Re: more salary cap stuff

[wfcooper@tiac.com (Bill Cooper)]

On Sun, 13 Jul 1997 23:46:00 +0900, Marc wrote:

>Another aspect of the players agreement signed last year is that it
>seriously weakens the impact of the draft. Now we have a situation where
>all rookies become free agents after 3 years and its possible -- no, its
>likely -- that a good portion of them are going to leave their original
>teams.=20

My memory is that the real point of the three year rule was to allow
the implementation of the Rookie Salary Cap.  Remember how horrified
people were by the contract that Glenn Robinson signed?  If the league
is going to have a salary cap, then it has to let the new players get
a chance at the FA market sooner rather than later.

>Is this a good thing or a bad thing? What do people think? I guess it =
means
>that a franchise has to have more then the luck of the draw going for it=
 to
>acquire good players. Franchises with a lot of cash, those located in a
>major media market and those that have an attractive organization and
>winning record will succeed, while teams like the Clippers and the Kings
>will get worse.=20

Any system of free agency will tend to have this effect.  In the NBA a
lot of that is negated by the large national TV contracts and the
merchandizing (which are shared between all the teams).   It's really
too soon to tell if this system is going to better or worse in this
regard than the old one.  As far as I can remember, the Clippers and
the Kings weren't too successful under the old rules either.
	Also, the rules allow teams to renegotiate with new players
after their second year.  So if a club really likes a guy they have a
good shot at resigning him, without any competition for his services.
And do you think that the fans in Milwaukee are all that excited about
having G.R. locked up through the end of the 21st century?

Bill Cooper
wfcooper@tiac.com