presti will love. 25. Boston-Marshon Brooks, 2G Local guy from Providence gives the Celtics backcourt depth. 26. Dallas-Trey Thompkins, PF Listed as PF but likes to shoot from deep and Dallas likes to spread the floor so he works out here. 27. New Jersey-Jeremy Tyler, PF Finally coming into his own and gives the Nets a long term guy to go with their core of young players. 28. Chicago-Josh Selby, PG/2G Good all around player and best available. 29. San Antonio-Keith Benson, C Has been on the NBA radar forever. Gives the Spurs a good low post player to develop while Duncan heads to the twilight of his career. 30. Chicago-Nikola Vucevic, C The Bulls hit a homerun the last time they took a USC player in Gibson so they go that route again. A very underrated college player who could be a factor in the league.

How many people on here are Thrasher fans? The only reason I ask is that I don't want to offend anyone if they are but I think it would be in the best interest of a lot of people if the Thrashers were the one that was sold and eventually relocated. Ownership could then use the money from the sale towards balancing out losses or paying off debts as well as making the Hawks a better team. Let's face it, Atlanta isn't the greatest pro sports city around. Maybe it would be better off with 3 teams as opposed to 4 and you wouldn't have the oversaturated situation that we do now. There has to be some Thrasher fans that would become Hawks or Braves fans if the sale went through. Also, let's not forget that the new cba will most definitely have more revenue sharing. That means that teams at the lower end of the totem pole, like the Hawks, will have more revenue and less losses.

Not sure how relevant it is but just wanted to pass on my mini chat with J Chil. I work in the Century City section of Los Angeles and as I was exiting the 2029 Century Park East building (one of the twin towers of Century City), I saw Josh Childress waiting in the valet section. Easy to spot. 6'7" dude with a massive fro. I walked by and gave him the "what up J Chil". Unsure of what type of person he is, I didn't expect him to say much but he seemed really surprised and happy that someone recognized who he was. I told him that I hoped to see him back with the Hawks and he said "I will" and gave me the thumbs up. I told him "congrats on the contract, you got a good deal" and he just smiled and gave me the thumbs up again. He seemed like a really down to earth and good guy. No sense of an arrogant athlete aura about him. Now should we make anything out of his "I'll be back" statement? Maybe, maybe not. He could've just been appeasing a fan but that was a direct quote. FWIW, UBS Paine Webber and Smith Barney are in that bldg. so my assumption is that he's investing wisely but again, I just saw him at the valet and don't know what suite he was visiting. Still, it's refreshing to run into down to earth millionaires. Hopefully, with Bibby's current deal off the books next summer, he'll be right back here. We'll see.

Yeah, that was the case 5 to 10 years ago but times have changed. The ideal C/PF combo is more like Horford and Smoove as opposed to Koncak and Willis.

Well, Evans signed for roughly 2.5 million as a base salary and the MLE is something like 5.8 million so they have 3.3 left from that. You could easily get Wells or Finley with that. Also, the small exception is worth 1.9 and can be used every other year. I don't think the Hawks used their's last year although I could be mistaken. If not, then you have another 1.9 million you can spend on a decent big man.

The difference with byc is that you need to match 3 numbers as opposed to just 2. When no byc is involved, a player making 12 million can match with a player making 14 million. Like Emplay is saying, it is tough to match those 2 players if one is byc. Let's say the 14 million guy is byc. He would have a byc number of 7 and an actual salary number of 14 so you would have to match 7 with 12 with 14. Like I said earlier, 12 and 14 would work but 7 and 12 doesn't. Now if you add Speedy, like Emplay is saying, you have larger numbers with which to work and that makes it easier for you to get within 25% on 3 different numbers.

I guess you're right but they wouldn't have Bynum, Mihm and Gasol as Mihm would be on the Hawks in my proposed deal. Those numbers are really close though. I guess if they are off a bit, it could still be done provided the Hawks have a trade exception but they don't. I guess it all comes down to how accurate the numbers are. If hoopshype or your contacts are giving us legit data then it barely works. I merely threw in Zaza and Mihm so as to give the deal some breathing room in case the numbers we are giving are actually off a bit in reality. Oh yeah, thankfully the NBA increased the trade gap from 15% to 25%. If it's still 15%, this deal would be very hard to do without a 3rd team involved.

Yeah, I can see a trade happening. I don't think Utah is really wild about Brevin Knight and Ronnie Price being the backups. I have to think that they would prefer someone like Ridnour or Watson so a Korver and Jarron Collins for either one of those guys would work. OKC would have a 2 guard and would solve their logjam at point guard, all without adding much to the payroll. Utah would solve their 2G logjam and would have a good backup at point in case Williams gets hurt due to the long summer with the olympic team.

It was mentioned above that a 3rd team that is below the cap would have to be involved. That's an easy way to get around byc but it doesn't necessarily have to be that way. If 2 over the cap teams throw in enough salaries, byc can be offset. It happened when Charlotte signed and traded Eddie Jones in the summer of 2000. He went from making $2 million to making $9 million. Charlotte was capped out and he became byc but with PJ Brown, Mashburn, Mason and a few others switching teams, enough salaries offset the byc. Let's assume Smoove's base year is $9 million and hoopshype is correct in their salary numbers..... Smoove 9 and 4.5 byc Speedy 5.7 Zaza 4.0 That gives the Hawks a total of 18.7 byc and 14.2 regular Let's say that they want to get Lamar Odom from the Lakers. They could throw in Chris Mihm to offset the byc. Here's how their numbers would be. Odom 14.5 Mihm 2.5 For a total of 17 million Now, 17 million is wedged between both Hawks' numbers of 18.7 and 14.2 and it comes within 25% and 100,000 of both so the trade works.