National Basketball Association

[Jersey Boss]

There is a luxury tax that has the same effect. Additionally not all "the best players" are free to sign whenever they want to. Contract obligations and such.

[Eric]

Considering there is no salary cap in baseball, I don't find it impressive at all. Just buy all of the best players.

Salary caps are hardly a tool to create competitive balance. But go on believing it. The owners thank you.

[chuck5815]

Salary caps are hardly a tool to create competitive balance. But go on believing it. The owners thank you.

Aren't the caps primarily in place to fix the cost of labor?

[Eric]

Aren't the caps primarily in place to fix the cost of labor?

Exactly. It's not a parity tool. It's a management tool. In other words, to manage salaries down.

The reason there is no salary cap in baseball is because the players union has their head's screwed on straight (and apparently has really good lawyers/representation).

[kwhey]

Players are paid too much anyway

[AP]

I think the counter argument here for parity and caps is European soccer.

[Eric]

Players are paid too much anyway

But they could be a lot more without the cap. NBA players in particular are worth a ton to the franchises (see KD). Owners don't want to have to worry about shelling out infinite amounts of money to keep the next big thing in their city.

[Jersey Boss]

Players are paid too much anyway

Radio Personalities:
Howard Stern 85 M
Rush Limbaugh 79 M
Ryan Seacrest 55 M
Shawn Hannity 29 M

TV Personalities:
Phil McGraw 88 M
Ellen Degeneress 75 M
Ryan Seacrest 55 M
Judge Judy 47 M

Movie Actors:
Dwayne Johnson 64 M
Jackie Chan 61 M
Matt Damon 55 M
Tom Cruise: 53 M

These numbers are for 2016 reported by FORBES. No such thing as "overpaid". You are paid what the market deems your worth.

[FighttheGoodFight]

The NBA should try out letting players be paid their actual worth. If that was the case Lebron, KD, Kyrie, Curry and Draymon would never be on the same team.

[Jersey Boss]

I think the counter argument here for parity and caps is European soccer.

Could you explain further. The vast majority of fans of professional sports in this country do not follow European soccer.

[AP]

There are really wealthy teams in each of the major leagues that can outspend everyone else and they dominate the leagues every year. Barcelona, RM, Atletico, PSG, Juventus, Milans, Bayern, Dortmund, Manchesters, Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal. There are other teams that are competitive, but these teams are perenial powerhouses because they can just outspend the rest of the teams in their league.

England has a handful of wealthy teams at the top, and most of the other teams are playing for middle of the pack and avoiding relegation every year.

Some years you'll have a random team like Leicester surprise eveyone and win, and then look what happens. In the summer, one of the wealthy clubs just buys their best player and back to the middle they go.

[AP]

The NBA should try out letting players be paid their actual worth. If that was the case Lebron, KD, Kyrie, Curry and Draymon would never be on the same team.

I agree. I think the argument is against contract maximums. A salary cap with no maximums would create much better parity.

[Eric]

These numbers are for 2016 reported by FORBES. No such thing as "overpaid". You are paid what the market deems your worth.

Unless you play in the NBA or NFL, then you are paid less.

[Jersey Boss]

Unless you play in the NBA or NFL, then you are paid less.

If that were the case, rival leagues would be established. See American Football League, American Basketball Association, World Hockey Association.

[chuck5815]

Unless you play in the NBA or NFL, then you are paid less.

The Durants and the Westbrooks of the world are probably underpaid. But guys like Kyle Singler, Kendrick Perkins, and Oladipo are wildly overpaid. The max contracts allow teams to pay guys like Singler $5M per year when he's probably really only worth $200-300K.

[Eric]

If that were the case, rival leagues would be established. See American Football League, American Basketball Association, World Hockey Association.

No, because getting paid what they are worth is only good for the players, not the owners. The owners run the league not the other way around. Why would a bunch of owners want to start a competing league where the profits are basically guaranteed to be lower?

[Eric]

The Durants and the Westbrooks of the world are probably underpaid. But guys like Kyle Singler, Kendrick Perkins, and Oladipo are wildly overpaid. The max contracts allow teams to pay guys like Singler $5M per year when he's probably really only worth $200-300K.

I guess I don't follow the NBA enough, but I can't fathom how a salary cap would allow lower tier players to make more than they are worth when teams are trying to scrape under the caps to pay the big boys. Why not just pay Singler less to sign a Durant type?

