2017 Labor Negotiations Rumors | Hoops Rumors

Union To Conduct Audit Of Five Teams

May 14th, 2015 at 10:23am CST by Chuck Myron

THURSDAY, 10:23am: The union sent an email to agents urging them to read Draper’s piece, USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt tweets. Some agents are perplexed that the union would use the story to deliver its message, Zillgitt adds (Twitter link).

10:26pm: A third of NBA teams are losing money with new TV revenue more than a year away from kicking in, the league said in its response to Draper’s report, as RealGM relays. The NBA called the report “grossly misleading” and asserts that the collective bargaining agreement expressly addresses related parties in a way that includes arenas and broadcast rights to ensure that the players receive their fair share of basketball related income.

TUESDAY, 5:45pm: The National Basketball Players Association intends to exercise its right to conduct an independent audit of the books of five teams this year, the union revealed in a statement to Deadspin’s Kevin Draper. The union has rarely called for the audits in the past, the statement acknowledged. The revelation is set against the backdrop of coming labor negotiations in 2017, when the union and the league have a mutual option to terminate the existing collective bargaining agreement. The owners have given every sign that they’re willing to sacrifice an entire season to keep the players from regaining a larger share of basketball related income, but the league considers everything else negotiable, Draper writes.

The union issued its statement in response to Draper’s request that it address a recent Madison Square Garden Company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission in which MSG revealed its intentions to spin off its sports holdings from its media entities. MSG owns the Knicks, whom Draper predicts will be among the five teams the union chooses to audit after the league conducts its own audit of basketball related income this summer.

At issue is the definition of related parties with ties to NBA owners. For instance, the Nets and the Barclays Center are not considered related parties, even though Mikhail Prokhorov and Bruce Ratner own significant stakes in both, Draper points out. That would allow Prokhorov and Ratner to arrange a deal that hides revenue on the arena side, keeping it out of the NBA’s calculation and lowering the pool of money available to players, as Draper explains. The league sets the salary cap based on basketball related income. The percentage of that income to which players are entitled was capped at 51% during the 2011 labor negotiations, a significant cut from the 57% figure that held under the previous collective bargaining agreement.

The collective bargaining agreement in place now refers to a definition of related parties that dates to 1995, before many methods of revenue generation that are now in wide use among teams were in place, Draper writes. Former union executive director Billy Hunter had been in office for much of the time since the 1995 negotiations, so the move to conduct the audits represents another contrast between new executive director Michele Roberts and her predecessor, as Draper observes.

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2017 Labor Negotiations

And-Ones: Labor, Wolves, Mudiay, Combine

May 4th, 2015 at 4:00pm CST by Chuck Myron

Commissioner Adam Silver hinted vaguely on Sunday that the NBA would push for a hard cap, shorter contracts with smaller raises and maybe even the elimination of guaranteed deals if the union opts out of the labor deal in 2017, according to Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck. Silver didn’t mention the measures specifically, but they were concessions the league sought during the last round of collective bargaining in 2011. Roberts has said that it’s likely the union will opt out and that it’s preparing to do so.

“And if they do, we’ll deal with that,” Silver said on Bleacher Report Radio, as Beck relays. “There were a lot of things we left on the table [in 2011]. We went into collective bargaining seeking — I don’t want to get into it now — but a number of things that we didn’t accomplish. And we compromised. And they compromised as well. If there’s a feeling that we should reopen the collective bargaining agreement … hopefully, just as we have in the past, we’ll work through all those issues and there won’t be any disruptions in the season.”

