SB Nation User Blog: ZonaFlash

At 11% TRB%, Grant Hill is a top 25 NBA rebounder

ZonaFlash — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 07:21:22 -0000

At 11% TRB%, Grant Hill is a top 25 NBA rebounder

If Amare plays, he is 14.8% on his career, with a shocking 9% on the offensive glass. In his best year, 2006-07, Amare got 13.6% of his offensive rebounds and 21.7% of his defensive ones for 17.8% TRB% overall. Don't tell me Amare can't rebound if he wants to. Lou Amundson rebounds at a 15.2% clip. Frye only 13.6% and with -3.3 PER compared to Amundson.

"Last year, we got kind of sidetracked in trying to play a different style and I don't think we...

ZonaFlash — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 21:43:46 -0000

"Last year, we got kind of sidetracked in trying to play a different style and I don't think we necessarily announced it. Through practice, we started becoming something that none of us were really aware or comfortable with in terms of the direction we were going. I think having a clear vision of how we're going to play is important. I think (playing up-tempo) has always been (general manager) Steve's (Kerr) vision for the club. Fans really enjoy it and it's entertaining."
—Suns guard Steve Nash.

A Tale of Two GMs or a Tale of Two O'Neal

ZonaFlash — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:12:49 -0000

A tale of Two GMs or a Tale of Two O'Neal

This retrospective has nothing to do with current events, but carries on with my morbid fascination about might-have-beens regarding the pieces of the magical 7SOL era. While I constantly follow Mike D'Antoni and Shawn Marion, this post is about former Suns GM Bryan Colangelo, who I actually harbor much internal appreciation for.

By comparison, to some fans, GM Steve Kerr will always be the moron that blew up 7SOL in favor of championship calibre uber phail. Kerr came sweeping into the Suns and snatched defeat from the jaws of victory, single-handedly crippling the magic of the Phoenix Suns masterpiece put in place by none other than two-time executive of the year and former GM Bryan Colangelo. Some people wish BC was still running the Phoenix Suns.

Here's a tale of two GMs. Or two O'Neal. Who's the bigger moron?

Details	GM Steve Kerr	GM #2
Traded For	S. O'Neal	J. O'Neal
Salary	$20,000,000	$21,372,000
Traded away	Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks (MB addition by subtraction)	TJ Ford, first round #17 2008 NBA Draft (Roy Hibbert), 11 million in expiring contracts
Player performance (2008-09)	17.8ppg, 61.1% eFG, 8.4 rpg, 30mpg, +4 +/-	13.5ppg, 47.3% eFG, 7.0rpg, 30mpg, -2 +/-
Honors (2008-09)	All-star	-
Team Performance	57%, 63-47 (110 games)	36%, 15-26 (41 games)
Past Performance	70%, 38-16 (first 54 games 2008-09)	50%, 41-41 (2008-09)
Traded for	Luxury tax savings ($11MMx2)	Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks (Marion converted into $$$, MB subtraction by addition), $3 million cash
Traded away	Poor pick'n'roll defense, personality, high percentage offense	J. O'Neal, Jamario Moon, lottery-protected first-rounder, $4.2 million trade exception

To summarize, although the Suns topped the division at the time of the trade, the balance of power in the Western Conference changed radically with "The Gift of Gasol". There was no way the Suns, as comprised in March 2008 was going to make a title run against the new Lakers. Shaq was a big gamble for glory. Although it failed, we were going to lose Marion anyway, so it cost us some playoff series and some luxury tax money, but it did not cost us much more long-term.

In contrast, GM #2 (Bryan Colangelo) burned up two first round draft picks, traded away both TJ Ford and Jamario Moon, traded away $11 million in expiring contracts, took on the Suns declining players and the albatross of Marcus Banks all for the opportunity to have an injured, overpaid big that failed to perform. At best, this was a copycat style move that was as bad as the Shaq trade and probably much worse. The only positive commendation is that BC spared no expense in getting out of the bad trade in great haste. He only put up with Jermaine O'Neal for 41 games.

Shamsports summarizes the Colangelo regime in Toronto here best:

Do you know what the most annoying thing in the world is? It's Toronto Raptors fans when talking about Bryan Colangelo. By miles. There is nothing more annoying in the world than this. Nothing. Not a sausage. Not even scrotal crabs or Ron Artest's Twitter account are more potently insufferable than listening to Raptors fans drool on about Colangelo as being some kind of flawless freak of genius, who transcends general managerial conventions to achieve an unparalleled plateau of superlativityness. They make me advocate chemical warfare. It's intolerable.

