the NBA is a joke - Dwight Howard wants to leave for New York or L.A.

[Mad Hatter]

As far as your compensation to teams, teams do get that. I believe the Cavs were able to get draft picks and they got "some sort of salary cap exception", the TPE.

We were compensated for LeBron leaving, but that was after the fact. It was also so LeBron could sign the larger/longer contract, and possibly even to avoid a collusion investigation. There was nothing that actually required Miami to give us anything in return. What I was saying is that there should be automatic compensation for free agents leaving (which I suppose would have to scale based on the salary of the player). And again, players shouldn't be able to get the largest/longest contract possible unless they stay with their original team. Even in a sign and trade, they shouldn't be able to do it.

There has to be a clear incentive for these players to stay with their original team. Either that, or a franchise tag, but I prefer "convincing" players to stay rather than forcing them to do so.

So with the Melo situation as an example, here's what I'd like to see:

• If Melo were to re-sign with Denver, he would be able to sign for the maximum amount of money and years (this wouldn't change from now).
• If Melo were to leave in free agency and sign with anyone else, Denver would receive automatic compensation (without the need for a sign and trade) and Melo would not be able to get as much money, or as many years, as he could get from Denver.
• If Denver for some reason did decide to do a sign and trade with Melo in advance of free agency, he would not be able to get as much money, or as many years, in the sign and trade that he would be able to get from Denver.

Wouldn't this be better than the current situation? Denver is not forced to trade Melo because they know they will get something if he does walk, and Melo is at least slightly more likely to stay in Denver since he can get more money and a longer contract there in every possible case. It also helps to prevent players from handpicking teams to be traded to and/or working their way into teams that don't have the cap space to sign them.

Believe me, I hope you are right and that it doesn't become more common for star players to be doing this. Hopefully the new CBA will deal with some of these issues as well.

 

[ButterMPancakes]

I honestly don't think this would change things much. . . the most it would do is give teams compensation for nothing, which I can't agree with at all. Let's say the NBA gives compensation to teams that lose players to the FA with draft picks and exceptions. Now imagine a team like the Knicks before Amar'e and all. All the money they spent on awful signings, if timed right, could give them a HUGE compensation (depending on what kind of compensation you're talking about) if they managed to get all of their guys to expire the same year. Or is this only for teams that lose their star players? Wouldn't that be a bit too subjective? If ATL were to lose Joe Johnson at the end of his contract, why should they get the same compensation say Denver gets losing prime Melo vs losing old JJ? Now it's in the hands of the league to make the calls and I can honestly tell you I don't trust the league to have the power to say which team deserves more than the other.


I think it's fine the way it is, granted I do think they make a lot of money, but it's not really my money so I don't care. The few things I'd like to see changed in the CBA are making players stay in college for at least 3 years, some sort of draft protection (or ban) for teams/players that go into the draft and get picked but decide to play in Europe instead (Vasquez , Rubio). I think THAT is something owners should be protected from it's not always clear.

I'd also like to see something similar to the Franchise tag. I kind of agree that the player shouldn't make as much money as he could with his original team if he joined another, but this is something the owners themselves could just say no to. If the player and team decide to do a sign and trade but the player still doesn't get max money, why would the opposing team and the player himself even bother with it? I think it's a situation where both parties have to get something. Maybe make the sign and trade signings be worth a little bit more than signing outright and a bit less than the max. I don't think every team deserves to keep their star player.



Hell, the one thing I'd love to have fixed is ESPN and pseudo insiders. I guarantee you the image of the NBA itself would be much better if it weren't for all these so-called writers making up drama and garbage rumor about everything and if people didn't eat it all up. Hell, this Howard story alone was based purely on the fact that the Magic lost a franchise center to the Lakers a decade and a half ago. That's it. . . they didn't take into account the fact that Howard never said anything about, the fact that the Magic would never trade Howard to the Lakers, and the unlikelihood of the Lakers having the cap space to sign him (unless they somehow get rid of Gasol). . . yet people ate it all up and have already declared him gone to LA. Almost the entire Lakers forum already thinks they're getting Howard (and a day or two ago they thought they had Melo).

 

[Spencer Hawes]

What about if a player left for free agency, he can only sign 1 year contracts for the remainder of his career. That would entice a lot of free agents to stay with their original teams sign multi-year deals.