The deadline for either the union or the league, which can also opt out of the collective bargaining agreement, to give notice that it will do so is December 15th, 2016, Beck notes, so while we hope for a peaceful resolution, here’s more from around the league:

Timberwolves draft-and-stash prospect Nemanja Bjelica wants a “serious offer” of somewhere around $5MM to $7MM a year if he’s to jump to the NBA this coming offseason, according to David Pick of Basketball Insiders, who writes in a chat with readers. A report from March indicated that there was mutual interest between the 26-year-old power forward and the Wolves, but Pick isn’t so sure Bjelica signs with the team this summer. Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities speculated earlier this month that it would take an offer similar to the three-year deal for more than $16.6MM that Nikola Mirotic got from the Bulls this past offseason, and that would fall in line with Pick’s numbers.
Emmanuel Mudiay isn’t planning on accepting his invitation to take part in the NBA’s draft combine next week in Chicago and will instead continue training on the West Coast, a source tells Shams Charania of RealGM (Twitter links). Still, Mudiay has yet to officially decline the invitation and it’s conceivable that he makes some sort of appearance there, Charania cautions.
Mudiay is one of some 30 prospects who’ve been invited, while the NBA is eyeing about 55 others, according to Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress (All Twitter links). The NBA will likely bring most of those approximately 55 players in as long as they consent to playing in five-on-five scrimmages at the showcase, Givony adds. Former University of Washington center Robert Upshaw and ex-Kentucky guards Aaron and Andrew Harrison are among those planning to participate in the five-on-five combine scrimmages, Givony hears.

And-Ones: Offer Sheets, Smith, Jazz

March 23rd, 2015 at 10:36pm CST by Dana Gauruder

Several high-powered agents have warned teams not to discourage potential suitors from signing restricted free agents to offer sheets, Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders reports. The agents are concerned about recent statements made by some teams with a prominent restricted free agent that they would match offer sheets, Kyler continues. The agents will encourage their clients to agree to a qualifying offer, as the Pistons’ Greg Monroe did last summer, and become unrestricted free agents after the 2015/16 season if teams engage in an anti-offer sheet campaign, Kyler adds. With the salary cap projected to increase dramatically after the 2015/16 season, some players may be willing to take that risk, Kyler concludes.

In other news around the league:

Sixers guard Ish Smith wants to remain with the club next season, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Smith, who has played for eight organizations during his five-year career, is averaging 11.4 points, 6.3 assists and 24.7 minutes in 15 games with Philadelphia after being claimed off waivers in February. “Obviously, during the summer you figure all that stuff out,” said Smith, who will be an unrestricted free agent this summer.
Many NBA observers believe the league is headed for another lockout after the 2016/17 season, according to Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report. Both the league’s owners and the NBA Players Association can opt out of the current agreement after that season. It would be a mistake for that to happen, Bucher says, adding that fans and media should boycott the league if a lockout occurs.
The Jazz’s D-League team, the Idaho Stampede, will remain in Boise, Sea Dubs Central tweets. An announcement will be made on Tuesday regarding a rebranding of the team, rather than a move, the tweet adds. The Stampede had affiliations with four other NBA teams before becoming the sole affiliate of the Jazz this season.

Fallout From Union’s Refusal Of ‘Cap Smoothing’

March 12th, 2015 at 11:27am CST by Chuck Myron

The players union’s ultimate rejection Wednesday of any gradual increase to the salary cap as opposed to a drastic leap for 2016/17, when the league’s $24 billion TV deal kicks in, figures to have widespread consequences. Just about every team stands to have the ability to open the cap space necessary to sign a maximum-salary free agent, as I explored, and the ripple effects of the change in the NBA’s salary structure will be felt long after 2016 free agent frenzy is over. Here’s more on the aftermath of the union’s decision:

Teams are projecting the 2016/17 salary cap to come in between $88MM and $92MM, sources tell Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, which largely jibes with the roughly $90MM figure many around the league had reportedly assumed as of early last month.
The union’s refusal to compromise on so-called “cap smoothing” increases the odds that there will be a lockout in 2017, when the players and owners have a mutual option on the collective bargaining agreement, Windhorst believes, as he writes in the same piece. Players association vice president LeBron James spoke Wednesday of a “huge meeting” that the union will hold this summer, Windhorst notes.
Salary cap guru Larry Coon thinks the union didn’t want tiered increases to the cap because a spike in 2016 would come in advance of any 2017 lockout. Marquee players, like James, will benefit from the jump but pedestrian players near the end of their careers stand to miss out, Coon believes. That’s because the league would have distributed among all players what probably would have been a large difference between total team expenditures on player salary in 2016/17 and the 51% of the league’s basketball revenue that teams are required to spend on salaries, as Coon explains. Players near the end of their careers won’t see that sort of shortfall check now that cap smoothing is off the table, and if they don’t sign a new contract after next season, they won’t have a piece of the pie, according to Coon (All five Twitter links here).
Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News asked three players before Wednesday’s Nets-Heat game about the union’s decision to reject cap smoothing, and none of the three knew what he was talking about. That suggests that the union wasn’t unanimously behind the choice, Bondy tweets.

