What would happen to NBA landscape if the NBA a true free market enterprise?
Zach Harper, in a recent article on Grantland.com, explored this idea with the idea of removing the Max Contract option for players. By limiting how much players can make via Max Contracts, the NBA is making it easier for star players to join forces and keep the elite talent restricted to a few teams. Removing the cap and max contracts will help ensure that the talent gets spread around more teams.
With teams being able to throw money at up and coming players, championship contenders and lottery teams alike, will need to be able to reload quickly.
Enter the NBA D-League.
With more NBA teams having the own D-League affiliate, they are acknowledging that just simply drafting young players with tons of upside is not enough. The draftees are not coming to the NBA and not making the impact they expected.
With the Max Contracts taken away, players will be going towards the highest bidder and most likely moving on to a new team for a bigger payday.
The original team will need to have players ready in the wings.
With the D-League affiliate running the same system as the NBA team, teams will be able to have group of players that will hit the ground running after being called up.
The guess work, on how a player will fit in to a system (i.e. Richard Jefferson’s stint with the San Antonio Spurs), will be decreased due to the exposure the player will have in the D-League affiliate. Even un-drafted rookies or players that had little playing time with their NBA teams can gain valuable experience.
The intricate Spurs’ system is a good example of the benefits of having the D-League. The coaching staff can spend more time teaching the players what reads are and what variations can be run rather than the basics of where to be in the system.
So Toros’ fans, how would you feel if the NBA decided to do away with the Max Contracts.
