Anyone else really sad about NBA Lockout

[lilstovie34]

Ill miss the NBA but it needed to be done. For how rich these owners are, they are still in the business of making money. and only 8 of the 30 teams made money this year. That means your industry needs to start clean.

[Hilfiger1975]

ill miss the nba but it needed to be done. For how rich these owners are, they are still in the business of making money. And only 8 of the 30 teams made money this year. That means your industry needs to start clean.

+1

[druce26]

Looks pretty accurate for this year, which excludes my comment, "When they made their runs". It also looks like the third place team might miss the playoffs, and teams 4-9 Have been out of it for weeks. Team #27 won their division and team #31 is about to overtake #3 for the wildcard. Am I missing something in your arguement?
How about this, since 1980, 9 franchises have won an NBA title, including Dallas, The Sixers and the Heat once. 17 different franchises have won a World Series.
Wolrd Series Champs in payroll in the last ten years
2001 Arizona:8th
2002 Anaheim:15th
2003 Florida 26th
2004 Red Sox 2nd
2005 White Sox 13th
2006 Cardinals 11th
2007 Red Sox 2nd
2008 Phillies 11th
2009 Yankees 1st
2010 San Fran 9th
5 Teams in the tops 10, 5 teams 11-30. Seems like parity to me.

http://baseball.about.com/od/newsrum...m-Payrolls.htm

Looks pretty accurate to me...

[jyosi]

The parity in baseball is better than in basketball, but both sports still have glaring problems. Payroll isn't an issue when measuring NFL franchises because the majority of teams have very close to equal payrolls. In my opinion football has the greatest parity. Yes, some of the reason for that is that a team can improve leaps and bounds in a single draft, but the NFL really does have the most equal playing field when it comes to money.

Really, the more I think about it, if the NBA just got rid of guaranteed contracts there would be so much more parity. Of course there would have to be rules in affect that limited the cuts so that teams couldn't chop their entire rosters to go after a marquee free agent.

[druce26]

They would have to do something like the NHL did it's first year back. They let teams cut one high salary guy. They had to pay him, but it didn't count against the cap.
Obvious baseball has it's problems, but you can see teams get out of a hole. Tampa plays in the toughest division, but through good drafting, can compete and win against Boston and the Yankees. The Royals and Nationals have been killing it in the draft the last few years, and are probably about to do the same thing. Anybody can say a horrible team like the Pirates can't win, but they have been run into the ground and never took advantage of that beautiful park they had. Look, the Phillies were in the same boat as the Pirates, but when they opened their park they also spent a fortune on Jim Thome, and got the city into baseball again. The Pirates just opened the park and figured people would love to watch a 60 win team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Either way, at the beginning of every NBA season, there are 20 teams that have no shot.

The parity in baseball is better than in basketball, but both sports still have glaring problems. Payroll isn't an issue when measuring NFL franchises because the majority of teams have very close to equal payrolls. In my opinion football has the greatest parity. Yes, some of the reason for that is that a team can improve leaps and bounds in a single draft, but the NFL really does have the most equal playing field when it comes to money.

Really, the more I think about it, if the NBA just got rid of guaranteed contracts there would be so much more parity. Of course there would have to be rules in affect that limited the cuts so that teams couldn't chop their entire rosters to go after a marquee free agent.

[Hilfiger1975]

They would have to do something like the NHL did it's first year back. They let teams cut one high salary guy. They had to pay him, but it didn't count against the cap.
Obvious baseball has it's problems, but you can see teams get out of a hole. Tampa plays in the toughest division, but through good drafting, can compete and win against Boston and the Yankees. The Royals and Nationals have been killing it in the draft the last few years, and are probably about to do the same thing. Anybody can say a horrible team like the Pirates can't win, but they have been run into the ground and never took advantage of that beautiful park they had. Look, the Phillies were in the same boat as the Pirates, but when they opened their park they also spent a fortune on Jim Thome, and got the city into baseball again. The Pirates just opened the park and figured people would love to watch a 60 win team. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. Either way, at the beginning of every NBA season, there are 20 teams that have no shot.

When a team has a payroll of 18m and another team has a payroll of 200m something is wrong, period...are you saying that there is not 20 teams in baseball that don't have a shot to win the WS? You keep bringing up drafting, but All sports draft and all teams do it well or sadly...

[Autofreak2842]

From a graphing point, yes. But in all reality I don't think I will miss it much. I would go to 1 or 2 wolves games a year, just for sigs, but wouldn't watch any NBA besides that. I like college basketball better.

[druce26]