And-Ones: Kobe, Draft, Hard Cap, Datome

March 11th, 2015 at 11:59am CST by Chuck Myron

Kobe Bryant thought for a moment after he found out he’d torn his rotator cuff that he might be done with the game, but he insisted he’s never seriously considered not playing next season, as he told reporters Tuesday, including Baxter Holmes of ESPNLosAngeles.com. Bryant left open the possibility that he’ll play beyond 2015/16, the last year of his contract with the Lakers, and he added that he probably won’t decide whether to play in 2016/17 until next season is through, as Holmes notes. Here’s more from around the league:

Prominent agent Arn Tellem, in a piece for Grantland, argues that teams have begun to regard the back end of the draft’s second round as less about finding the best available player and more about acquiring the rights to prospects willing to play overseas. Among Tellem’s proposals is to move to a system of draft-eligibility similar to baseball’s in which all players would be automatically eligible at age 18. Tellem would also like to see a rule that would require teams to tender guaranteed minimum-salary offers to retain the rights to second-round picks, though that salary would be cut in half if the draftee instead spends the season playing in the D-League. His ideas likely have an influential audience, since Tellem’s Wasserman agency has close ties to Adam Silver and D-League president Malcolm Turner, notes Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today (Twitter links).
Silver, meanwhile, tells Kerry Eggers of the Portland Tribune that he continues to support a harder salary cap in the wake of the league’s proposal for one in the last round of collective bargaining in 2011, arguing that it would create more parity.
The Celtics appear lukewarm about soon-to-be free agent Gigi Datome, and while he told Italian media that he’d like to receive more offers from NBA teams than he does from overseas, clubs from Spain, Russia and Turkey are ready with proposals, sources tell Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia.

And-Ones: Silver, China, Crawford, Draft, Owners

February 1st, 2015 at 6:59pm CST by Chuck Myron

Commissioner Adam Silver said the year ahead is the time for decisions on changes to the playoff format and the draft lottery, and he expressed his support for expanded All-Star rosters as he spoke today on ESPN Radio’s NBA Lockdown show, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Silver acknowledged that larger All-Star rosters could mean more money for players who have incentives in their contracts, Stein notes. The commissioner also spoke of the labor negotiations on the horizon for 2017, as Stein relays.

“I’d like to think that calmer heads will prevail and we’ll all realize that we have a great system here and that we shouldn’t screw it up,‎” Silver said in part.

Here’s more from around the NBA:

Andray Blatche, Toney Douglas and Earl Clark are among the NBA veterans who are once more free agents after having signed to play in China this season, as Sportando’s Enea Trapani points out with a list of players finished with their Chinese obligations. The Chinese regular season ended today, putting a number of intriguing names on the market, though many others, like Will Bynum, who’s reportedly drawing interest from the Cavs and Wizards, are on playoff teams and might not be available until late March.
Jordan Crawford is drawing strong interest from NBA teams in the wake of his experience in China, tweets Shams Charania of RealGM. Crawford isn’t on Trapani’s list, since he suffered an eye injury and hasn’t played since November, but he would have returned to Xinjiang had the club made the playoffs, according to Charania.
French swingman Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot will enter the 2015 NBA draft, sources tell Charania, who writes in a separate piece. The 19-year-old wouldn’t be automatically eligible until the 2017 draft, and unlike collegians, who are bound by the NCAA’s stricter timeline, he’ll have a chance to withdraw his name from this year’s event shortly before it takes place. Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress lists him as No. 34 in his mock draft for 2016.
The NBA will limit new ownership groups to no more than 25 members, none of whom will be able to hold less than 1% of the team, several sources told Grantland’s Zach Lowe. Existing ownership groups, including Milwaukee’s 37-person contingent, are allowed to remain as structured.

