With Durant deciding on going for the closest thing to a sure thing, the folly of the NBA free Agent system is further exposed. In the West, the regular season basically becomes completely uninteresting except for which teams are going to try the hardest to tank and how many games the GSW will win. All this because the system ensures that all the offers (except the home team) are the same for any max player. Teams must count on a player wanting to play there on factors other than money. This becomes a tremendous problem for the lesser competitive teams and lesser glamorous cities. OKC is instantly in dire straights. If Westbrook leaves next year, the team basically has no hope outside the draft lottery. The current system is a good way to end up with 2 competitive teams ---- one in the East and one in the West with everyone else jockeying for the lottery. That hasn't happened yet, but the road there is now paved.
Easy fix
1. Hard cap
2. No max contracts
3. If you want to give a home team an advantage to retain, then work on a compensation system for free agents that leave or a tax system to sign away players, etc
But this is not a good day for the NBA, and I would expect it to lead to changes. Although the Miami collusion failed to lead to any modifications.
Easy fix
1. Hard cap
2. No max contracts
3. If you want to give a home team an advantage to retain, then work on a compensation system for free agents that leave or a tax system to sign away players, etc
But this is not a good day for the NBA, and I would expect it to lead to changes. Although the Miami collusion failed to lead to any modifications.