So let's use some perspective on that, shall we? Colangelo inherited a 27 win team with Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, max cap room and the #1 overall pick. He didn't earn those things; he already had them when he got there. Three years later, the Raptors had Chris Bosh, Jose Calderon, their balls grazed against the tax threshold.....and all of 33 wins. That is not. Good. Sure, they won the Atlantic division title the year before, but there's a reason they went so far backwards, and that reason was Colangelo's dire 2008 offseason.

All that, and in the Eastern Conference.

Suns 2009-10 Season Preview Part II: Assessing the Offseason

ZonaFlash — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 05:17:58 -0000

More photos » by Ross D. Franklin - AP

Phoenix Suns top draft pick Earl Clark, right, laughs with Suns general manager Steve Kerr. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)

Browse more photos »

Welcome to Part 2 of 5 of our Suns 2009-2010 Season Preview: Assessing the Offseason.

Here we will focus on front office moves this offseason, deferring the offseasons of players and competitors to Parts 3 and 4. In Part 3, watdogg10 will review the standing the roster and the players' offseasons. In Part 4, PanamaSun will assess the competition, including their respective offseason gambles. In Part 5, Phoenix Stan will pull it all together and deliver his saucy insider's views regarding the keys for a successful and exciting season (he promises not to even mention the WNBA in his post).

Summary of Offseason Activities:

For the Suns, considering the options, it has been a great, great off-season.

To see that, consider that as late as August, the Suns were without Steve Nash, Grant Hill, Shaquille O'Neal. Amar'e Stoudemire was/is injured, and could have been traded for hopeless garbage and mediocre journeymen. The only players of note were Jason Richardson and Leandro Barbosa. Shawn Marion had signed in Dallas (ouch!) and Richard Jefferson was traded to San Antonio for nothing (oww!).

And we were being taunted by Warriors fans... (WTF!?!?!)

That tells you a bit about how badly the offseason could have gone.

Instead, our key players were retained at good value. The front office traded patiently and judiciously. Amar'e still wears the hallowed jersey. We have draft picks for the second year in a row. The financial condition of the team continues to improve. This is the best Sarver era off-season yet and it was a good one. In fact, I'm quite proud of how the front-office has handled the offseason and I look to further improvements in team management as this ownership group continues to earn its stripes.

Retained Steve Nash and Grant Hill (wow)
Picked Up Channing Frye (nice)
Drafted Earl Clark and Taylor Griffin (we get to keep 'em??)
Beefed up Coaching Staff (nice)
Traded Shaq for Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic and executed buyouts with each. ($$, addition by subtraction)
Embarked on new revenue streams ($$)

Details after the jump!

First, to understand the spot-on moves of the front office this offseason, I cannot stress enough the importance of context. If you are feeling disappointment, it's because you are living in the past and are remembering the swashbuckling days when the Suns would go out and sign stars at 12:01 on the first day of free agency. Sadly, but also inevitably, those days are over. And they were over five years ago. Doods, get over it!

Here, I point out the key differences in the Colangelo and Sarver eras. I note that Sarver likely could not have pulled off a continuation of Colangelo's management style and how that has contributed to the current Suns management problems. I observe that some of the mistakes of past offseasons appear to have been avoided this season, and this gives us hope for a management team getting better. Alas, this management group is still a poor one, which puts the team at a severe disadvantage to the Lakers and the Mavericks.

Five Years of Robert Sarver, Managing Owner of the Phoenix Suns

It must have been a heady thing for a longtime Suns fan and a comparatively unknown CEO of Western Alliance Bankcorp to be ushered in as the new majority owner of the Phoenix Suns in the summer of 2004. The outgoing Don of Phoenix sports, Jerry Colangelo, had run the Suns and had tilted Valley politics in favor of his sports teams for 34 years, gaining massive influence throughout that time. $400 million for the Suns might have been a record-breaker at the time for a team that missed the playoffs, but it was an offer Robert Sarver couldn't refuse. In exchange, he instantly inherited celebrity, valleywide recognition and political importance on Central, something his considerable wealth and status alone did not readily provide. One wonders if, being a fan himself with a deep-rooted desire to win, Robert Sarver didn't also believe he would naturally inherit the adoration of fans that the Colangelos had earned over decades of risk-taking and rewarding seasons.

