Did you dance a sad Whopper instead?

NBA really needs free market with a cap. Prevents super teams and makes sure Mikael Bridges and Nick Batum don't make the same amount of money as KD and LeBron. No brainer.

This should improve the long-term competitive balance, but it also means the end of correlation between having the best players and winning. That's a bad product for the casual fans - it's easier to market the league when the best players are the most popular players and they play on winning teams.

Let the good GMs and best players figure that out

But that's bad for the league. Ultimately it's a business. You want the best players to be disproportionately on the best teams. You don't want star GMs to construct the best teams that consist of relatively unmarketable, unremarkable players.

Curious to see an example of the relatively unremarkable players that would make up one of the best teams.

Not sure what you're asking here - conceivably you could build a championship team out of a bunch of vets that are around 30th to 50th best player. Most of the top veteran players would consistently have terrible supporting casts. The draft would be such a huge value under the current form that it would have to change as well - otherwise, it becomes entirely about getting lucky with the draft.

Edit:

I think the best way to win would be to try to build the 2004 Pistons type of team. Since you're going to be generally paying market value for players, you can't really out-talent other teams, so it becomes more about systems and being able to consistently find players that are more valuable in your system than elsewhere and undervalued players more generally. So the best teams would tend to have the least marketable/flashy players.

Candy is basketball right about this.

If Bron/Durant/Curry/Harden and the newer stars (Giannis, Doncic, Jokic, Embiid) make as much money or within 90% of the next 2-3 tiers of players, then the teams that have them will contend every year as they're providing surplus value on their contracts.

This ensures teams with these players are going to be there at the end more and teams like the modern Jazz, grit N grind Grizz and Celtics will be there less. Obviously there are exceptions but it doesn't take a genius to see the NBA is socially engineering these results on some level.

Yes.

Thought that 1st Q was pretty even, Clipps just could not buy a 3

Booker is really working for his pts when CP isn't out there

George goes over to Kennard with all that drama after Kennard's wide open miss at the 1Q buzzer, trying to take attention away from his own string of misses. Loser move.

Ayton reminds me of Greg Oden looking way older than their just out of adolescence age when they hit the league, like about 20 years older for Oden, maybe 10 for Ayton.

Jeezus Paul with his arm around ref's shoulders chatting him up as they walk up court. I'd elbow him right in the mouth if I was the ref. LOL

I've always wondered about players getting so chummy with the refs during the game. You see players having these friendly talks with refs like during free throws - here was Paul with his arm around the ref walking off the court. Non-zero chance it affects the refs judgement later on.

Agree with all this except you've left out the third option, the one that the Hawks and Suns are in now. A few top 20ish guys making fair money is great if you hve a very good rookie or two giving you your excess value there. Unfortunately that path has a pretty short shelf life (which I guess is what prompted this discussion in the first place).

EDIT: Though I don't actually see the problem with this. Its a 30 team league. All but a very small handful of teams (the ones lucky enough to have a top 3-5 guy) SHOULDN'T be able to build a long term contender. It's a pretty ridiculous expectation to expect to be able to continuously have a decent chance to be 1st of 30 IMO

Suns being a legit contender this season and next (while Ayton and Bridges are still on rookie contract) and then having to pay them, and settle for the fact that they'll probably only be "merely good" for the foreseeable future after that, sits perfectly ok with me. How many teams would kill for this two year window they have?

Look at this joke of a trade idea from Fansided:

New York Knicks trade Julius Randle to the Golden State Warriors
Here’s a trade idea that would bring immediate success to both the Knicks and Golden State Warriors:

Warriors get: Julius Randle, 2021 first-round draft pick (No. 19), 2021 first-round draft pick (No. 21)
Knicks get: Draymond Green, 2021 first-round draft pick (No. 7), 2021 first-round draft pick (No. 14)
The salaries match up almost perfectly and the Warriors and Knicks would essentially be swapping picks for one player that is on his downswing and one that is on his upswing (to use golf logic).

https://sircharlesincharge.com/2021/...-julius-randle

The way Zubac is defending these CP/Booker screen roles is eroding my opinion of Jokic D quite rapidly.

how does anyone think either team gets better, let alone both

I know right! Check out the bolded here:

Anyone with a basketball pulse knows that Wiseman was terrible defensively this season and the Warriors defense improved significantly without him on the court.

this is pretty bad basketball

I saw a Zion to Warriors one the other day...

I give you the elite 2021-2022 Knicks:

Elf
RJ
Obi
Draymond
Mitch

mmm, I love it.

This obviously.

Their offense was even better...

There's a reason we were 15-5 after Wiseman went down (61 win season candyman).

every fule no Xoin wil be a Knack with RJ and SGA in 2023.