[Thomas Vu]

I think the counter argument here for parity and caps is European soccer.

Also look up MLB. Granted the people who spend the most don't seem to be winning...

[Eric]

Also look up MLB. Granted the people who spend the most don't seem to be winning...

If you look at the distribution of playoff teams/world series contestants/etc, the MLB is one of the more even leagues out there. Consider they play 162 games in a season, and the best team wins south of 70% of the games and the absolute worse wins north of 30%. To compare, the NBA's two best (Warriors & Spurs) won better than 70% of the contests they played, and the worst two won less than 30%. Same in the NFL. The Pats won nearly 90%, and the Browns won 1 game last year.

[dcsooner]

Radio Personalities:
Howard Stern 85 M
Rush Limbaugh 79 M
Ryan Seacrest 55 M
Shawn Hannity 29 M

TV Personalities:
Phil McGraw 88 M
Ellen Degeneress 75 M
Ryan Seacrest 55 M
Judge Judy 47 M

Movie Actors:
Dwayne Johnson 64 M
Jackie Chan 61 M
Matt Damon 55 M
Tom Cruise: 53 M

These numbers are for 2016 reported by FORBES. No such thing as "overpaid". You are paid what the market deems your worth.

+1

[Eric]

The current MLB high total salaries (as of opening day):

Payroll Rank. Team Name Team Payroll - Payroll Percentile of average - Record Rank out of 30 teams

Top 5
1. Dodgers - 242M - 176% - 2
2. Yankees - 202M - 146% - 6
3. Red Sox - 200M - 145% - 7
4. Tigers - 200M - 145% - 24
5. Blue Jays - 178M - 129% - 17

Other Notable:
9. Nationals - 168M - 122% - 5
16. Rockies - 131M - 95% - 4
18. Astros - 124M - 90% - 1
21. Phillies - 111M - 81% - 30
26. Diamondbacks - 93M - 68% - 3
29. Rays - 70M - 51% - 10
30. Brewers - 63M - 46% - 9

If you really dig down and look at the numbers, there is probably more parity in baseball without a salary cap than in any of the other major US sports (NFL, NBA, & NHL) with a salary cap.

[chuck5815]

I guess I don't follow the NBA enough, but I can't fathom how a salary cap would allow lower tier players to make more than they are worth when teams are trying to scrape under the caps to pay the big boys. Why not just pay Singler less to sign a Durant type?

If the CBA didn't include max deals, teams could bid enormous amounts for Superstars. A player like Lebron could command $50M+ per year. If that would happen, the team has less cap space to sign all of its non-superstars. So the savings from max deals end up subsidizing the salary for the rest of the roster. And it makes sense that the Players would bargain for max deals since the vast majority of players are non-superstars.

Also, if the NBA eliminated max deals, you would probably see better dispersion of superstars. It's unlikely that you would see three or four on any given team, because they would simply be too expensive.

[AP]

Also look up MLB. Granted the people who spend the most don't seem to be winning...

That was what originally got us on the topic of caps and parity. I said the greatest MLB teams didn't impress me much because it's easier to buy your way to a title.

[AP]

The current MLB high total salaries (as of opening day):

Payroll Rank. Team Name Team Payroll - Payroll Percentile of average - Record Rank out of 30 teams

Top 5
1. Dodgers - 242M - 176% - 2
2. Yankees - 202M - 146% - 6
3. Red Sox - 200M - 145% - 7
4. Tigers - 200M - 145% - 24
5. Blue Jays - 178M - 129% - 17

Other Notable:
9. Nationals - 168M - 122% - 5
16. Rockies - 131M - 95% - 4
18. Astros - 124M - 90% - 1
21. Phillies - 111M - 81% - 30
26. Diamondbacks - 93M - 68% - 3
29. Rays - 70M - 51% - 10
30. Brewers - 63M - 46% - 9

If you really dig down and look at the numbers, there is probably more parity in baseball without a salary cap than in any of the other major US sports (NFL, NBA, & NHL) with a salary cap.

Do you think the MLB's incredibly long seasons, compared to the other leagues, helps to create more parity? In my mind it allows more runs and slumps that might level out the win percentages.

[Laramie]

NBA Salary Cap for 2017-18 season is set at $99 million and the luxury tax level $119 million.