Sarver was spoiled with instant basketball success. He got the third best team in Suns history, he got a giant arena, complete with cash flows continuously siphoned from the taxes of valley residents, he got the spotlight and attention of local media and politicians, he even got front row seats for his family where he could wave his now iconic orange foam finger, but he didn't get the widespread fan adoration that the Colangelos had cultivated.

We all know why. Robert Sarver didn't manage the Suns with the same gutsy flair that the Colangelos did. Where the Colangelos would double down, it seemed Sarver would fold. When the Colangelos would bet the farm, Sarver seemed to be counting the chickens. And then there were unsolicited soliloquies regarding overpaid employees and players, how he wanted to make a fiscally responsible profit every year, etc etc. Being a hesitant new owner might be forgiven, but being an outspoken and disciplined business man with our city's Pride and Joy could not. A social contract was breached. And so, Suns fans have branded him a tightwad, while rival GMs have extorted the franchise in every subsequent trade, sensing financial desperation like blood in the water during Shark Week.

While some of these things are part true, the myth of Sarver's scroogery has gone beyond the reality. The current ownership group PR woes stem from the fact that they manage the Suns in the shadow of the Godfather of Phoenix Sports. How Jerry Colangelo handled the club is both masterful and completely induplicable, even if the Sarver had wanted to try.

Managing in the Shadow of the Godfather

The Colangelos made offers players could not refuse. If 5 million would get the contract signed, the Colangelos would blow the player away with 7 million, and they would do it at 12:01 am on the first day of free agency. Famously, Dan Majerle's contract was once set in a meeting where Dan was given the list of salaries of all the players on the team, and told to pick the number where he felt he belonged (he chose the 3rd highest salary). Signing Nash was also vintage Colangelo. The whole party showed up on Nash's door at 12:01 with an offer so rich he couldn't refuse and so rich that even the uber-wealthy billionaire Mark Cuban blinked. It's the only time Mark Cuban has ever blinked, before and since.

Beyond the generous salaries, the Colangelos seem to genuinely love their players, inviting them to special occasions and topping fixed contractual salaries with numerous gifts of friendship. For example, Shawn Marion accompanied the Colangelos on a family vacation to Italy. While the Colangelos included players as part of their family, Sarver likened them to mid-level bank employees and wondered why they earned as much money as some of his subsidiaries.

How could the Colangelos be so generous? Where did the Colangelos get all that money given the constraints of salary caps?

Easy. The Colangelos were masters of making offers-that-could-not-be-refused not only to players, but also to GMs and owners. The Colangelos could buy players high because they could almost always sell those players higher. When motivated to move, the Colangelos could unravel all sorts of expensive contracts, including Dan Majerle's famously negotiated contract and even Stephon Marbury's just months after giving him a max extension.

The Colangelos relationship with GMs and owners, formed over 30 years, was their biggest asset and these trading partners understood that the Colangelos were willing to trade their best assets (Larry Nance, for example) to execute on bold strategies. Further, the Colangelos were willing to trade away talent that came with character flaws (Jason Kidd, or any troubled soul following the Walter Davis drug era in which the Colangelos took managing ownership of the team). Finally, trading partners knew that the Colangelos might on occasion trade away a valuable glue asset that they would later regret (Mario Elie, Tyron Corbin, Dan Majerle). For all these reasons, and their smooth negotiating talents, the Colangelos could often unwind even the most unfavorable or overgenerous contracts.

Why Stingy Management is RIGHT, or at least RIGHT NOW

Coming to the Sarver era, carrying on the appealingly lavish Colangelo management style would have lead to certain disaster.

First, the current management team does not have the same relationships the Colangelos have to effect trades at good value. As such, the current management team is unable to unwind any overgenerous bad contract. For example, consider the Marcus Banks fiasco as a small microcosm of such a disaster. It was such a small contract, and yet the Suns could not get rid of it for several years. I could imagine the Colangelos possibly making the mistake to sign Marcus Banks. I could even see them making an even bigger mistake by overpaying him even more. However, Marcus Banks would not have been an albatross on the Suns roster for nearly as long. The Colangelos would have very creatively found a trade out of it in half the time.