And-Ones: Labor, Mudiay, Prospects, Cobbs

November 28th, 2014 at 3:15pm CST by Chuck Myron

The sharp exchange between Adam Silver and Michele Roberts of late has seemingly served as indication that a work stoppage is on the way in 2017, but Roberts is optimistic that the sides will be able to settle their differences, as she explains to Chris Mannix of SI.com.

“But of course I think it’s avoidable,” Roberts said of a work stoppage. “Does anyone really expect Adam and I will sing kumbaya every day? We’re grown ups. He has a constituency, and I do. We disagree. But that’s the world. You know what we do agree on? We don’t want a work stoppage. Neither one of us wants to see that happen. We have said it to each other. We have said it out loud. Our teams are all smart, we all have the same goals and we should be able to sit down and avoid it. I’d be surprised, frankly, if we had one, but I’m ready if we do.”

While NBA fans hope that Roberts is right about that, here’s the latest from around the league:

About half of the league’s teams plan to send either scouts, executives or both to China to check out highly touted draft prospect Emmanuel Mudiay, and teams are calling almost daily for information about the point guard, a source tells Bleacher Report’s Jared Zwerling (Twitter link). Mudiay, who signed with China’s Guangdong Southern Tigers rather than attend SMU for what would have been his freshman season this year, is No. 2 in the rankings of both Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress and Chad Ford of ESPN.com.
Errick McCollum, who worked out for the Cavs, Kings and Rockets this summer, is one of several overseas prospects who are making a mark after having gone undrafted, as David Pick examines for Basketball Insiders.
German club VEF Riga has let go of Hornets camp invitee Justin Cobbs after what amounted to a one-month tryout, the team announced (Twitter link; translation via Sportando’s Emiliano Carchia). Cobbs signed with Riga earlier this month shortly after the Hornets released him in advance of opening night. The 23-year-old point guard averaged just 2.0 points in 13.7 minutes per game across seven overseas appearances.

And-Ones: Draft, LeBron, Roberts

November 14th, 2014 at 10:15pm CST by Eddie Scarito

LeBron James continued his march up the NBA’s All-Time scoring list tonight, passing Celtics great Robert Parish who had 23,334 career points, to take over possession of the 24th spot. The next target on the list for James is Charles Barkley, who sits at No. 23 with 23,757 career points. So congratulations to LeBron on his achievement, but he still has quite a ways to go to claim the top slot from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Using James’ career 27.5 point average as a guide, it would take him roughly 6.6 more seasons at that pace to eclipse Abdul-Jabbar, though with LeBron’s propensity for sharing the ball it would likely take a bit longer, as well as requiring continued good health on his part.

Here’s more from around the league:

Despite all the hype that the draft class of 2014 received, the top three selections are off to slow starts to their careers, Brian Schmitz of The Orlando Sentinel writes. There’s no telling if the Sixers‘ Joel Embiid will play this season, Andrew Wiggins is averaging 10 points for the Wolves, and Jabari Parker is logging 10.9 PPG for the Bucks. While all three are likely to develop into excellent players, this should serve as a cautionary tale for franchises looking to improve themselves through “tanking,” Schmitz opines.
The 2015 NBA Draft class isn’t being as highly-touted as 2014’s group, though there are a number of players with star potential. Sean Deveney of The Sporting News runs down 10 players who NBA scouts are keeping a close eye on, including Jahlil Okafor, Kelly Oubre, and Myles Turner.
NBPA head Michele Roberts’ recent salvo fired against the concept of the salary cap may needlessly antagonize the owners and make the 2017 CBA negotiations more difficult than they need to be, opines Howard Beck of Bleacher Report. The salary cap isn’t going away anytime soon, something Roberts is aware of, notes Beck, and her statements were more likely intended to gain trust with the players and their agents who have long distrusted the union.

