I thought this was an interesting article on how the cap is affecting our primary competitor in the Central Division. nJoy.


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My only question is who is drawing out the financial terms of the Cavs contracts. Why would you give the Statue of Liberty- Ilgaskus a trade kicker of 15%??? Ilgaskus is softer than a piece of cake and King James needs a big man that can manhandle people in the paint and kick the ball out to Lebron and have his back. It should not be the other way around where Lebron has to have his big man's back.This is insane.

Also over paying for an injury prone Larry Hughes was not what the team needed. He does not fit Lebron's style of play.

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Flip is history!!! Eureka!!!

Thats why its important to avoid overpaying players. Its gotten crazy and many teams are going to be facing the same issues.

I guess its also not too unreasonable to expect that the owners may actually want to make a profit from their teams. A 68 mil lux tax boundry gives you almost 7 mil a piece for your 1st 10 players.

I personally don't like the salary cap. I understand the logic behind it of helping smaller market teams stay competitive but does it really help them? The smaller market teams always are in or near the basement and when they develop a young stud player they can't afford to pay to keep him so he flies the coup for greener pastures 90% of the time. Then you have the cheap owners who refuse to put money into their teams to even get 50% near the salary cap level so what is the point of it all??

Winless, that is the exact opposite of what the salary cap does.

The cap protects the league from owners overspending (as a group) on player salaries. It's a partnership between owners and players to make as much money as possible, divided in a pre-determined fashion between the two factions.

Imagine running a business where you had no handle on fixed overheads. The CBA does away with that by taking the single biggest expense (player salaries) and regulating them to provide a somewhat constant measure of expenses vs. income.

The more the league makes, the more the players make. The stars are well provided for, and the average salary is $5+ million a year.

Because I think the NFL cap is essentially a slavemaster's deal, and my knowledge of the NBA salary cap is decent, I have to say that of all the 4 major sports, the NBA has the best system.

Don't confuse inept with small market. Indiana, Milwaukee, Memphis and Denver are all small media markets that have been in the playoffs for the last 2+ years. You don't have to look any further than the San Antonio Spurs and what they have done with one of the least wealthy ownership groups in the league.

Until the Knicks, Blazers and Warriors learn how to spend their money, they will suffer no matter how much green they toss around. There is an art to what the elite teams do with salaries, veteran free agents and draft picks that enable them to be successful.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

There is a very loose cap in the NBA. With the Sign/Trade teams can go way over and still be FA contenders. Thats part of whats driving up the salaries. Then we have the MLE which you can weight to have the 1st year as lowest paying year in order to baloon it out so you can sign your guy.

Large markets can go over the cap and still be profitable, small markets can't. Its weighted to give the edge to the large markets and the small ones essentially get paid off every year for their continued support.

Mid market teams like the Pistons are in a better position than teams like Milw and Orlando but still cannot afford too much lux tax if they want to make a profit. Chicago, NY and LA can go 15 or even 20 mil over and still make a profit. The Pistons can't. Does that make Davison cheap?

To give you an idea. According for Forbes in 2005 the Knicks box office sales almost doubled ours, and they did not even make the playoffs.

I would be all for a hard cap. Keep the soft where it is and instead of a lux tax threshold of 67 mil have that as a hard ceiling. Teams cannot go over it no matter what. That would get salaries in line and would level the playing field so the best GM's can prevail.

Profitable and competitive are not synonymous.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

Salaries are in line. if league wide salaries exceed the threshold set in the CBA, the players are obligated to return some of their earnings held in escrow.

Believe me, Stern did not create a system with a lot of loopholes for the players to dominate the income structure. And the league has made a lot of progress with catering minimum contract jobs for older vets (job security so to speak) as well as placing minimum salary (player and team) restrictions on the owners.

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Momma was queen of the mambo, Poppa was king of the congo, deep down in the jungle, I start banging my first bongo
Every monkey like to be, in my place instead of me, cause I'm the king of bongo baby, I'm the king of bongo bong
-Manu Chao

I am not doubting that certain players are worth the money but many more are not and with the NBA structure if you don't pay then someone else will. Take Cleveland, look at what they spent on Larry Hughes.

Maybe it will correct itself after the cause and effect of bad deals sink in but GM's never seem to learn.

The NBA may have the best system, but the NFL has needs that mandate no trades and efforts to keep it's draft picks.
The offensive line is one that requires players to be together for years. And making everyone play by the same rules at the games expense would cheapen the game. Injuries make player lifespans volatile unlike Basketball.