NBA Free Agencey

off the net from waterfield

This was the year to be a free agent. What has happened is that television is paying big and bigger bucks to broadcast these games and the cap is correspondingly increasing. The CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) takes into account all NBA dough (BRI or Basketball Related Income)including merchandise, broadcast revenues, ticket sales, parking,etc. They come up with a number. Half of that number goes to ownership and the other half is to be divided up among the teams and that controls how much will be the cap. This is all part of the bargaining agreement between the players and ownership. Basically ESPN, TNT, NBC, ABC, etc are responsible for the cap’s rise. If your a team with needs (i.e.Lakers) you have no choice but to pay the “market value” for a player which this year is enormous for even secondary players and no name players-all because of the increased revenue boosting the cap upwards. OTOH if your the Warriors or the Cavs with little needs your not going to pay that kind of money for something you don’t need.

Some agents were smart enough to make sure their clients were signed to only one year deals last year knowing what was on the horizon. OTOH some were not. There were some really good players that signed multi year deals that are now looking at players (free agents-NOT restricted free agents) who are making far less than players signing today who are no where near as good as they are. The Laker center they just signed from Cleveland is a perfect example of a below average player making lots more than players far better but on long term deals. But the Lakers HAD to have improvement at that position so had no choice.

The sad fact is the Lakers are no longer an attractive place to play for the big stars. The teams they have fielded have been lousy and they have no really good players other than Clarkson. They used to be able to make deals for big time stars but now there only hope is via the drafts. Until Jeanne Buss takes over completely what we see now will be the future until the “re-build” is complete-which will take more than a couple of years. Hopefully, Jackson can return or even West on an advisory role. Sadly Dr. Buss shares most of the responsibility for what has occurred since his death.