2017 Labor Negotiations Rumors | Hoops Rumors

And-Ones: Silver, Harris, Bryant, Celtics

November 13th, 2014 at 10:12pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Commissioner Adam Silver fired back at union executive director Michele Roberts, who held up players as the linchpins of the league while calling the salary cap “incredibly un-American.” The NBA sent remarks from Silver to media, including John Schuhmann of NBA.com, just hours after Roberts made her comments, “We couldn’t disagree more with these statements,” Silver said. “The NBA’s success is based on the collective efforts and investments of all of the team owners, the thousands of employees at our teams and arenas, and our extraordinarily talented players. No single group could accomplish this on its own. Nor is there anything unusual or ‘un-American’ in a unionized industry to have a collective system for paying employees – in fact, that’s the norm.”

Here’s more from around the league:

Tobias Harris says his first choice would be to remain with the Magic in restricted free agency this summer, according to John Denton of Magic.com. A report Wednesday indicated that Harris has strong interest in signing with the Knicks, so perhaps New York is Plan B.
Kobe Bryant has the same amount of championship rings as Tim Duncan (five), but that doesn’t stop the Lakers star from being envious of how the Spurs have kept their core together for so many years, Dan McCarney of The San Antonio Express-News writes. Bryant told Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times, “I’m extremely jealous of that. I don’t know if I can express to you how jealous I am of the fact that Tim [Duncan], Tony [Parker], Manu [Ginobili] and Pop [Gregg Popovich] have been together for all those years. Like, I can’t even. It would be like if me, Pau [Gasol], L.O. [Lamar Odom] and Phil [ Jackson], if we were all here still. It’s crazy.”
The Celtics were one of the teams reportedly interested in acquiring Kevin Love this past summer, but Boston wasn’t able to entice the Wolves into making a deal. Chris Forsberg of ESPNBoston.com believes that with the way the franchise’s young core is performing it may end up being a blessing that no trade came to pass. Forsberg does add that the team still needs another star player to pair alongside Rajon Rondo, and Love would have certainly fit that bill.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Michele Roberts On Cap, Max Deals, Rookie Scale

November 13th, 2014 at 8:58am CST by Chuck Myron

National Basketball Players Association executive director Michele Roberts has on many occasions deferred to the judgment of the players when asked about issues during her first month and a half of the job, but she’s nonetheless made her feelings known. Roberts took more pointed aim at NBA leadership and policies in an interview Wednesday with Pablo S. Torre of ESPN The Magazine, calling the league a monopoly, objecting to the salary cap, advocating for the end to maximum salaries and arguing against rookie scale contracts. She made it clear she’ll fight for the players to receive a larger portion of basketball related income, Torre writes.

Roberts isn’t ruling out the idea that the union will support a phasing in of expected increases to the salary cap, a matter that the league and the union will decide upon before 2016, but she says the idea is “not that attractive” at first glance. She wasn’t making many other concessions as she spoke with Torre, whose entire piece is worth a read. We’ll pass along Roberts’ most eye-opening comments here:

On the concept of a salary cap:

“I don’t know of any space other than the world of sports where there’s this notion that we will artificially deflate what someone’s able to make, just because. It’s incredibly un-American. My DNA is offended by it.”

On maximum salaries and the rookie scale:

“I can’t understand why the [union] would be interested in suppressing salaries at the top if we know that as salaries at the top have grown, so have salaries at the bottom. If that’s the case, I contend that there is no reason in the world why the union should embrace salary caps or any effort to place a barrier on the amount of money that marquee players can make.”

On the idea of a shorter season:

“Every time a player gets hurt, I think, my God, they really are pushing their bodies. And back-to-backs, those are the ones I really find disturbing. … So the answer, of course, is that everybody wants a shorter season. The tension is, Will that mean less money? And that’s something we need to talk about and think about. … I don’t think it would hurt the game to shorten the season.”

And-Ones: Kobe, Wolves, Extensions, D’Antoni

November 10th, 2014 at 10:01am CST by Chuck Myron

A work stoppage cost two months of the season the last time players and owners negotiated a new collective bargaining agreement, but union executive director Michele Roberts wants to avoid a repeat come 2017, as she tells Michael Lee of The Washington Post.

