Updated: August 24, 2011, 8:07 pm ET

The Great NBA Lockout Debates!

Over the last two weeks the HOOPSWORLD team has taken an in-depth look at the hot button issues facing the NBA as its players and owners square off in the current labor dispute. Now here they are, all in one place. Take a look at the big issues as debated by our top experts and even sound off on what you think the best scenarios are for the owners and players moving forward.

Hard Cap For The NBA?

“The league and players are far from reaching an agreement on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA),” writes HOOPSWORLD’s Eric Pincus. ”How long the lockout will last is hard to say, but there’s no end in sight. One key hot-button issue is the notion of a hard cap. The league wants to set a maximum salary that teams can collectively pay to their players. For the union, it’s a line in the sand they just won’t cross. And they shouldn’t . . .”

“Surprise! There already IS a hard cap,” writes HOOPSWORLD’s Jason Fleming. “Putting teams on a level playing field, where how much a team spends is no longer a variable. More emphasis will be placed on getting the right players who fit the right system, rather than on spending every single dollar they possibly can. One of the myths about a hard cap is players will no longer be paid what a free market deems they are worth. Well, the current system doesn’t, either.”

Check that debate out here!

Should The NBA Adopt a Franchise Tag?

“As human beings, we all should be afforded the right to work and live where we want to, especially after paying our dues in a location that we never really considered ideal,” writes HOOPSWORLD’s Joel Brigham. “For the sake of professional basketball, however, organizations should be given every possible opportunity to keep the franchise-saving players they had the luck and/or savvy to draft. Otherwise, what’s to keep every player in the league from roughing out their rookie contracts and then signing with the Lakers or Knicks or Bulls or Mavericks? Those are the teams in the big markets with the great TV contracts where everybody wants to play, and those are the teams that aren’t losing money in the first place.”

“If the NFL players have given up the right to choose, that’s on them,” says Eric Pincus. “To an NBA star, why should he be forced to play for one team his entire career? The union simply isn’t willing to give up that freedom. As it is, they’ve allowed for restricted free agency in the early days of a player’s career.  They’re not going to go for a franchise tag in this negotiation. From a practicality perspective, it’s a bad idea because it would only freeze the league indefinitely in lockout. As is it, resolution to the gaps that exist seem insurmountable.”

Check out the entire debate on this issue by clicking here!

Do Away With the Mid Level Exception (MLE)?“If doing away with the MLE is a way to expedite an agreement between NBA players and owners, getting us a significant step closer to a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, let’s go ahead and make the deal,” writes HOOPSWORLD’s Bill Ingram. “Not only will it help level the playing field between big market and small market teams, it will also prevent team owners for going outside their budget to add additional players. It seems the owners need to be saved from themselves.”

“Eliminating the MLE will drastically affect the salaries of middle-class players,” argues HOOPSWORLD’s Susan Bible. “If the two parties ultimately decide on a flex-type salary cap (NBPA’s Billy Hunter says“Don’t be fooled.” A flex cap produces “the same harsh effects of a hard cap.”), teams will earmark the majority of funds for the max re-signing of their stars and for other projected signings. Where does this leave the non-superstar players that are absolutely critical on-court to support the stars?” Read the rest of that debate here!

Saving The Owners From Themselves?“How do you balance a budget? It seems this one question has been at the heart of the national discussion for the past few months, whether it’s been with regard to the NFL or the NBA locking out their players or on a broader scale with the American economy teetering on the edge of disaster,” writes HOOPSWORLD’s Bill Ingram. “At the heart of the rift between the NBA’s players and owners is how the league’s enormous economic pie should be split, with the owners maintaining that the players are simply making too much money. The owners may even have a point, but they also have no one to blame but themselves.”

“The owners are good businessmen,” argues HOOPSWORLD contributor Larry Coon. “They’ve proven so by being in the position to buy an NBA franchise — no one owns an NBA team without first being enormously successful in his earlier businesses. They install the best and brightest into the GM positions – people with both the basketball and business acumen to succeed in such a specialized, competitive field. These GMs are ultimately accountable to their team owners for running the franchise responsibly. If you look at every other aspect of team management, from front office salaries to facilities to game operations, you’ll see that they operate in a responsible, prudent and conservative manner. Yet you’ll have us believe that when it comes to player salaries, these successful, responsible, conservative businessmen simply abandon all reason. Surely there has to be more to it than that.” Check out that lengthy debate here!

There you have it – everything you need to win the water cooler debates at work when the subject of the NBA lockout begins. Want to know about something else or debate the finer points of these arguments? Drop your thoughts in the comments section below!
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