Good Idea or Bad Idea? NBA should allow ONE Max contract per roster.

[TheNumber37]

I was just reading the Josh Smith thread about him being claiming to be a max player and it got me thinking...
Firstly, No, Josh Smith is not a max player.

Secondly, Would it make any sense to allow NBA teams to place a sort of franchise tag on a player (not restricting them like the NFL), but only allowing teams to pay that ONE player at the max? If teams want to have more than one max deal on the books, they should have to pay more to do this.

30 NBA teams. Are there really 30 players worth the Max? Certainly not, but it might be a way for the NBA to help distribute some of that talent across other teams.
Surely, teams could get around this by paying slightly under the max - but those players with larger egos, just may go play for the true max elsewhere.

I must note, that I do think there should be an asterisk for teams that draft players or acquire them on draft day (or maybe even in their rookie seasons) as to allow them to max out player that they have spent time developing ( A La Harden)

Thoughts? Tweaks?

[JNoel]

Luxury tax. The new CBA kills teams over the cap.

[I Rock Shaqs]

Only one player per team on NBA 2K13 should be allowed to have a 90 OVR player.

[Hawkize31]

If an NBA team wanted more than one max player, couldn't they sign a player to a max deal and then sing a second player to a deal worth like 100,000 dollars less? Technically not a max deal, but its basically the same thing.

[gotoHcarolina52]

The players union would never approve it.

[iliketurtles24]

interesting thought. i see your point, but it wont happen.

[Quinnsanity]

No for several reasons. First of all, what do you do about a team like OKC that drafted their max players? Are you basically saying that you can only keep a superstar for four years if you have another one on the roster? Also consider the loopholes. What if a player took one dollar less than max? Realistically you'd have to make the rule something like "the second highest paid player on the team can make no more than $3 million less than the max", but that's illegal by antitrust law. It could be negotiated into a CBA, but the players would NEVER agree to it, meaning the league couldn't enforce that rule by antitrust law.

The proper cap structure would be what the NFL has. A hard cap with no individual max. That way if a team wanted to pay LeBron $50 million they could (and honestly that's probably what he's worth), they just wouldn't be able to afford a good team around him. Conversely, it would make players decide realistically if they want to take the money or play for a good team, now that decision is almost made for them, and finally I think it would do something about crappy players getting max deals because without a max for them to point to they'd have to start at a real number from a negotiating standpoint, and with a hard cap teams wouldn't waste $15 million on guys like Roy Hibbert.

[HouRealCoach]

I like it but it would cause too much jealousy with all of these divas today

[topdog]

Like others have said, the NBPA will not go for it. It was hard enough to get the harsh luxury tax penalty. Another thought along the same lines would be for teams to have assigned pay level slots i.e. X number of Mid-level contracts, X number of Rookie contracts, X number of Max Contracts and Unlimited one year deals.

[Phenomenonsense]

Can't you just give them a Max contract minus 1 dollar and get around that fee? Seems like a silly idea.

[Hellcrooner]

league needs less restrictions not more.

[Sinattle]

league needs less restrictions not more.

Says the Lakers fan with 3 of the biggest contracts in the NBA

[OceanSpray]

league needs less restrictions not more.

You want LeBron, Durant, Chris Paul, Rondo, Wade, and Carmelo on LAL as well?

[rickshaw]

Maybe only one to a player not drafted by you. Don't want to hurt teams like OKC who draft well, and would have to trade all but one person because of it.

[MrfadeawayJB]

I like the idea of having strict salary caps better. For example a team can sign 2 max players or even near 3 but the rest of the team is made up of cheap minimum contracts. Set a salary cap (say 60 mil) and dont allow ANY TEAM to go over it. Yay small markets!