A majority of league executives and several owners are concerned with the current in-season contract buyout and waiver process and they’ve been pushing to open the dialogue on a change, Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical writes. They have attached support on a request to have the issue addressed during the general managers’ meetings in May, sources tell Wojnarowski.
The owners and executives are worried that the current system has become unfair to many of the smaller and mid-size market teams since players who agree to a buyout often sign with playoff contenders. There’s also concern that the buyout market is suffocating the trade market. The deadline for a player to be released or bought out and still be playoff-eligible is March 1, which usually falls about a week after the league’s trade deadline. Teams know players will be bought out and deadline sellers are unable to get value for their players since opposing teams don’t feel the need to give up an asset for a player when they can wait and simply sign someone productive.
Tampering is another issue within the current system that is expected to be addressed. GMs would like to find a way to avoid pre-arranged deals by the buyout candidates, which would allow more teams to have a chance at the player. In addition, some GMs believe the current system devalues cap space, lessens the purpose of exceptions and creates poor optics for fans and sponsors.
This year’s buyout season saw the Cavaliers bring in two former top-3 overall picks–Deron Williams and Andrew Bogut– despite only having minimum-salaried slots to work with. Bogut is currently out for the year with a broken leg, while Williams figures to play a key role for Cleveland as the team looks to defend its title in this year’s playoffs.
Maybe they create a “buyout exception” and teams are limited to bringing in one bought out player.
Maybe we punish successful teams by preventing them from getting any players in the buyout market? Or the NBA can require teams with winning records to pay a premium for trades at the deadline. The other other option is to let the NBA assign players to teams, pay everyone the same, and rotate the league “superstars” so every NBA city gets one.
Why not just bypass all the unfairness and let each team be NBA champions?
What they need to do is remove the luxury tax, salary cap, and restrictions on players salaries. Let it be a true free market enterprise. Cleveland is a small market team and has the highest payroll in the league. It seems people should be angry at the individuals who buy franchises they can’t afford.
Yes fix it so teams can’t keep getting stacked & stacked
So you support punishing success? Why not encourage others to compete harder or spend more money.
Why do they care so much about this, but don’t care about players signing with championship contenders at the beginning of the year for cheap.
Why can the Cavs not have Williams and Bogut for a half year but teams can sign Zaza or David West for the whole year for cheap and no one cares.
What about all those cheap contracts Dirk and Duncan signed over the years?
Because the league would get so much flak for restricting the destinations a player can go to. There’s no reasonable way to fix that problem, you can’t tell players to take more money. But the buyout system is fixable, and promotes competitive balance which I think is probably the 2nd most important issue the NBA has on its agenda behind resting players.
I agree with the owners here. Waived players shouldn’t even be free agents. If you buyout or release a player, any team can claim him at the league minimum (plus whatever he’s entitled to from his old team, of course).
If two teams claim a player, the worse record has priority.
Boom. I just saved the NBA.
Yeah I like this. Limiting teams to one signing of someone who is bought out after the deadline is the other alternative I could see. Keeps the old system intact while forcing teams to trade for players they really want instead of waiting for their release.