I haven't denied that there is anything wrong, but I think you are cherrypicking what I am writing, so I'll write it again. 9 different franchises in the last thirty years have won the NBA Championship. In that time, 17 MLB franchises have won the series. Again, here is a list of the last ten winners:
2001 Arizona:8th
2002 Anaheim:15th
2003 Florida 26th
2004 Red Sox 2nd
2005 White Sox 13th
2006 Cardinals 11th
2007 Red Sox 2nd
2008 Phillies 11th
2009 Yankees 1st
2010 San Fran 9th
I think it's pretty clear from that list, and the list that you brought up for 2011, that there is alot more parity in baseball. Of course there are three or four crap teams in baseball, but a team like Tampa, as I stated and you ignored, can compete with the bigs boys by drafting well when they are on a downturn. This is what Washington and Kansas City have done. You'll see the fruits of this in the next 2-3 years. Sorry, but in the last 30 years, the Bulls with Jordan, The Rockets with Olajuwon, the Lakers with Kobe(who forced a trade to LA, remember) and the Spurs with Duncan are the four franchises that can attribute success through the draft. They literally won the lottery.
Baseball is a different beast. The Yankees can still have a 200 million dollar payroll and have a team like the Marlins beat them in 2003. When is the last time something like that happened in basketball? Is basketball going to see a championship series in which the 11th and 30th highest payrolls make the Series, like in 2008? Everyone knew the Heat would make the finals this year, it was a foregone conclusion. Teams can circumvent the Salary Cap anyway they want in the NBA, and that needs to get fixed. Yes, baseball isn't perfect, but it's quite conceivable that you see a Tampa-Arizona World Series this year. You could never say that you might see a Bucks-Warriors Championship Series in the NBA, it cant happen.

When a team has a payroll of 18m and another team has a payroll of 200m something is wrong, period...are you saying that there is not 20 teams in baseball that don't have a shot to win the WS? You keep bringing up drafting, but All sports draft and all teams do it well or sadly...

[Hilfiger1975]

I haven't denied that there is anything wrong, but I think you are cherrypicking what I am writing, so I'll write it again. 9 different franchises in the last thirty years have won the NBA Championship. In that time, 17 MLB franchises have won the series. Again, here is a list of the last ten winners:
2001 Arizona:8th
2002 Anaheim:15th
2003 Florida 26th
2004 Red Sox 2nd
2005 White Sox 13th
2006 Cardinals 11th
2007 Red Sox 2nd
2008 Phillies 11th
2009 Yankees 1st
2010 San Fran 9th
I think it's pretty clear from that list, and the list that you brought up for 2011, that there is alot more parity in baseball. Of course there are three or four crap teams in baseball, but a team like Tampa, as I stated and you ignored, can compete with the bigs boys by drafting well when they are on a downturn. This is what Washington and Kansas City have done. You'll see the fruits of this in the next 2-3 years. Sorry, but in the last 30 years, the Bulls with Jordan, The Rockets with Olajuwon, the Lakers with Kobe(who forced a trade to LA, remember) and the Spurs with Duncan are the four franchises that can attribute success through the draft. They literally won the lottery.
Baseball is a different beast. The Yankees can still have a 200 million dollar payroll and have a team like the Marlins beat them in 2003. When is the last time something like that happened in basketball? Is basketball going to see a championship series in which the 11th and 30th highest payrolls make the Series, like in 2008? Everyone knew the Heat would make the finals this year, it was a foregone conclusion. Teams can circumvent the Salary Cap anyway they want in the NBA, and that needs to get fixed. Yes, baseball isn't perfect, but it's quite conceivable that you see a Tampa-Arizona World Series this year. You could never say that you might see a Bucks-Warriors Championship Series in the NBA, it cant happen.

It has more to do with how many players are on a team. Basketball has the fewest...in baseball and football one or two players don't make a team in basketball one or two players can move a team very far. It's three different games. The Miami Heat had the players on the main floor they just didn't have anything to go with it...

P.S. I also still disagree about the salaries if a team is not willing to keep the players or can't afford to keep them then the team will never do anything. The salary cap for Pittsburgh will always be low and since that happens when Pittsburgh get the next great player he will leave for money or have to be traded since they can't afford to keep him. Kansas City is another team that will never be able to keep great players. You can have the best farm system in the world, but if you can't afford to keep them then it's pointless and your just farming for the teams that can afford him...all sports have salary problems. They should make it that all sports have a average salary cap so one team isn't spending 200m while another is only spending 18m and HAVE to rely on a farm system and HOPE that a good player comes from it. They should take the average from all the teams and have that be the salary cap or whoever has the lowest salary have the be the salary cap. But that will never happen because that would mess with money on sides too greatly...the thing about the Heat didn't have anything to do with salary it had to do with "hype" about the big three. The Salaries in the NBA are closer than baseball by far...

Take a look at these team salaries and tell me what you think about them?

http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-salaries/

[C&C Collecting]

http://baseball.about.com/od/newsrum...m-Payrolls.htm

Looks pretty accurate to me...

And if it weren't for the Yankees and the luxury tax they on their payroll teams like the Pirates might not be in existence. Just because the Pirates suck doesn't make it the Yankees fault. Look at the playoffs this year, look how many teams have a shot. Are the Yankees the clear-cut favorites? No. Also, if you look around baseball you will see teams starting to spend the money to put a decent product on the field. Look at how the Washington Nationals are transforming their team from the ashes of the Expos. In a few years the Royals, Nationals, and teams like the Indians and even the Pirates will have talent coming up through their farm system to make them exciting again. It is up to the teams to pay those players.

As for the NBA I have mixed emotions about losing the season. On the one hand I am a Knicks and Nets fan...a casual NBA fan who likes to see the hometown teams win, period. Both have been so bad for so long I am losing interest. Like baseball, the basketball team need to develop talent through smart drafting and choice free agent acquisitions. The Knicks and Nets haven't done that for years. Although last year there was some excitement for a future for both franchises. As for graphing the NBA, I have never had much luck TTM so it wouldn't bother me. Just more time to spend watching football, postseason baseball, and hockey.