“I don’t want a lockout. I don’t want a strike. What I want is anything any reasonable person would want — and that is labor peace,” Roberts said. “That’s what I hope for, but I’ve got to be prepared for a lockout.”

The specter of the next labor negotiations will continue to grow as they creep closer and as Roberts continues to settle into her role. However, with Roberts and Adam Silver replacing Billy Hunter and David Stern in their respective roles on opposite sides, there’s reason to expect the talks will proceed differently this time around. Here’s more from around the NBA:

Kobe Bryant reiterated to USA Today’s Sam Amick that he can’t envision playing past the end of his contract in 2015/16, and he was even more definitive in his declaration that he won’t ask for a trade, no matter how often the Lakers lose this season. “It’s not going to happen,” Bryant said. “It’s not going to happen. You go through the good times, you’ve got to go through the bad times.”
Timberwolves executive/coach Flip Saunders has no plans to add another point guard in absence of Ricky Rubio, who’s out up to eight weeks with a sprained left ankle, writes Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune. Rookie Zach LaVine is starting in Rubio’s place while Mo Williams remains on the bench.
Saunders and Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau are among many who believe the league should have an earlier deadline for rookie scale extensions so that negotiations don’t spill into the season, observes Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press.
Mike D’Antoni has been hanging around Hornets practices and games and giving feedback to Charlotte coach Steve Clifford, notes Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times. “I know this: He was in Charlotte for three days, and we had a great time. We talked basketball, like, two or three hours a day,” Clifford said. “He still has a real passion for coaching. I know that.”
The Grizzlies have recalled rookies Jordan Adams and Jarnell Stokes from the D-League, the team announced via press release. Memphis assigned the pair on Saturday, in time for Adams to score 20 and Stokes to put up 13 points and 13 rebounds in a preseason game for the Iowa Energy.

And-Ones: Allen, Thabeet, NBPA

October 30th, 2014 at 10:42pm CST by Eddie Scarito

In response to commissioner Adam Silver’s statement that a third of the teams in the league are still losing money, new NBPA head Michele Roberts said, “The NBA’s cries of poverty will not work this time,” Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports writes.”I can say that I was more than surprised,” Roberts told Yahoo Sports. “I am not suggesting that Adam is telling a lie. I am sure that the owners told him that. But it’s difficult for me to believe that, especially after looking at the 2011 CBA negotiations and seeing all the money the players don’t have now. There’s $1.1 billion that the players would’ve been otherwise entitled.”

Here’s more from around the league:

Mavs owner Mark Cuban left open the possibility that Dallas could add either Ray Allen or Rashard Lewis later on in the season, Eddie Sefko of The Dallas Morning News reports. “We haven’t talked to him, but I think he’s doing it the right way,” Cuban said of Allen. “He’s waiting to see who’s doing well. If it comes down to it, we’d always consider it. We’re always open to improving the team. But you don’t want to mess up a good thing, either. That’s when Caron Butler got hurt and Roddy [Beaubois] got hurt. But Peja Stojakovic is a good example of us adding a veteran in season.” In regards to Lewis, Cuban added, “Rashard Lewis is working out here. We’ve stayed in touch with him and worked with him.”
Hasheem Thabeet has passed on playing in Europe and instead will play for Grand Rapids in the NBA D-League this season, Marc Stein of ESPN.com reports (Twitter link). It appears that the Pistons, who had waived Thabeet, will retain his D-League rights as franchises can retain the rights of up to four players that they have waived.
The NBA D-League Draft is scheduled to be held this Saturday and the crew over at DraftExpress ran down the complete list of eligible players.
The Bucks will keep working toward an extension with Brandon Knight up until Friday’s deadline, David Alarcón of HoopsHype tweets. It’s unclear how far apart the two sides are in their discussions, but in his look at Knight in our extension candidate series, Chuck Myron opined that the two sides could compromise on a four-year, $41MM arrangement similar to what the Sixers gave Jrue Holiday two years ago.

And-Ones: Teague, Thomas, Free Agents

October 24th, 2014 at 10:29pm CST by Eddie Scarito

The trade that sent Marquis Teague to the Sixers in exchange for Casper Ware allows the Nets to create a $1,120,920 trade exception equivalent to Teague’s salary. The Sixers, who are well under the cap, can’t create an exception since exceptions, by definition, are only available to teams above the cap.