Second, an unfortunate fact of the current ownership group is that while the Colangelos, whose Suns were $200 million dollars in debt in 2004, were able to project the image of a bottomless resource of funds with the cojones to use it, the new ownership group has not been able to do the same. Sarver's desire to be a fiscally responsible black-in-every season business tycoon came in rabid conflict with his desire as a fan to win. Sarver quickly earned a paradoxical reputation for stinginess that persists today, despite the team having spent every year in his regime over the luxury tax.

However, far more important than a little around town name-calling, Sarver's reluctance to ante up and go all-in with his ownership group's financial resources has created enormous problems when trading with other teams. It's like poker - when people can easily count your chips, they start going "all in" on you at every opportunity. The ownership's image of finite resources, financial desperation and niggardliness has caused the Suns to embarked on notoriously awful and lopsided trades. There is no worse GM crime than desperation, and desperation explains most of the awful trades the Suns have made since ownership changed hands, including Steve Kerr's first trade: Kurt Thomas and two first round draft picks for including our first rounder in 2010 for cash and salary relief. Ouch.

Finally, the times were different in the Colangelo years. Generous, ever more opulent contracts had become the norm of the 90's bubble era. Even if the Colangelos led the way, each contract would fall behind that salary curve the next year anyway. In the Sarver era, we now see a falling tax threshold, making every overpaid contract in the past five years more expensive. As Mike Schwartz at VotS warns, if max contracts were contracts detrimental to the team in times of rising luxury caps, they are extremely dangerous as the cap falls.

So, Sarver and Co. have been right to scrutinize every new contract. Unlike the Colangelos, Sarver's management team would be unable to unwind any contract mistake. Being careful and downright stingy as the present management has been, I would argue is the right way to approach contract negotiations that cannot be easily undone and that may have increasingly debilitating repercussions if the tax threshold falls further.

Why this Offseason was GREAT

For several reasons, this offseason was well-done. Here's a few things that have been done better.

Stingy, but fair and friendly, contract negotiations
Drafting, and keeping, new talent
Trading patiently and judiciously
Improving trading leverage

1. Stingy, but Fair and Friendly, Contract Negotiations

The front office has done much better this offseason in negotiating hard with players, but without alienating them.

As a result of our past enjoyment (and the enjoyment by players) of Colangelo's management style, the new stingy management has been off-putting and disappointing. Most offputting has been the steady departure of jilted players and personnel. In the past, management's Machiavellian treatment of Bryan Colangelo and its hardline negotiations with Joe Johnson, Shawn Marion and Mike D'Antoni have left large rifts in morale. Joe Johnson did not even want his contract to be matched after the front office so badly mishandled him. It deeply hurts to see Shawn Marion playing for the Mavericks at the mid-level exception this year. The Suns did not even have a shot at getting Marion back this offseason after he was so alienated by the front office. As a fan, it's hard when your beloved players hate the management that much. It's hard not to hate stingy management as well.

However, this offseason, the front office has been tough, but fair and friendly negotiators with Steve Nash, Grant Hill and Amar'e Stoudemire. As a fan, it's shocking to follow the tough negotiations because we live in fear that our stars will leave and our next year will be spent in misery. We'd rather start bake-sales in 122 degree summer heat than to let our millionaire basketball heroes walk.

GM Steve Kerr deserves credit for having balls of cold steel. If anything, Steve Nash and Grant Hill had to resort to somewhat fishy bargaining tactics by disingenuously involving the jilted Mike D'Antoni and the New York Knicks. Kudos to Steve Kerr for having the cojones to underbid New York for Grant Hill's services, and to have Grant Hill happily stay. Wow, that's bona fide GM talent.

And how about the handling of Amar'e Stoudemire? We don't know how it will be, but the front office has handled the situation as well as anyone can handle such a dicey situation, befriending Stoudemire but also being frank (and earnest) about the situation, be it trades, extensions or the impact the injury has on all of it. By contrast, remember the Bryan Colangelo didn't blink in giving Amar'e a max contract while his knee was hurting. Source1 Source2

Suns president and general manager Bryan Colangelo said Stoudemire reported intermittent knee pain as far back as six to eight weeks ago - even while the two sides were hammering out his new contract.