And-Ones: Love, Union, Sterling

November 14th, 2014 at 4:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

Kevin Love earlier today dismissed a report linking him to the Lakers, and he also told reporters Friday that his offseason visit to Boston wasn’t a fact-finding mission to see if he’d like to play for the Celtics, notes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com.

“The fact is, my agent [Jeff Schwartz] is a big Red Sox fan,” Love said. “I’d been planning on that for a long time to come in and check out not only the city, but a Red Sox game and we had a great time and we plan on coming back. It’s tough because I wasn’t a free agent last summer. I have potential to be a free agent this summer or next. It’s just one of those things. It’s obviously a tremendous city. People love it here [in Boston]. Basketball and sports in general are huge here, but it’s been fantastic being a part of the Cavaliers now. We have a team that’s formidable, has a big presence and we see a lot of you guys [in the media] on a daily basis.”

Love makes it clear that he has affection for Boston, but that it doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to play there. Here’s more from around the league:

Union executive director Michele Roberts explains why she doesn’t think eliminating maximum salaries would hurt the players who aren’t making the max in the full text of her interview with Pablo S. Torre of ESPN The Magazine. Snippets of their Q&A that ESPN released earlier this week caused a stir and prompted a response from commissioner Adam Silver. The full interview reveals that Roberts is having regular talks with Silver and that players have expressed their support for a team in Europe.
Donald Sterling named Adam Silver, David Stern and former Clippers interim CEO Dick Parsons among 18 witnesses he may call to the stand in a trial to resolve his $1 billion federal lawsuit against the NBA, reports Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times. A recent court filing revealed that Sterling lawyer Maxwell Blecher had begun talks with the NBA about a possible dismissal of the suit, but Blecher has withdrawn from representing Sterling, Fenno writes. Blecher tells Fenno that he’s unaware if any such talks are currently proceeding.
It’s “widely anticipated” that the NBA and the D-League will someday implement contracts that will allow players on NBA rosters to be paid D-League salaries while on D-League assignment, writes Marc Stein of ESPN.com. Currently, all players on D-League assignment continue to draw their NBA salaries, which are at least some 20 times greater than the maximum $25,500 D-League salary.

Eastern Notes: Labor, J.R. Smith, Butler, Cavs

November 14th, 2014 at 12:03pm CST by Chuck Myron

The collective bargaining agreement is in place at least until 2017, but LeBron James wants to see constructive labor negotiations start sooner rather than later in the wake of sharp remarks this week from union executive director Michele Roberts and commissioner Adam Silver. Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group has the details.

“At some point we would like to start conversations, because you don’t want to get to a point to where the deadline happens and now we’re scrambling,” James said. “Our game is too good, it’s too popular, everyone loves our game all across the world and we don’t want to get to a point where there’s another lockout.”

While we wait to see if LeBron can help bring the sides to the table, here’s the latest on his rivals from the Eastern Conference:

The Knicks continue to have internal discussions about ways to trade J.R. Smith, just as they have since July, tweets Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. A report early this month indicated that New York and the Pacers had engaged in talks about a Smith trade, and while a follow-up cast doubt on that notion, the most recent dispatch indicates that the Pacers do have interest in the volatile shooting guard.
An anonymous executive suggests to fellow ESPNNewYork.com scribe Ian O’Connor that Smith continues to be a viable trade asset in the proper circumstances. “J.R. has had a lot of issues but he can be a big-time scorer when he’s doing the right things,” the executive said. “There’s always a team out there willing to take a chance on somebody if they feel he can put them over the top, and there’s no doubt J.R. can play. People are going to be concerned about chemistry issues in the locker room, so it would have to be a strong leadership and coaching staff that take him in.”
Randy Wittman was the driving force behind the Wizards‘ decision to sign Rasual Butler, as the coach prevailed upon the team to invite the 35-year-old to camp, according to J. Michael of CSNWashington.com, who writes in his mailbag column. The move has paid off, as Butler made the opening-night roster and is averaging 8.8 points in 17.6 minutes per game.
The Cavs have assigned rookie Alex Kirk to the D-League, the team announced. Kirk has only seen three minutes of regular season action thus far for Cleveland.