No. 3: Fixing the buyout market
One of the most frustrating parts of every basketball season is the speculation over which overpaid players in the final year of their contract will be bought out and then quickly signed by a contender.
This season, the Raptors would have loved to have added an elite center to help them in the frontcourt before Khem Birch came around. Andre Drummond would have been a good fir with the Raps, giving the squad the rebounder they desperately needed.
The big man did get bought out from the max contract he had with the Cavaliers and then signed for $794,536 to finish the season with the Los Angeles Lakers. It’s a significant difference from the $28.8 million he was earning earlier in the season.
The Brooklyn Nets added six-time all-star Blake Griffin and seven-time all-star LaMarcus Aldridge. They were earning $36.8 million and $24 million respectively. To join the Nets, Griffin agreed to be paid $1,229,676 and Aldridge got $878,340 for the remainder of the season.
The problem here is that the way the rules as they are currently constructed allow super teams to be get rewarded at the expense of the rest of the league.
The salary cap exists in order to help balance the competitiveness across the league. The buyout process skirts that balance. The Lakers and Nets did nothing wrong, they just took advantage of current league rules. That’s why the rule needs adjusting.
The league needs to help teams like the Toronto Raptors in the buyout market.
This could be easily fixed. Teams and their players should still be allowed to negotiate buyouts. If both parties can’t co-exist, it could be in both of their interests to part ways. In doing so, the player can sign with a new team without issue. There is of course a catch.
The league must ensure that a max player couldn’t leave a bottom seed club to sign for a top seed for league minimum unless that franchise had the appropriate cap space. A rule change like this wouldn’t just help the Raptors. It would help all teams who struggle to draw free agents and stop rewarding the big-market franchises.