Colangelo said the team knew of Stoudemire's knee problem during contract negotiations, but was not aware of the extent until Tuesday's surgery. Even had they known, it would not have had an impact on signing a player the Suns believe could develop into the best in the NBA.

"Whatever is in the best interest of Amare is in the best interest of the Suns," Colangelo said.

Bryan Colangelo claimed they knew microfracture surgery was a possibility and that they would have still given Amar'e the max contract. That doesn't sound like good GMship to me.

Instead, management here is making the right choice by playing out the season. They didn't trade Amar'e cheap to Golden State and there's nothing more to offer than the max, so why give out a max extension when Amar'e's health is still in doubt?

I would like to (continue to) give a lot of credit to Amar'e here. Some fans rip on his questioning his future here in Phoenix. However, I think that he has handled the complex situation and controversy with admirable loyalty and humility. It's a tough situation for anyone and that he and the front office can remain on good terms professionally is a sign of maturity and worthy of respect. As a fan, I also respect it since good front office-player relationships mean that Amar'e's trade value doesn't plummet when the trade rumors leak.

2. Drafting, and keeping, new talent

It's too early to pass judgment on draft picks Earl Clark and Taylor Griffin. Or even Robin Lopez and Goran Dragic. The draft is a turkey shoot and we'd like to think the Suns were good at the draft in the Colangelo era. Sure we drafted Amare Stoudemire. But we also drafted Armon Gilliam. We got Dan Majerle, but we also got Jerod Mustaf, Negele Knight and so on.

Even so, we can be pleased that the painfully myopic practice of selling draft picks is over. Unfortunately, the cost of our lost draft picks will curse us for a decade or more. But that curse rests on the myopic and desperate moves of yesteryear, not on this offseason.

Picks aside, the front office learned from last year not to overhype the players, but let them develop. Thankfully, we haven't heard "We actually think Taylor is the better of the Griffin brothers." or "Taylor was actually the number 2 player on our draft board..."

3. Trading patiently and judiciously

First, the front office is establishing a reputation for patience, rather than for desperation. That's a first!

Amid a lot of trade rumors, the Suns have sat on trades for Amar'e and Shaq for over six months, waiting for the best deals even as the trade rumors leak. The front office has remained flexible and relaxed. Trade values have not plummeted on these players as a result of the rumored deals. Also, despite the huge gaff that occurred as the result of the reneged deal with the Golden State Warriors, the Suns didn't cave to Nellie's absurd deals.

I am particularly pleased that the Suns have not traded Amar'e at blue light special prices.

4. Improving trading leverage - Following the Money

The Suns were patient in dealing Shaq, and saved an enormous amount off the bottom-line. All of this goes to reduce the appearance of desperation the team has wallowed in since Sarver took over. A strong financial position will put the Suns in a better bargaining position down the road.

While we did save an enormous amount of money on Shaq's salary, it's a pity we did not get any talent or draft picks back in the deal. The Suns, at great risk, have credibly resuscitated Shaq's career for another year or two such that even at 20 million he is an asset to contender like Cleveland.

Also, the team has been the first to put endorsements on its practice jerseys, paving the way for an additional source of NBA revenue on game jerseys.

Assessment

We don't have a billionaire owner, a large market team, a rapidly rising source of NBA revenue nor a mafioso front office that can deftly correct its mistakes through trade. We don't have Mark Cuban and we don't have James Dolan. We don't have Jerry Buss, but we also don't have Don Sterling. We do have an attentive ownership group that cares about winning, is willing to speak the hard truth to players and appears to learn from their mistakes. Obviously, the group may still make egregious mistakes, as the circumstances of Terry Porter's firing reminds us. The ownership group is still new, but getting better each season.

We can never go back. The Godfather, who nearly bankrupted the Diamondbacks to bring us a World Championship, is gone. We are still paying for the noob mistakes of the new ownership team and have several more years of paying. Sarver and Kerr are learning the ropes and rebuilding their tarnished trading reputations among GMs and owners.

We still have a lot to be thankful for, as this offseason shows. Our key players were retained at good value. The front office traded patiently and judiciously. We have draft picks for the second year in a row. The financial condition of the team continues to improve. This is their best off-season yet and it was a good one.

