NBA Offseason 2012 - Page 59

On July 25 2012 05:55 rei wrote:
gogo usa vs spain espn!

On July 25 2012 01:30 MassHysteria wrote:

There are definitely what-ifs but I think you are missing the point somewhat in which he means that there are significant what-ifs in tanking as well, if not more (his points on the odds are great, I will not repeat them). Plus, he gave a few advantages in the present time by not tanking (still in playoff hunt, have younger players who are still developing -lawson, gallinari-, and you never know how far they can go in the playoffs with the help of injuries and luck.) There are always what-ifs when discussing strategy though.

You said "if they could nab a star they'd be an instant contender" and obviously that is what they want themselves as Karl was quoted in the piece. The difference is they are going with a different philosphy than the teams who choose to bottom out because they can't nab a star. When there are too many teams looking to bottom-out and there are elite teams which you know are contenders a tier above you for the next 4-5 years, sometimes a new approach could be worth it. Is the article saying this is going to pay off? Not at all. Lowe isn't even arguing this is a good idea, it is more of a wait-and-see how it turns out approach, which is what is really interesting of this to me: The next few years for DEN.

If there was ever a time to try the kind of approach which the article suggests Denver is trying, then this would the right time. With the CBA changes to the league, a lot of teams will be looking to unload players that they know they will not be able to resign or can't afford anymore (to resign a younger player, etc) and DEN is trying to smeagle a way into those conversations. It has yet to work or happen and there are definite questions but I am interested to see where this approach takes them compared to other teams. An "experiment" sort of lol.

As for eliminating the max contract, the problem is that the CBA functions as a whole. So to change max contracts, makes it so that everything in the CBA has to be revisited and changed so that it fits this new system. The most basic example of this example is that eliminating max contracts would then lead to no salary caps. No one wants to be the guy to sign Kobe for 40-45million annually and only have 30 million left to spend b/c of the salary cap. It is not as simple as changing just one aspect of the CBA b/c it all fits together. Side-note: I actually think this CBA will do a good job for people wanting "parity". People are expecting results too quickly though after the CBA though and saying it didn't work, when the effects aren't really fully seen until ~5 years later.