You’re the Pacers and your star player took himself out for the upcoming season while playing a scrimmage for the Team USA. You owe him an assload of money and there’s really nothing you can do about it. By most accounts your season is shot and your salary cap is blown so youre stuck.
Do you agree with Mark Cuban that this shit needs to stop?
Should the Pacers still be on the hook for PG guaranteed money if he disabled himself playing basketball for another team?
If the NBA players union wants players to have sole decision authority to play for Team USA then shouldn’t the players take on some of the risk? Maybe force players to carry some sort of private risk insurance?
Should the NBA allow exceptions to teams cap space in these circumstances?
If you are a multi-$B NBA franchise and your star player want’s to do this how do you mitigate the risk?
The team is insured. There are very few NBA contracts that are not covered by insurance - Amar’e Stoudemire’s awful contract with the Knicks being one of those because of his history of major knee injuries. CBS Sports says 80% of George’s salary will be covered by insurance, though he still counts against the salary cap. The NBA could provide salary cap relief in situations like this, but in this case it wouldn’t help the Pacers very much. There aren’t a lot of major free agents left and not too many star players are going to move right now. By the time the trade deadline is close, it won’t make sense for them to trade for a star player.
This sucks for the NBA and for the Pacers, who were probably in for a shitty season anyway and are now without their best player. The thing the NBA may want to change is giving the owners more power to stop their players from participating in these competitions. That’s what Mark Cuban wants: the option to stop his guys from participating in these competitions if he wants to. I doubt the players will be on board with that, since they can make their own decisions about their career interests and already have the option to refuse to play. I don’t think NBA teams are taking any risks here that international teams aren’t also taking, but of course there’s more money at stake when we’re talking about NBA players. Ultimately I suspect these international competitions are good for basketball because they attract fans and future players, which means the NBA gets at least some benefit. If the league benefits, they shouldn’t put a financial burden on the players.
And as far as salary cap goes for the Pacers a truly horrible season would be preferable to a mediocre one. You are not going to replace Paul George with salary cap, might as well tank and try to replace Lance Stephenson for next year through the draft.
They’re a team built to win now, and that won’t work for them. Even without George, the Pacers won’t have a great shot at a high draft pick because they have too many solid NBA players to tank with Philly and Orlando and Milwaukee and Boston and Detroit. Worse, their roster will only get older and this sort of advances the clock on them by one year: they’re one year closer to having to make new contract decisions on Hibbert and West, or find replacements for West, George Hill, etc.
I totally disagree with Mark Cuban though I can see where he comes from. Other leagues do not have NBA caliber doctors and facilities. Often times the national teams subtly force the players to compete like Yao Ming did, definitely shortening his career. However, the injuries are so rare and this kind of thing happens to such a small degree that I think it would be a huge mistake to overreact. I do hope they will move that stanchion back a few feet though.
I definitely am not one of those people who thinks that just because you’re being paid, that the owners can dictate how you spend your off periods. Players should be able to decide what risks they want to take when its their time off, no different from any employee working in any other job. Once you’re out of the office and out of the field of play, your time is your own. It just so happens that they work in a competitive league where injuries derail your job. Too bad, suck it up, that was what the owners bought into and they understood that.
On the other hand, I think teams should be able to have this money waived off their salary cap, and I think there is an injury exception though I don’t know the details.
Right, I mentioned that earlier. They can’t just plug someone into George’s space now. I’m saying they’re too good to really tank and that they’re not going to find a Lance Stephenson replacement in the draft because they won’t get a very high pick and because a rookie - especially one from the spot they’ll probably get - isn’t going to be a replacement for fourth-year Stephenson.
When it comes down to it, George would have been playing basketball somewhere during the off-season. This type of freak horrific injury could have happened just as easily in a pick-up game.