Here’s more from around the league:

The NBA’s new $24 billion dollar TV deal will bring with it a number of problems, Sam Amick of USA Today writes. With the salary cap expected to increase significantly, the owners likely will try to push for a hard cap during the next CBA negotiations, though commissioner Adam Silver tried to downplay that as not being a make-or-break demand, notes Amick.
The Thunder have informed Lance Thomas that he will make the team’s regular season roster, Shams Charania of RealGM reports (Twitter link). Thomas is the only player remaining on the team whose contract isn’t at least partially guaranteed after Oklahoma City waived Michael Jenkins, Richard Solomon and Talib Zanna earlier today.
Agents are optimistic about next summer’s free agent market, as Sean Deveney of The Sporting News hears. One agent explained to Deveney that he’s confident teams will spend more freely because they know a massive influx of TV money is on its way eventually, even if the league doesn’t work some of the forthcoming revenue into the salary cap for 2015/16. The league’s $66.5MM cap projection is a conservative one, as Deveney writes, having heard from a GM who thinks the cap could go as high as $72MM.

Chuck Myron contributed to this post.

Adam Silver On Hard Cap, Lottery, CBA

October 22nd, 2014 at 8:13pm CST by Eddie Scarito

Earlier today the NBA’s Board of Governors voted against changes to the draft lottery, with only 17 teams voting to change the current system, which was six short of the required 23 votes needed to pass the reforms. NBA commissioner Adam Silver addressed the vote and other issues during a press conference this afternoon, the highlights of which were relayed by Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.

Silver indicated that one third of the league’s franchises are losing money, notes Berger. This is significant because this is happening despite the owners getting the players to accept a 12 percent reduction in their share of the league’s revenues during the last labor negotiations. It could also be the league setting up their bargaining stance for 2017’s pending negotiations.
Berger asked Silver if all 30 teams aren’t making a profit on July 1, 2017, the date that the current CBA can be opted out of, is that reason enough for another lockout? Silver responded by saying, “No. No, because the caveat has always been, if well managed. And I would also say, if you don’t have a hard-cap system, for example, one of the teams that isn’t profitable are the Brooklyn Nets. That’s an election they’re free to make under our compensation system. They’ve elected to be unprofitable. My preference would be to have a harder cap, where teams couldn’t elect to spend so much more than other teams.”
When asked if achieving a hard cap in the next CBA will be a take-it-or-leave-it issue, Silver said, “No, not at all. There’s gradations of hardness in terms of the cap as well. I wish our current cap system was harder. It’s what we proposed last time around, but we compromised.”
Silver called the perception that teams are tanking, “corrosive perception,” notes Ira Winderman of The Sun Sentinel (Twitter links). Silver also added that if lottery reform eventually is adopted, it will come with teams being, “appropriately on notice.” That statement seems to indicate that if any changes were adopted they wouldn’t necessarily take effect for the 2015 draft lottery.
Silver also briefly addressed the possibility that either the players or the owners would opt out of the current CBA in 2017, saying, “It’s premature for even me to be concerned,” Winderman tweets. It would appear that the league should be at least a little concerned, as the new NBPA head Michele Roberts has already hinted that the players would choose to opt out in light of the new $24 billion TV deal that will begin in 2016.

And-Ones: Roberts, Spurs, Vucevic, Rubio

October 21st, 2014 at 9:45pm CST by Alex Lee

After his sit down with Michele Roberts, Tim Bontemps of the New York Post doesn’t get the feeling that the new NBPA head is on board with the idea of a gradual increase in the salary cap starting in 2016 (Twitter links). The alternative is to allow the cap to jump up after the 2015/16 season — Bontemps estimates a spike to over $90MM — due to the injection of the money from the league’s new TV deal. That increase, of course, could coincide with the free agency of superstar Kevin Durant.

