We're now roughly 71 hours away from a lockout. The players' union basically thumbed their noses at the owners' latest proposal and didn't even bother to submit a counter-proposal. There doesn't appear to be any way this lockout will be averted. Forget the union for a second, and let's talk about what this lockout means for the players who will essentially be rudderless for an indeterminate period of time.
For guys who are under contract, this summer might not be all that much different from other summers, except the team-sponsored activities will be verboten. No more coming together at PCOM for some five-on-five. Jrue, Turner, Meeks, Brand, Lou, Nocioni, Speights and Iguodala will pretty much be on their own. Left to their own devices to do what they need to do in order to stay in shape, at the bare minimum, and improve their games ideally. You can look at that list of names and probably make an educated guess as to who will take their summers seriously, and really define what taking their summer seriously means. Jrue put in a ton of work last summer, not only on the court, but also working with
Maurice Green, a former Olympic gold medalist sprinter, to improve his explosiveness. Jrue will probably be in LA, and elsewhere, working on various parts of his game and putting in long hours at the gym. I feel pretty confident that no matter how long this lockout lasts, Jrue will be in shape when it's over and ready to take the next step in his career.
As for Iguodala, assuming he's still on the team, (which seems like a much safer assumption now than it did a week ago), his top priority has to be rest in the short term. The lockout could actually play in his favor in that regard. It could allow him to properly rest his myriad wear-and-tear injuries, and then put in a full summer's worth of workouts to hopefully put the injury bug behind him after his grueling 24-month campaign (2009-2010, Team USA, 2010-2011 season.) Again, if history is any indication, Iguodala will be ready to go. Brand is a pro, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt as well.
Turner and Meeks are a little bit unknown, but both guys seem dedicated to their jobs and willing to work, so assume they'll be in the gym as well.
When we get beyond those guys, however, things get a bit murky. Lou may be one of those guys who doesn't need to be in the gym to retain his skills. It's pretty natural for him. His outside interests seem like a distraction to me, but he's always in shape, and he seems to keep things in balance off the floor, so I'm less concerned that he'll be able to keep that up than some of the other guys. Speights, I'm flat out worried about. Ever since his knee injury, he's been a sloth, to put it kindly. Without the team to keep him focused (and playing), who knows what will become of Marreese. I could see him reporting back to camp 50 pounds heavier than when we last saw him, and let's face it, he wasn't exactly in shape even with the team pushing him.
That covers the important guys who are under contract, but the bigger concern might be the guys who aren't. Thad will be a restricted free agent when the lockout ends, and he'll be looking for a monster pay day. The ambiguity of his contract situation inserts a ton of risk into everything he does. If he blows out his knee in a pick-up game, he could cost himself tens of millions of dollars. It seems like he's taking that risk very seriously. The 700 level
interviewed Thad last week and when they asked him about his plans for the summer, he said he won't be playing any five-on-five, but he will be working out, he will be "staying in shape." This worries me, to a degree. I mean, if New Jersey signs Thad away from the Sixers, then who cares if he blows his summer and doesn't improve a bit? But if Thad takes it easy for a six month lockout then signs an extension with the Sixers, well, that's a lost summer, that's lost time for him to improve upon the things you don't get a chance to work on during the season. That's a big deal to me.
The team's other free agent is Spencer Hawes. I doubt the lockout will impact his "workout" regimen greatly, considering he doesn't really appear to have one.
Around the league, teams and players will have to deal with these issues. The Sixers aren't alone, and they probably won't be affected as much as some other teams, considering they've, for the most part, put together a core of stand-up guys who take basketball seriously and aren't averse to hard work. But this is an angle that isn't talked about much concerning the lockout. There are a ton of misguided, immature players in this league. Guys who will see a lockout as a vacation, or time to party (until they don't get a paycheck). Maybe the character of the guys the Sixers have drafted will actually help them get off to a quick start when the lockout does end, there are definitely teams in their own division with key players who have either motivation or weight issues.
Even though I sort of poked fun at it yesterday, I think the fact that Doug Collins is making a point of meeting with each of his guys prior to the lockout shouldn't be overlooked. They trust him, they believe in him at this point. It's important for a voice from the team to maybe give them some focus heading into a summer that may bleed into the fall, or longer. Things could get ugly and we could miss a significant amount of basketball, but eventually we will come out the other side. Hopefully, Collins will be able to keep the Sixers players focused on what they need to accomplish to reach their goals when the dog and pony show is over.
