For years I have been a champion of the NBA salary cap; in my mind it makes the NBA a much more competitive league. Having a salary cap allows the smaller markets to compete with the larger markets. The NBA is the one league of the four major US sports leagues where the smaller markets regularly compete at a championship level with the larger markets.
First let’s get out terminology on the same page. When I say small markets I am refering to the 10 smallest NBA cities, them being in order from smallest to largest: Memphis, New Orleans, San Antonio, Salt Lake City, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Indianapolis, Portland, Orlando and Sacramento. In the past 10 year three of those teams have made the NBA finals, with the Spurs winning the title four times. Seven of the ten have made at least their conferance finals since 2000. Only Charlotte, which is a 2004 expansion team, and Memphis have failed to advance past the first round at least once. Now compare that to the NFL. In the NFL’s smallest markets(Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Cincinatti, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Nashville, Jacksonville, Buffalo, New Orleans, and Green Bay) only two of the teams have won a Superbowl(Pitt, Indy) and another two have made the Superbowl(Carolina, Tennessee). But after that you have some real futility. Excluding those teams who have made the Superbowl only two other teams have made their league’s championship game(Green Bay and New Orleans) and the remaining four teams combined for a total of 5 playoff appeareances in 10 years, with the Buffalo Bills not making it once. The MLB is by far the worst of the four major American sports in not having a competitive small market. The 10 smallest MLB cities( Minneapolis, Denver,San Deigo, Cleveland, St Louis, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh, Cincinatti, Kansas City, and Milwaukee) bring futility to a whole new level. Two cities (KC, Pitt) have not had their team in the post-season for generations. The MLB is also different in that it only has one team in the bottom 30 TV markets, that team being the Brewers. The NBA and NHL four, and the NFL five.
So what is it that keeps the NBA’s smaller markets more competitive than the other sports? First thing is the NBA’s playoff system. The NBA’s playoff system is extremely open to teams and does give a false sense of seasonal success. A team at 35-47 can make the NBA playoffs. But what makes the NBA more competitve is that it allows 16 teams to make the post season compared to just 12 for the NFL, and 8 for the MLB. This prevents 27 year post-season droughts like what the Washington Nationals are going through. This is not to say the NBA teams have not experienced long post-season droughts before, The Golden State Warriors missed the playoffs 14 years in a row, but the list of double digit post-season droughts is a lot shorter in the NBA(0, the Wolves and Knicks currently hold the longest drought streak at 5 years) and the NFL(2; Detroit(11), Buffalo(10)) than it is with the MLB which current has six teams who haven’t made the post-season in 10 years and the Ragers will likely make that seven teams after this year. These droughts mean no post-season money, which just ultimately perpetuates losing.
One way the NBA has been able to keep it’s smaller markets competitive is throught revinue sharing. That is when teams go over the salary cap they pay a dollar for every dollar they are over and that money is than redistributed amongst the teams not over the cap. This allows teams to have a safty-net at the end of the season in case their season does not go the way they had planned. It also prevents struggling teams from selling off their players. Yes you do get the Pau Gasol type trades, but even that trade was done was a specific goal in mind. The Grizzlies were going nowhere and Gasol was seen as somewhat of a hinderance to their rebuilding plans. I agree they could have gotten a lot more for him than they did, but they did not just give him to a team like you see a lot of the time in the MLB.
Guaranteed contracts need to be addressed here as well. I am mixed on these. In one hand they require a team to be smart with their money, on the other it does hurt the game and leads to the Gasol type trades. The New York Knicks are in the mess they are in right now because they were foolish with their money. Now they sit with the worst roster in the NBA, having no draft pick(Utah owns it from a 2004 trade) and they are just hoping Lebron James can do an impression of Jesus Christ for them and be their salvation. This is both good and bad. It’s good in the sense that it will serve as a warning lesson to other teams; spend carelessly and you will pay for it one day. But it also hurts the fans of that team which have no control over what it’s GM does. The Knicks are lucky that they are in New York, if this same situation was going on in Sacramento the team would be looking to relocate or disband. I really have no suggestion on how to deal with this issue, other than to leave it as it is and let the Knicks be a warning to all those who will blow their cap space on Jerome Williams and their draft picks on Fredrick Weiss.
I think I should address the fact that two of the small market teams, New Orleans and Utah, are significantly over the cap this year and will be paying the luxary tax, and this will lead me to my next point, a point that comes down to basically luck. The NBA has a lot of teams which are very well run. The San Antonio Spurs have been one of the best ran sports franchises the past 20 years. The Spurs have done a fantastic job drafting, finding gems such as Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili late in drafts. This has allowed them to build a roster of highly talented players and have the success which will attract free agents. Another hallmark of the Spurs is their stability, they have had a few rough patches and instead of hitting the panic button and making wholesale changes they ride out the storm. This past season is a great example of this. The team was devistated by injuries and fizzled out in the playoffs. They could have easily fired Gregg Popovich, traded Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan and retarted. But they kept their cool and instead traded to broken pieced which were beyond repair(Fabricio Oberto and Bruce Bowen) for Richard Jefferson. Viola! The Spurs are once again considered to be title contenders. Now compare this to a team such as the Buffalo Bills. The team flat out cannot draft worth anything. Each draft they seem to take four or five cornerbacks even when the team is loaded with them. They cannot attract many big name free agents, and if they do get one it’s way past the guys prime and he’s a headcase(Terrell Owens). Even worse the team has no stability. Since 2000 they have had 4 head coaches, and five starting quarterbacks. The average coach last 3 seasons with Buffalo and the average QB just 2.5.
The NBA is going to have a huge decission on its hands in a few years. The new CBA(Collective Bargaining Agreement) will need to be hashed out and the players will of course be wanting more money. But this time the NBA has a new card to play and that is the economy. Money is not as abundant as it once was and the players union likely does not understand this. This will ultimately lead to an impass and I expect another lockout. However, when this issue gets resolved I think we’re going to see an even stricter cap. I do not think we will see a hard cap, but I think player salaries will end up being lower. Now I do not know how this will play out for anybody, I’m just saying what I think will happen.
