It is my understanding that it would be much the same as it is now, only there is a cap floor and a cap ceiling. And a team must always be inbetween. There is still a cap *I believe it would be $65 million* but if forces all owners to be responsible. I'd also assume that getting rid of the MLE would be a key to this, making Bird Rights more important. I think it appeases the players by not having a real solid cap and making teams spend money, but it also appeases owners by limiting to how much they can spend.
No chance. The players think they can break the owners and will try, the owners are losing money and are almost universally demanding change. I think the NFL lockout was pretty marginal in terms of solidarity and everything. But this one, the players and owners both have very strong opinions on the health of the league and how it should progress in the future. The two sides are so radically far apart in their approaches that it's going to take a very long time for either to budge.
To put it this way, I don't think we see the NBA this calendar year, and would be lucky if we saw any before next year. IMO, the earliest game that could be played would be the All-Star game.
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