The NBA . . . . . gone and forgotten

[octothorp]

So the players filed two seperate anti-trust lawsuits today, one in Minnesota and one in Northern California. They're trying a scattershot approach, hoping one of the two courts will be favourable to them. Minnesota is where the NFL players got their first court victory, while California has traditionally more pro-union rulings than elsewhere. Sounds like many experts think the NBA will attempt to get all the proceedings moved to one court, ideally New York, where they've already got a pre-emptive suit underway.

So that's what we can expect for the first legal round: lawyers arguing about where the proceedings should actually be held.

[Cowperson]

A discussion of the tactics being employed by both sides and a probable result:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports....html?hpid=z12

Cowperson

[evman150]

Went to the NBA website to see what it had to say about things...wow! Worst site ever. Looks straight out of 1999.

Basketball's a joke in so many ways. It's sad too, cause it's a great sport.

[octothorp]

Sounds like there's one last effort to save the season... sides are meeting separately tonight after a day of negotiating, and both are reportedly optimistic they can reach a deal.
If you believe that Christmas is the latest that the NBA will start their season, and that the league needs about 30 days of lead-up time, then we're down to the last 72 to 48 hours. I think we should hear by tomorrow that the PA is going to arrange a vote on the proposal.

[Hockey]

well according to reports the season has been saved and the regular season will start on Christmas Day!!

[Trojan97]

I'm an NBA fan and I have absolutely no interest in seeing an agreement at this point. This reeks of desperation IMO and I have very little interest in watching the shortene season unfold, a legitimate champion is impossible at this point.

It's going to be a sloppy season full of out of shape players. I think I'll stick to NCAA at this point. I just hope the owners finally get a deal where seventh men aren't making 8 figures.

[PeteLFan]

Awesome. Finally more sports, now only if baseball would get locked out forever

[Joborule]

Originally Posted by PeteLFan

Awesome. Finally more sports, now only if baseball would get locked out forever

Yes because Baseball takes such a negative toll on your life.

[Lobotroth]

Originally Posted by evman150

Went to the NBA website to see what it had to say about things...wow! Worst site ever. Looks straight out of 1999.

Basketball's a joke in so many ways. It's sad too, cause it's a great sport.

The NBA is the joke, watch college basketball instead. Growing up all the coaches I ever had told me to always watch the NCAA if I wanted to watch for the benefit of my own game. The NBA is all about one or two guys on the team (Kobe, Lebron etc.) whereas college ball is all about the team. Why do you think the "dream team" got dismantled a few years ago by the Greeks and Argentines? It's easier to score when you pass the ball amongst five guys rather than have one guy try to drive it to the basket.

[GirlySports]

Despite the scoring and the flashy highlight packages the fundamentals and defense throughout an NBA game is really good. Despite that, scores are still reasonably high because of good shooting (usually over 50%).

In college basketball they just miss too many open shots even with average defense and a short 3-point line.

Count me in as one of the 4 people happy the season is back.

[octothorp]

Just reading through discussions of what pundits think the deal involves, I'm a little disappointed that the owners gave back a number of concessions that would have done a lot at building a bit of competitive balance. Not really surprising, it just reinforces that this was all about money from the get-go. Seems like it's pretty much what it was before, but with adjusted salaries and a higher luxury tax. Would have liked to see the elimination of sign-and-trades and the MLE shrunk down.

[Lobotroth]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Despite the scoring and the flashy highlight packages the fundamentals and defense throughout an NBA game is really good. Despite that, scores are still reasonably high because of good shooting (usually over 50%).

In college basketball they just miss too many open shots even with average defense and a short 3-point line.

Count me in as one of the 4 people happy the season is back.

Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy watching the NBA even if some of the teams and players leave a lot to be desired. I was extremely happy to see the Mavs win last season as they were deserving of it, they all played for each other and their game was exciting to watch.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Joborule

Yes because Baseball takes such a negative toll on your life.

Hey Man, the side effects of steroid abuse are real!

Also, I'd probably watch more basketball if they called Travelling.

Nah, probably not. it's so anti-climactic.

[Da_Chief]

If they come back without a hard cap then the deal is a massive FAIL...continue to have Lakers, Heat, Celtics etc load up and bottom feeders no chance....

[Cheese]

Here are some rumors...

Every team can use the full mid-level exception, provided doing so does not take the team more than $4 million over the tax line. SI.com

Adrian Wojnarowski: Teams now have three days to match offer sheets given to their own restricted free agents. Twitter

Adrian Wojnarowski: Minimum team salary increases to 85% in first two years of deal and 90% in years thereafter. Twitter

Marc Berman: One source says 2 owner concessions were mini-midlevel for taxpayers going from $2.5M to $3.5M and teams can spend full $5M MLE into tax. Twitter

_ On the financial split, the players will receive between 49 and 51 percent of revenues, depending on annual growth. The players had complained prior to Saturday that the owners' previous offer effectively limited them to 50.2 percent of revenues, but the source said 51 percent was now reasonably achievable with robust growth.
_Owners dropped their insistence on what would have been known as the Carmelo Anthony rule, preventing teams from executing extend-and-trade deals similar to the one that sent Anthony from the Denver Nuggets to the New York Knicks last season. This means that if Dwight Howard, Deron Williams and Chris Paul want to leverage their way out of Orlando, New Jersey and New Orleans, they will still be eligible to sign four-year extensions with their current teams before being immediately traded elsewhere.
_ Teams above the salary cap will be able to offer four-year mid-level exception contracts to free agents each season. Previously, owners were asking that teams be limited to offering a four-year deal one year, a three-year deal the next, then four, then three, etc."
_ The rookie salary scale and veteran minimum salaries will stay the same as they were last season. Owners had been seeking 12 percent cuts.
_ Qualifying offers to restricted free agents will become “significantly” improved. The sides had already agreed to reduce the time for a team to match an offer to a restricted free agent from 7 days to 3.
_ A new $2.5 million exception will be available to teams that go below the salary cap, then use all of their cap room to sign free agents. Once they are back above the cap, they will be able to use the new exception instead of being limited to filling out their rosters with players on minimum contracts.
_ The prohibition on luxury tax-paying teams from executing sign-and-trade deals was loosened, although the freedom to execute those types of deals will still be limited.

The deal also includes an amnesty provision, which will allow teams to cut one player from their roster whose salary will not fully count against the salary cap or luxury tax

http://sheridanhoops.com/2011/11/26/...ement-details/

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Da_Chief

If they come back without a hard cap then the deal is a massive FAIL...continue to have Lakers, Heat, Celtics etc load up and bottom feeders no chance....

But in the end that is what the owners want too, star power and big teams. Otherwise there will be no eyeballs watching and no tv contract.

The NBA has never had parity, ever, under any system. In the old days the Celtics and Lakers met in 7 of 10 finals or something. And the Celtics won them all.

[TurnedTheCorner]

I'm glad the league is (essentially) back. 66 games will be pretty rushed, the FA period will be crazy...should be lots of excitement.

[killer_carlson]

who do the Raptors cut?

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

who do the Raptors cut?

Do the Raptor's still play in Toronto?

[moon]

Originally Posted by killer_carlson

who do the Raptors cut?

Bill Simmons thinks they should use it on Calderon and the other guy he wrote the article with says Kleiza:

http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/...amnesty-20-nba

I would like to see them cut Bargnani but I doubt that happens.