What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

[Rocky]

Something I put together while bored at work.

Basically I put the NFL salary rules in place in the NBA with a few modifications:

1-Each salary has a 25% repayment fee if terminated.
2-No early termination options. That means Lebron James, Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade aren't free agents until next year.
3-A hard cap of $65,000,000 in player salaries.
4-A maximum first year salary of $32,000,000. The team resigning a player has an extra 20% of a player's salary that doesn't count against them. (1 player per team....a franchise player if you will).

Here is a chart I made with new capspace numbers and likely player cuts (for the 2010-11 season minus rookies):



And here is the best FA's with expiring contracts and player cuts combined:
Carlos Boozer
Joe Johnson
Andrew Bynum
David Lee
Gilbert Arenas
Ray Allen
Jason Kidd
Kevin Garnett
Antawn Jamison
Jason Terry
Vince Carter
Kenyon Martin
Lamar Odom
Andrei Kirilenko
Michael Redd
Ray Felton
Shaquille O'Neal
Mike Miller
Elton Brand
Nate Robinson
Mike Bibby
Al Harrington
JR Smith
Richard Jefferson
Steve Blake
Brendan Haywood
Zydrunas Illgauskus
Mehmet Okur
Jermaine O'Neal
Delonte West
Brandon Bass
Allen Iverson
Peja Stojakovich
Andres Nocioni
Jose Calderon
Antonio McDyess
James Posey
Daniel Gibson
Samuel Dalembert
Joel Pryzbilla
Daequan Cook
Rudy Fernandez
Morris Peterson
Corey Maggette
Chris Wilcox
Kurt Thomas
Hakim Warrick
Marquis Daniels
Ronald Murray
Raja Bell
Dorrell Wright
Kyle Korver
Tony Allen
Chris Duhon
Luke Ridnour
Jamal Tinsley
Sasha Vujacic
Martell Webster
Mike Dunleavy
Drew Gooden
Travis Outlaw
Francisco Garcia

Any thoughts or suggestions?

[Dice]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

From what has been reported for the negotiations of the new CBA, the owners are pushing for a hard cap, just like the NFL. So this could be somewhat of a reality.

[Taur3asi3]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

A hard cap would be terrible unless they reduced player salaries or upped the cap significantly.

[SPTO]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

A hard cap would be terrible unless they reduced player salaries or upped the cap significantly.

I disagree, A hard cap would promote parity and spreading out of talent. It's not without risk but as long as they don't make it a floating cap like the NHL I think it'll bring about a golden age of basketball where just about every team has a chance to make waves.

[The 24th Letter]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Are the contracts still guarenteed?

Holdouts in the NBA would be horrible....

[SPTO]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Are the contracts still guarenteed?

Holdouts in the NBA would be horrible....

Good point there, I'd keep the Larry Bird Rule in place as a carrot to the players. In essence it'd be the NBA's version of the Franchise Tag in the NFL except said player would get the max amount of money.

[Eman5805]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Yeah, most def. Are those guaranteed contracts?

[TheMatrix31]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Non-guaranteed contracts are the way to go.

I would kill for this system to be put in place.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Parity really is a myth in professional sports. Let's take a look at the past Super Bowl winners.

New Orleans Saints
Pittsburgh Steelers
New York Giants
Indianapolis Colts
Pittsburgh Steelers
New England Patriots
New England Patriots

We pretty much know who's winning a division from year to year in the NFL give or take a few years where things change, but it's really no different than basketball. Furthermore, having small market teams in the Finals isn't going to help the league it will borderline kill it. People complain about boredom when you have teams like Detroit and San Antonio in the Finals but then scream they want parity when teams like the Lakers and Celtics are in. I personally don't mind the system the way it is. Sure there are guys getting paid money they shouldn't be getting, but that's more of a problem with crappy ownership/management than a problem with the system in place. I don't want to see a hard cap in the NBA period. I just watched the Blackhawks pretty much have to dismantle their team after winning a championship because of a hard cap, how is that a fun system?

[Eman5805]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Parity isn't a myth. It's just a bit over emphasized.

Like the NCAA basketball tournament. People talk about parity with the Cinderellas how any year could be some mid major's year. Unfortunately the truth is Cinderellas almost never win it all. They knock off some of the big boys, but that's it.