Introducing the SuperLuxury Tax because the Free Markets Don't Work and Democracy is Dead

ZonaFlash — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 23:57:10 -0000

[Note by ZonaFlash, 09/27/09 12:50 PM EDT ]

Dear Friends - I'm sorry if I have distracted you on a bit on this post. A Cliff Notes version says -

How American values are illustrated in government and in the NBA appear different, but what is central to both is a sense of Fair Play. I consider how prospective owner Mikhail Prokhorov might tilt the tables of fairness and consider several stronger forms of the luxury tax.

The luxury tax was instituted to promote fair competition, but harms good teams that want to go over the tax to compete but cannot afford it (Suns), favors teams that can afford the tax (Lakers, Mavericks, the new Brooklyn Nets) and promotes NBA Slum Teams (Clippers, Grizzlies) with undeserved payments to rich owners (Sterling) that do not care about their teams. A stronger luxury tax would only exacerbate these problems.

I instead propose [1] Hard Caps and Slum Floors, that all teams must remain in a banded salary range no matter what, [2] the elimination of luxury payments (still allowing for other forms of profit sharing) and [3] because all teams are in a tight salary band, ESPN trade machine and trade restrictions could be completely disbanded, allowing for any trades as long as both teams remain in the salary band.

The interesting thing to discuss here is whether and how to change the luxury tax. Your opinion on this topic would be of great interest. I'm not recanting anything here, so read with a molecule of NaCl and at your own risk!

Few things are more American than Democracy and the belief in Free Markets, where self-interested individuals determine their own fate to the betterment of society. One of the greatest moments of all-time cheese is in Star Wars Revenge of the Sith when our hero Obi Wan Kenobi proclaims "My allegiance is to the Republic... to Democracy!" right before slashing all of Skywalker's limbs off in one swing and then cowardly scurrying away from the rude scent of boiling flesh. Of all the stoopid cheesy moments in the history of George Lucas films, turning Star Wars into a bad high school civics lesson is among the worst, but it just goes to show how we feel about Democracy, Freedom, and really good CGI. It is, therefore, fascinating to watch the very antithesis of the American spirit unfold like a soap opera in that foreign country that we call the National Basketball Association.

The National Basketball Association appears to reside on U.S. soil, and its president, who is called a commissioner, carries a U.S. passport. Even the "National" refers, so I'm told, to the American nation in which the NBA is incorporated. Its only elected official, the commissioner, serves under no term limits and has wielded power since 1984. The world population has grown by 2 billion people and McDonald's has sold more than 100 billion hamburgers since then. There is no democracy in the NBA.

There also is no Free Market either. Wages are set by strangers whose goals are hard to fathom. A senior worker whose skills are worth $500,00 US dollars is deported because it is against the law to pay him any less than 1 million US dollars. Similarly, the best workers in the land might be able to negotiate far better salaries in a free market than what they get in the NBA. In fact, some of them are starting to trickle out of the nation because the free market is better in another country. Apparently the taxes are cheaper too! Finally, there are the business owners. They are not allowed to hire the best talent even if they are willing to pay more for it. On the other hand, no matter how badly managed some companies are in the country called NBA, none of them are driven out of business by competition. Unlike the USA, failure and bad management in the NBA is carefully rewarded by an influx of cheap, valuable labor.

It seems that the NBA is nothing like the USA. If the NBA were a real nation, we would have already declared war on it. So, how did the NBA get here? Is the NBA a message that democracy and free markets, as exemplified by our abysmal economy, are failures?

Of course not.

There is one other greater American principle. A deeper magic that guides and undergirds the genius of the American way of life, the guardian angel of our manifest destiny. Fair Play. Fair play is equality and equal opportunity. Fair play is transparency and trust. Fair play is self-determination. Fair play is insuring that good work is rewarded, so that people everywhere in our country and the world abroad choose to do good work in their own self-interest.

Fair play is the one justifiable encroachment on Free Markets. Without Fair play, there is no democracy and no free market. Fair play in elections. Fair play in the stock market and in accounting. Without Fair play, we are villains, savages, animals...worse. So important is Fair play that the US Government and its Congress regularly invade the small countries of Major League Baseball and National Basketball Association, taking away their liberty, not to institute a banana-republic-styled democracy or free market principles, but to secure Fair Play. While the NBA can live without democracy and with severely limited free markets, it cannot live survive without fair play and it assiduously attempts to at least portray the image of fair play. More so than sport itself, Fair Play is a national pasttime, a national preoccupation.