What do we as fans want to see out of this lockout? I'm all for shorter contracts... not really sure if I'm "rooting" for anything else though. Any thing you guys think needs to happen for the league to be more balanced, fair, etc.
If this has already been discussed my bad, was gone for a while in June.
Grear question, and one I'm sure we'll spend a ton of time discussing. The interesting thing about it, at least from ny perspective, is seeing how fans approach the issues.
Personally, I'm a sixers fan first and an NBA fan a distant second, so it's really hard for me to view issues through the lens of "how does this impact the league, or the sport" when I'm looking at a specific piece of the negotiations. I'm always looking at how it will impact the sixers current situation first. For example, I think the sixers are in a very good position currently to adjust to a hard cap, and maybe opportunistically pounce when other teams are forced to make tough decisions a couple of years down the road. So my first inclination is to be in favor of a hard cap, but that doesn't necessarily mean i think it would be good for the league as a whole.
Agreed on the shorter contracts. I would also want the current trade restrictions to be simplified.
About Speights, I really wish that this years option wasn't picked up, if he isn't used in a trade then he is a waste of space. I predict 60 dnp's for him this season.
The players will not have contact with the organization during the lockout, but that doesn't mean they can't organize themselves to hold joint workouts. What i would like to see this summer is one of the players (preferably one of the younger ones) step up and gather the core of the team for a few days when they can work together and improve the team's chemistry. Jrue is the perfect guy to step up and be the leader of the young nucleus IMO.
As for what i hope to see from the new CBA, it's simple. I want an agreement that will level the field so that the league will be far more competitive and balanced. If it's a hard cap that gets that i'm fine with it. I want to see team oriented basketball and not just a collection of stars.
All in all i am pro:
- hard cap
- shorter contracts (but still guaranteed)
- easier trading (you can make any kind of trade as long as you are under the hard cap)
- less exceptions
- the option to give more than 0.5 million dollars for buyout purposes (we've seen too many buyout issues with international prospects)
Players' lack of a counter-proposal is obtuse, considering the owners' recent proposal contained tons of concessions. I still think we'll have a season, maybe a little shorter or condensed, because the only thing that keeps a lockout going endlessly is owners' unwillingness to bend. This time it's the owners who have already bent a lot, and the players who won't seem to negotiate. That's a good sign for the season, because the players will always eventually cave, because they're the ones who get hurt by a lockout.
I am all for a way to keep players from teaming up, like Miami, but am not sure a franchise tag is the answer. What is worse, losing a star player or paying him big money and having him not want to be here.
Worse? Surely the latter condition ... paying a player a tractor trailer load of money, seeing him fail to meet coordinate expectations and, eventually, seeing that player's squeamish desire to skedaddle due to the uncomfortable heat level of fan attention and the demands of high performance. Not that I have anyone in mind. ;)
The thing is though that those tho options aren't the only ones. A hard cap would technically limit any team to sign more than two max players if they want to surround them with anything by itself. And even two will be a stretch if the actual hard cap figure is fairly low. You don't need the franchise tag to stop players from teaming up.
You know, half of the great teams have been superteams. (Kobe and Shaq, Shaq and Wade, Kareem/Magic/Worthy, Jordan/Pippen, Russell/Cousy/Havlicek, Bird/McHale/Parrish, Malone/Erving, Wilt/West/Goodrich.) But many of them were assembled by draft or trade, which fans somehow find massively preferable to allowing players to actually go where they want to. I'm all for allowing players to easily walk out on lousy franchises, or even franchises they just don't happen to like playing for.
I have to point out that you left out the team many still consider to be the best, and it was a Sixers team, the '67 champions with Wilt, Greer, Walker, Cunningham, Jackson. Trade, draft, draft, draft, draft. How can you mention Russell/Cousy/Havlicek and not that Sixers team - on a Sixers site?? Yeah, I know, it was another era. Sorry to be picky.
I think shorter contracts will help with balance. It seems that every player who signs a 5 or 6 year contract and is not a superstar turns into a salary cap problem after about a year and a half. Why sign guys like Outlaw, Cardinal, Brand, Jeffries, Baron Davis for more than 2 or 3 years? If fewer players are locked up, the bad teams could improve faster. For all I know though, the opposite could be true.
There needs to be some sort of way cutting players with fat contracts that don't live up to their expectations. Making all contracts non-guaranteed is too drastic to be implemented, but making them 50% guaranteed is fair IMO.
Is that Stefanski or Dr Phil? Thad looks like Shannon Sharpe.