In the NFL it's kind of the same. Sometimes you get 6th seeds getting in and being hot at the right moment. But often it's the same couple teams at the end.

And I'm hoping my Saints become like that starting this year.

[Cebby]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

There isn't parity in the NBA because one player makes such a huge difference compared to the NFL.

If the NBA had the NFL's cap system then key players would switch teams on a yearly basis just like the NFL. OKC has drafted well, signed well, and built a quality team for the future, but in the NFL's cap they'd be SOL once they have to resign Durant and Westbrook. Ditto for Portland.

Congrats Boston in 2008, you just won the championship but now Perkins and Rondo are holding out and you have to lose two of your starters.

Good point there, I'd keep the Larry Bird Rule in place as a carrot to the players.

That would basically be keeping the status quo.

[King_B_Mack]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

There isn't parity in the NBA because one player makes such a huge difference compared to the NFL.

If the NBA had the NFL's cap system then key players would switch teams on a yearly basis just like the NBA. OKC has drafted well, signed well, and built a quality team for the future, but in the NFL's cap they'd be SOL once they have to resign Durant and Westbrook. Ditto for Portland.

Congrats Boston in 2008, you just won the championship but now Perkins and Rondo are holding out and you have to lose two of your starters.



That would basically be keeping the status quo.

And that's my problem with that system. So OKC should be punished for not having incompetent people running their franchise? If they've put in the work and are actually setting forth efforts to make some real noise in the league, they shouldn't get smacked down to the bottom of the barrel cause some dork in the Bay Area is desperate to see the Warriors contend. It's not even a guarantee to make teams contenders. Every year we know who's going to be in the thick of things in the NFL. It's all going to boil down to the Patriots, Colts, Steelers and throw in some wild card most years from the AFC and The NFC East, Cardinals, Vikings, Packers, healthiest team from NFC South every year.

It would also disconnect people from their teams a bit too much considering they'd have no players to get attached to. Part of what makes sports so great is having "your guys" on teams. The NBA has done pretty well for itself for a long time without the NFL's system.

[Rocky]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

Are the contracts still guarenteed?

Holdouts in the NBA would be horrible....

I should've been more clear. The contracts of the players listed in the spreadsheet are the contracts of that were terminated. So no, the contracts aren't guaranteed.

[Rocky]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

There isn't parity in the NBA because one player makes such a huge difference compared to the NFL.

If the NBA had the NFL's cap system then key players would switch teams on a yearly basis just like the NFL. OKC has drafted well, signed well, and built a quality team for the future, but in the NFL's cap they'd be SOL once they have to resign Durant and Westbrook. Ditto for Portland.

Congrats Boston in 2008, you just won the championship but now Perkins and Rondo are holding out and you have to lose two of your starters.

That would basically be keeping the status quo.

I definitely don't think that would happen after the 2008 season (maybe now), but that's kind of the point. Boston would have to adapt and decide if Rondo is worth the Big 3 or another team would get a potentially great PG.

[ParisB]

Re: What if the NBA had the NFL's salary system?

I disagree, A hard cap would promote parity and spreading out of talent. It's not without risk but as long as they don't make it a floating cap like the NHL I think it'll bring about a golden age of basketball where just about every team has a chance to make waves.

Currently, just about every team has a chance to make waves. It's usually the owners and poor GM decisions that cripple franchises. I think it would be a horrible idea to handicap the field to make up for this.

Right now there IS parity, in the Western conference at least. What's the problem? The #8 seed OKC went 50-32 and took LA to a tough 6 games that almost went 7. There was only a 7 game difference between the top team and bottom seed. Phoenix, Utah, Portland, Denver, San Antonio all finished within a couple games of each other and were all solid teams that won over 50 games.

I don't see the problem. The West is stacked with quality teams that are all already capable of making a "splash".

The East is a little top heavy, with basically only Boston, Cleveland, and Orlando being real contenders while the rest of the conference is a bunch of pretenders and cute stories (lol @ chicago and milwaukee sniffing the playoffs). But it's not our fault teams like the Knicks and Pacers and Pistons have horrible GM's that made poor decisions.

I think the league is just fine how it is right now.