But you already knew this, so why am I writing about it now? Two words. Mikhail Prokhorov. Prospective New Jersey Nets owner and Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov now threatens the small nation of NBA and its facade of Fair Play. Mikhail Prokhorov, one of the 50 most wealthy people in the world, more wealthy than many countries and more wealthy than all NBA owners combined, poses a serious and downright un-American threat to the NBA. Billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov is so wealthy, he can pop millionaire NBA owners like zits. Adrian Wojaowski has already jumped on the implications - Mikhail Prokhorov can pop the luxury tax like a zit too.

However, I see the coming of Prokhorov as the potential savior of Fair Play, rather than its antichrist. The Luxury tax is not really fair to begin with and the NBA will now be forced to reconsider it, thanks to comrade Mikhail.

Here are a few possibilities for the new CBA.

The SuperLuxury Tax: $1 for $1 is clearly not much of a tax for billionaire owners to consider relevant. Change the tax to $2 (or $5) for every $1 over the tax limit. Let's see who flinches.
The Hyperbolic Tax: You may need an actuarial degree to compute it, but it's intuitive. The farther the team's salary goes over the luxury cap, the more each additional dollar in cap space costs. I plot x^1.5 here, which means that 10 million over the luxury cap would cost $35 million in tax and it would rise from there.
The Diamond Cap: A cap a cap so rich, only few could afford to hit it and a cap so hard it cannot be broken when hit. When the salary cap is $60 million, there is no reason for any team, for any reason to have an annual salary greater than $100 million, and for fairness' sake no team should probably be more than 33% over at $80 million.
The Slum Floor: In the interest of the sport, no team should ever be a slum. Teams below 70% of the salary benchmark will be required to pay the other teams the difference between the slum floor and their team's salary. As such, it will never be profitable to field a team at less than 70% of the cap, since they will always payout 70% of the benchmark, either to players or to others in the league. And yes, that means no more fielding 13 players still on their rookie contracts. This isn't the D League and this inverse luxury tax will keep it that way.

Considering these options, the luxury tax is currently a system where wealthy NBA owners improve their chances of winning by bribing poor NBA owners. Poorer NBA owners who would like to spend more on their teams cannot afford the luxury tax and are forced to shed valuable talent to richer parties so as to avoid the tax. Other poor owners find it quite profitable to run NBA slum teams that get by on welfare in the form of draft talent, profit-sharing and luxury tax bribes. These slum teams are the Washington Generals to the league's Harlem Globetrotters. In the old comicbook, The Tick, supervillains were so hard to find that superheroes often paid supervillains to fight and be vanquished. The numerous attempts at fairness in the NBA in the form of welfare creates opportunities for teams with wealthy owners to pay poorer teams to be their losers.

The SuperLuxury and Hyperbolic Luxury Taxes only magnify the bribes implicit in the current luxury tax. The luxury tax must go, along with its bribes and salary restrictions on trades. The Diamond Cap and the Slum Caps are the direction the league should go, with careful determination of the cap boundaries. Tighter bounds would partially reduce the impact of ownership wealth (or ownership's desire to run a slum) on team performance.

Moving in this simpler direction would also give a reason to ease or eliminate the current debilitating salary restrictions on trade. As long as teams are between the Slum Floor and Diamond Cap, any trade is possible. ESPN's Trade Machine could be retired, GMs would no longer need armies of lawyer-rocket scientists to work out details.

Poll

How should the Luxury Tax be changed?

Keep it the way it is!

2 votes

SuperLuxury - increase the proportion to $2 per $1 over when the team is more than $20 million over the cap

3 votes

Institute an immutable hard cap

3 votes

Make it hyperbolic - less than $1 for every $1 over if less than $10 million over cap, then greater than $1

6 votes

Institute and immutable hard cap and slum floor

13 votes

Something else - see my comment

0 votes

27 votes | Poll has closed

Coro: Suns buyout Sasha, save additional $500K

ZonaFlash — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 02:07:57 -0000

Coro: Suns buyout Sasha, save additional $500K

Thanks to Oren for sharing the news on BSotS!

Typsy Tweets!

ZonaFlash — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 16:46:46 -0000

Typsy Tweets!

