Appearing on SiriusXM NBA Radio on Thursday, NBA commissioner Adam Silver reiterated that he remains optimistic about the league and the players’ union reaching a deal on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement sooner rather than later. As Silver explains (Twitter link), he views the opt-out date of December 15 as a deadline of sorts, and is hopeful that the two sides can reach an agreement on or before that date.
Silver also weighed in a few more issues of note, so let’s round up a few of the highlights…
- On the new CBA giving teams “additional opportunities” to lock up their own players (Twitter link): “One of the things that we’re talking about is coming up with some… advantages in terms of being able to negotiate earlier, to extend the contract. Under the way our rules our structured, your current team can offer you a longer contract [and] they can offer you more money. I think if we early-up some of those opportunities, at least teams will be in a better position to know whether they can keep that player. And if they can’t, there will be more of an opportunity to deal that player and get value for that player if it seems likely that player is going to leave.”
- On the possibility of expanding the NBA beyond 30 teams (Twitter link): “In addition to the so-called super-team issue, we also have to be sure that we have 30 competitive teams, made up of strong rosters. I’m not sure right now that expansion, which would then in turn dilute the competition on our teams, is necessarily the right direction to go. … As much as I’d like to bring teams to other communities, I have to take into account what impact it’ll have both in terms of competition and financially on our existing teams, who will then get their payments from our national TV partners diluted.”
- More on expansion: “I’ll say that we owe to our owners, our players, and our fans to take a fresh look at it on a regular basis. I think once we ultimately get this new Collective Bargaining Agreement done, I’m sure a committee of owners and people at the league office will turn back to it and do a very sophisticated analysis about whether expansion does make sense.”
- On draft lottery reform (Twitter link): “I’m not exactly sure how I would change it at the moment, because it once again seems to be working pretty well.”
- Addressing the practice of resting non-injured stars, Silver said he’d like to see teams do it in home games rather than road games, but noted he’s “super-reluctant” to try to set any rules for how teams and coaches should manage their players’ minutes (Twitter link).
- Silver also suggested that an NBA team in Europe is unlikely to happen anytime soon, pointing to rest and logistics as roadblocks (Twitter link).
As usual, Adam Silver seems sagacious.