Dr. Phil McGraw: "Your feelings? To hell with your feelings! That dog don't hunt. Failure is no accident. No dog ever peed on a movin' car. If you want more you have to require more from yourself."
I think I would like to see a hard cap and a and a hard floor (teams have to spend atleast a said amount). I would also like too see if there is a hard cap a change to the draft. If you have a hard cap without a hard floor I would like to see the second round draft order changed to have the teams with the best record pick first.
wow. busy day? Usually there's about 100 comments at this time of day. I guess I'm the only one without a life.
Not much to sy. We are entering an abyss where no Sixers news happens.
Yeah, I'm sitting on a cloudy beach watching my kids build sand castles. No news before the sale is far preferable to the alternative.
Not at a beach in south carolina are you? watching sand castle building myself..hehe
Seriously, though, work is boring. The comments usually help me push through.
Been getting more worried about whether or not they sign Thad, and if they do for how much. With the draft completed there has to be some teams who have a hole they want to fill via FA. Hopefully, nobody offers him a huge contract. I'd hate to see Thad taken from us with a big pay-day, and I'd also hate to see us match a contract that is way too big.
If we don't resign him, we get worse. Thad came through in a lot of situations. If we do resign him we may be screwed financially and it may end up costing us Iggy.
It would be better short term and long term to loose Thad and keep Andre. It may or may not show up in wins and losses this year. You would be able to increase Evan's mpg. You would be able to have Jrue, Jodie, Evan, Andre, whoever at the 5 for short stretches.
People deserve good life and mortgage loans or just car loan would make it much better. Just because people's freedom relies on money state.
From the New York Post.
Was there any merit to reported possible Lamar Odom-Luke Walton-Andre Iguodala trade: According to a team official, the 76ers never had a conversation with the Lakers. LA-based agent Rob Pelinka "is trying to get Iguodala traded to his home city." Hence, the purported Chris Kaman-Iggy dialogue. . .
mounting evidence that Andre wants out. Part of me hopes that the new owners can get him on board, another part of me wants him gone for the first reasonable return (still waiting for that)
If he wants out, which, like you said, looks increasingly likely, I'd rather trade him. This has been the #1 reason I've been hoping for a trade all along.
Of course, the proposals of a trade exception, Jonny Flynn, and Chris Kaman were a joke.
Thanks for the link.
I can't wait to see the Iguodala trade drama settle one way or the other. If they do trade them let it be for someone with promise and not another vet.
I still think Iggy for #2 was the best they were going to get, if that offer was even a real possibility
No way Iggy for the #2 was ever a real possibility. Derrick Williams on a rookie contract vs. Iggy on a $44M contract, headed into an uncertain CBA?
Agreed, I think that if we could have gotten the second pick in the draft for Iggy then the Sixers brass would have jumped on it.
Iguodala's from Chicago...
Lives in LA now though...
If this is true, I haven't read it anywhere. The Vecsey story says Pelinka wants to get Iguodala traded to his home city, as in Pelinka's. Iguodala lives in Philly as far as I know.
Could be my misreading. Since Iggy is in LA this summer, as that's where Collins is meeting him, and since the article said "trade iggy to his home city" I interpreted it as Iggy's city, which I see now could mean "LA-based" Pelinka's city. Ambiguous reporting!
Odd but worth a look- regarding Vucevic.
http://www.libertyballers.com/2011/6/26/2245732/montenegro-please-the-musical-stylings-of-nikola-vucevic
BTW, they should play "Ricola" after every made Vucevic basket.
This is something I found on a Portland Trailblazers blog. Strange I did not hear about this story prior to the draft anywhere.
"It kept spinning and spinning," said USC's Nikola Vucevic, "and you didn't know when it was going to stop."
Vucevic, who was in Portland on June 16 to workout for the Trail Blazers a week before the NBA Draft, wasn't talking about one of those shots that circles around and around the rim before falling through the net. Nor was he wasn't speaking figuratively about the predraft process of flying to a city, working out for two hours and then boarding a plane for another city and yet another workout.
The spinning that never seemed to stop in Vucevic's memory occurred not on the court, but on the Belgrade-Bar railway in his homeland of Montenegro. It was there that the brakes failed on a train carrying a 15-year old Vucevic, teammates from his youth club team, his father Borislav and around 300 others. The train jumped the tracks, falling 50 meters down an embankment, killing 45 passengers and injuring 184, many of whom were children. Borislav, a former professional basketball player and teammate of the late Drazen Petrovic, pulled many survivors, including his son, out of the wreckage.