Another lockout possibly looming

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Indications are it won’t be easy. CBSSports.com, citing a person familiar with the document, reported that the first proposal the league sent the union last week called for a reduction of the players’ share of the basketball-related income from 57 percent to below 50, as well as reductions in the length and amount of maximum value contracts, and elements of a “hard” salary cap to replace the current system that forces teams exceeding the cap to pay a luxury tax.

I can't see the players union being too quick to agree to that. It's understandable that the league and the owners would be looking out for their best interests at the best of times let alone in the current economy, but obviously the players have to do the same. I hope Stern is right, hopefully talking about these issues and working out a new CBA just under a year and a half before the current one expires will avoid another lockout.

Proves how stupid the players are that they continue to collectively bargain with the owners. The union loses every single lockout because the majority of the union lives paycheck to paycheck, and with Europe becoming a potentially valid option the union basically has zero bargaining power left.

These negotiations only go well during periods of economic booms or bubbles, but with half the teams basically underwater they have zero reason to agree to any of the players unreasonable demands. A lockout just saves them money.

A few of my suggestions, some maybe plausible & some probably not:

- 50/50 BRI split (can go plus or minus 2% in any one year with owners/players covering the difference)
- Maximum 5 year contracts when re-signing with teams (first 3 years guaranteed)
- Maximum 4 year contracts when signing with other teams (first 2 years guaranteed)
- 1st Round rookie 2 year guaranteed contracts (team option for 3rd year only)
- Remove restricted free agency completely
- Soft/hard cap limits (soft $50m, hard $60m): you can only exceed soft cap when re-signing Bird right players, signing players to MLE or league minimum or trading for player when your team is already over cap. You can not exceed hard cap under any circumstances. All teams must spend at least $40m of cap. If implemented, this would need to be phased in over a number of seasons to give teams a chance to get under the hard cap figure.
- Based on above, no luxury tax exists
- Minimum roster 13 players, maximum 15
- No injury salary cap exemptions. Insurance will help cover 80% of contracts & contracts are also not guaranteed for as long.
- Reduce 1st Round playoff series from 7 games to 5
- 20 year age limit for draft. If not then scrap the 19 year age limit & let high schoolers declare.
- All teams in lottery have a 1/14th chance of winning Draft lottery
- Agreed buyout proportions.

Good ideas. I'd set the hard cap a little higher, depending on what team payrolls look like in a year's time. I think if you institute a hard cap, you'd have to create another Allan Houston exception to allow teams to get (further) under the hard cap by buying out a player or two. I'd completely scrap the age limit, it has noble intentions but I think teams and younger players alike should have the right to try, make their own mistakes and ultimately succeed or fail; that's life.

As far as the lottery goes, I'm not completely against the idea of equal chances for all fourteen teams who miss the Playoffs but I'd consider still giving the bottom five slightly better odds than the rest of the teams in the lottery, but they each have the same odds. Taking it a step further, the next five could have equal, slightly worse odds and then the next four - the ones closest to making the Playoffs - would equally divide the remaining chances in the lottery. That way the teams who most need some fresh blood still have better odds of getting a top three pick, but there's no "race for last" given the fifth worst team has the same chance as the team in last place and the number of ping pong balls between last place and 17th place in the league won't differ as much as in previous years, so there's less chance of being rewarded for tanking.