Make the NBA Great Again
Now I’m not saying that players should not be able to choose where they go in free agency - it’s their right to choose where they want to work. However, I do think there is a (relatively) simple solution to the problem. Most people agree that a player’s pay should be commensurate to their value. But for most superstars, the numbers will show that they are in fact way more valuable than their salary. The truth is, Lebron is worth astronomically more than his $30 million annual salary. The problem is, Lebron can’t get paid how much he’s actually worth because of maximum contracts. Get rid of max contracts (while keeping the salary cap where it is), and Lebron could be getting paid $50-60 million per year. Whichever team signs Lebron would then have less than half of their cap to spend on the rest of the roster. That may be enough to also get a player like Kyrie, but the other 10 guys on the team will be D-league all stars at best. With this system in place, a superstar like Lebron or KD would have to forfeit something like $25 million per year rather than $5 million per year to form a superteam. While an NBA with no max contracts may marginalize the NBA’s middle-tier players, that may be the price the league has to pay to make the NBA great again.