As bad as "Drunk Dialing" is, only one person would know about your bad habits. But thanks to Twitter and social media, "Typsy Tweeting" informs your 30,000 followers about every stupid move you make. In this case, its Mike Beasley tweeting when possibly high, or Stephon Marbury youtubing when clearly high.

Kobe Bryant: 5th most disliked person in sports

ZonaFlash — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:18:09 -0000

Kobe Bryant: 5th most disliked person in sports

Kobe Bryant: 5th most disliked person in sports, hated by 42%, leads NBA with Allen Iverson, Isaiah Thomas and Stephon Marbury in spots 6, 7 and 8. I can't believe John McEnroe comes in 10% with 31% hating on him. John McEnroe was simply great TV!

Just like Michael Jackson!!

ZonaFlash — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:10:16 -0000

Just like Michael Jackson!!

Girlfriend, after making a layup during a game of (W)HORSE.

News Flash: the Blog War is on

ZonaFlash — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:24:59 -0000

We've been quite polite these past weeks as we have endured the infestation of a number of Dubs trolls. Some of them have been polite and interesting. Some have been so obnoxious that they've even been banned from the SB Nation Warriors Blog, Golden State of Mind. I like the trolls, they make laugh and liven up the discussion with their hopelessly hopeful views about the future of their team.

And truth be told, I love what the Dubs did to Dallas, love the wild west run-and-gun and the stellar community over at GSOM.

However, enough is really enough.

I find it humorous that they think they can disrespect our team better than we can. We diss our team everyday, for years. We dress down everyone from owners, mgmt to bench hopefuls. Leave the dirty work to the pros. What troll or casual Dubs fan can insult our team better than we do? Reading their naive, juvenile criticisms is laughable.

(I have to confess, dissing Steve Kerr as "one of the worst writers in the history of Yahoo! Sports" was a masterstroke beyond anything I have ever dreamed to say about him, although it could have been even better if AR4 had said "THE worst writer in the spotty early history of Yahoo! Sports" - Kudos there, AR4!)

I don't know which is more pathetic, that the Suns prestige has fallen so low as to receive gleeful criticism from the likes of casual Golden State Warriors fans, or Warriors fans who's team has been rolling in the NBA equivalent of a Pontiac Fiero for the past 15 years and are now happy because someone else's Aston Martin is broken. Sure both cars are sporty... sort of...

"Ha ha! Your Aston Martin is broken!!" Dubs fans are gloating.

"But dood, you are still driving that same Pontiac Fiero for the past 15 years...." I say

"I'm saving for a Aston Martin...someday...maybe.... I wish... Ha ha! Your Aston Martin is broken!!" they say.

I don't even know how to reply to that logic. =D

Now, while you need not my encouragement, dear friends and suns fans, I give you free license to go over to GSOM and disabuse them of their misconceptions. I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. You must be wise as snakes and as innocent as doves.

I do give you some warnings, however - they run a tight ship at GSOM. Without question, the bloggers that run GSOM are class acts, true NBA fans and by and large it is a outstanding community that does not suffer fools gladly, even if those fools are Dubs believers. Here's a few tips for trolling GSOM:

Actually READ what was posted before replying
No damn swearing of any kind or you'll be warned/banned
USE correct spellgni, punctuation!,., CaPITaLiZaTiOn and grammars or ur post will be hiddenz
No name calling! (You have to be more clever or obtuse about it - try "Some people might think that any fan who believes Stephen Curry can overcome Nellie's atrocious coaching to produce a perennial playoff team has had too many bud lights." or "My opinion is that your opinion is about as valid as that of a rotten vegetable in the garbage disposal." or "I feel that you are as smart as the love children of Kevin McHale and Isiah Thomas." I learned in my relationship classes that you can say anything you want as long as you say "I feel..." first.)
Don't be dumb! nuff said.

If you feel the need to correct a troll on BSotS, help yourself, they are second class citizens. If you piss them off, I'll rec your post. You can dispense with rulez 2 and 3 and even rule 1, but the otherz stillz applyz.

And remember, the Suns are trying to do something different. It may not work and its a hard road. So what at least they aren't complacent. The Dubs aren't trying to do anything different. If anything, the Dubs are trying to relive the past with players of the future. The only problem is the past didn't involve a lot of wins. If they want to be a West Coast power, Nellie has to go.