Let’s take a look at what else is going on around the league on Tuesday:

It would be shocking if any of Bryce Cotton, Josh Davis or JaMychal Green were to end up on the Spurs’ final roster, writes Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. Cotton, Davis and Green all have partially guaranteed deals, but as our Expanded Roster Counts show, the Spurs already have 15 fully guaranteed contracts on the books.
A strong showing in 2014/15 would have likely netted Nikola Vucevic a more lucrative deal next summer than the one he agreed to earlier tonight, according to Grantland’s Zach Lowe. However, Lowe believes Vucevic’s shortcomings on the defensive end add risk for the Magic while also conceding the deal should be a fair one considering the rising cap (Twitter links).
Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated, also pointing to the increasing salary cap, writes that Vucevic’s extension compares favorably to the four-year, $48MM deal Utah’s Derrick Favors inked last October. Golliver adds that the pact eliminates any chance of a bidding war over Vucevic for the Magic next summer which could have resulted in an overpay.
Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities expects Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor to soon become more involved in extension talks for point guard Ricky Rubio (via Twitter). The Wolves reportedly upped their offer to four years, $48MM shortly after we heard that Rubio and Taylor had spoken several times on the phone. Wolfson, who speculates that a total offer of $52-54MM might do it, adds that Taylor’s loyalty to Rubio could “change the dynamic” of the talks (Twitter links here).

Michele Roberts On Union, Salaries, Age Limit

October 21st, 2014 at 6:16pm CST by Alex Lee

New NBPA head Michele Roberts seems to be making the media rounds after stepping into the role vacated by Billy Hunter. She recently sat down with Tim Bontemps of the New York Post to discuss several topical issues that she is sure to address in her tenure as the executive director of the NBPA. There is a little overlap with her conversation last week with Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops, but the entire story is still worth a read. Here are some of the key quotes from Roberts:

On the status of the union:

“But I think what is equally important, for me, is to repair what has been a foundation that has been subjected to some injury by, unfortunately, my predecessor. What we don’t have, and what we will have, is a management structure that is both able to interact with our counterparties with the league and elsewhere, but a structure that allows the players to do unequivocally what they want to do, and that’s run their own union…. They didn’t hire me, and they were not interested in hiring, someone to run things for them, to simply let them know what’s going on.”

On having a max salary rule:

“I’ve had conversations with guys who have said, ‘Look, when I go to play in New York, I’m not selling out the Garden. I can get on the subway and no one knows who I am. But when LeBron goes to the Garden, he’s selling it out, and he can’t get on the subway because he’ll be mobbed’ … so there’s an appreciation of what we all realize is true. The LeBrons of the world, the Durants of the world, the Kobes of the world, they make a ton of money for this league and empower everybody. So I don’t hear players complaining about max salaries or getting rid of max salaries. Because, frankly, everyone gets it.

On the NBA minimum age:

“It sounds trite, but you can go to war and you can’t make a living. If I had my way, you could work at 14, and whenever someone is prepared to hire you. If people say, ‘They’re not yet members of the union, why should we care?’ Michele cares that anybody that’s able to work can. The notion that the union shouldn’t be concerned about people who will one day become members of the union, that’s nonsense. We may not legally be able to do anything about that, but to not care about people we know are going to become members of our union, of course we care about them, and we should consider any policy that’s going to impact our future members. Michele needs a better argument with respect to why that policy needs to be increased from 19 to 20, but I’ll find out from my bosses what they think, and I’ll let you know.”

On the 2017 labor talks:

“The only way that happens is when people have not been engaged in the process going forward. In other instances [I’ve been in] where there have been multiple stakeholders who have had interest in the outcome but internally and there has been a dissension in the ranks, it’s always been when people are lied to or had a complete misunderstanding of what the goals were.

“I can’t say what happened in 2011 because I wasn’t there, but I was told there was internal dissension, and I can imagine there was a communications breakdown. There’s no sort of magic bullet you can have, but you can certainly minimize the possibility of that happening.

“But if you get people engaged and involved in the discussion as early as possible, and if you have a common agenda and everyone knows this is what we’ve agreed we’re going to do and try to accomplish, it would minimize — I think dramatically — the possibility of people fighting internally. It could happen, but it will not happen because I don’t get people I needed to be in the room in the room, and so we’re going to start getting people in the room right now.”

Michele Roberts On CBA, Salaries, Revenue

October 16th, 2014 at 7:45pm CST by Eddie Scarito

New NBPA head Michele Roberts is stepping into the job just prior to team revenues skyrocketing thanks to the new $24 billion TV deal the league has recently inked. The players can choose to opt out of the current CBA in 2017, and with all the new revenue in play it seems that will be the likely course of action. Roberts spoke with Chris Sheridan of Sheridan Hoops, and the entire piece is worth checking out, but here are some of the highlights…

On the NBA minimum age:

“The word that is troubling to me, generally speaking, is ‘restriction.’ My DNA is offended by the notion that someone should not be able to make a living because he needs to have been alive a year longer. That’s Michele, not Michele NBPA director. I know what it means to be able to make a living and support your family. Emmanuel Mudiay can’t play in his country because he’s not old enough. That makes no sense to me.”

On having a max salary rule:

“I have difficulty with rules that suggest that for some reason, in this space, we are not going to allow you to do what is ordinarily allowed in every other aspect of American life– you can work and get compensated at the level that someone thinks you’re worth being compensated at. And for all the reasons that it might be reasonable, it still–as a base–the premise offends me. So for me, there needs to be a justification that is substantial. And I’m told in large part it’s because there’s an inability on the part of some owners to control their check-writing habits. So that’s where I am. Now, there’s a history that led up to max contracts, and I’m not going to pretend it’s not significant. But if you ask me off the cuff, that’s my response.”

On whether the NBPA intends to opt out of the CBA in 2017:

“We are preparing to opt out. I mean it’s not my call, because unlike Billy [Hunter] I don’t think I run the union. This union is run by the executive committee, I serve at their pleasure, and I do what they command I do. I advise, and I will recommend. But at the end of the day, it’s not Michele Roberts saying to the executive committee: ‘Hello, guys, get ready. We’re opting out.’ It doesn’t work that way. So it’s not my call, but in the event the call is made, we will be ready. And we are preparing to opt out.”

On fair treatment for the players:

“I can tie it up into this whole notion of fairness, but I think at the end of the day they want to be respected for the fact that they are what makes this game successful, and one of the ways to show that is to allow for fair compensation, and any limitations on their ability to make as much money as either the teams or anyone else is prepared to pay them is unfair. You know, we don’t restrict the revenue that owners are able to enjoy. They share it with us, but apart from that there aren’t these overlays that restrict how they can generate new revenue, or what they can do with the revenue. So I think when the players talk about wanting to be treated fairly, they want to be treated as the persons who are responsible for the product. I mean they create the product.”

On the union accepting a lower portion of revenues in the latest CBA:

“I can certainly appreciate why the players are not happy. That’s a lot of money. And it’s hard for me to be critical because I wasn’t in the room, so I cannot say that it was something that was avoidable. But it’s certainly not a happy turn of events, and I get why the players are not of the view that they came out winners.”

And-Ones: D-League, Bucks, Cuban, Faried

October 8th, 2014 at 1:01pm CST by Chuck Myron

NBA teams can retain the D-League rights to as many as four of the players they cut at the end of the preseason, up from the previous limit of three, Hoops Rumors has learned. Still, if a team keeps the D-League rights to fewer than four such players, it can claim the D-League rights of someone it waives during the regular season, another new wrinkle that Gino Pilato of D-League Digest reported last month. Such decisions are among the many that teams will have to make around the end of the month, when they face rookie scale extension and option deadlines and must set their regular season rosters. Here’s more from around the NBA as those key dates approach.

The Bucks have hired Deluxe Entertainment Services Group executive Peter Feigin as team president, the club announced. It appears as though he’ll handle business affairs for the Bucks while GM John Hammond will continue to run the team’s basketball operations.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban downplayed the financial impact the league’s new TV deal will have on teams, but he suggested that the majority of owners won’t attempt to “cry poor” when they negotiate the next collective bargaining agreement with players. Jeff Caplan of NBA.com has the details, including Cuban’s prediction that most players won’t seek one-year deals this summer in an effort to time their free agencies with an influx of TV money in the summer of 2016.
Kenneth Faried must continue his development and become a star to make his four-year, $50MM extension worthwhile for the Nuggets, argues Mark Kiszla of The Denver Post, who’s loath to bet against the power forward after a year of rapid growth.