Childress looks seroius about going to greece, the whole 'team childress' is there, greece is a beautiful place to live compared to atlanta according to some people, he's getting a better contract offer and doesn't have to pay taxes
Luol Deng tells the bulls that if they don't have a deal by the time the olympics start, he's done negotating, will take tender offer and be a UFA next year
Emeka Okafor is rumored to be done dealing with the bobcats, and either wants them to work out a sign and trade somewhere or he'll take the one year tender.
The warriors and sixers are making no movement with their restricted free agents.
You know what word comes to mind?
Collusion
I don't think their is actual collusion, but apparent collusion caused by the system and psychological factors.
1. Most teams are capped out. This has 2 effects, less available leverage for these RFAs being the obvious one. Less obvious is that after years of the current system these capped out teams have in many cases replaced management with younger, more financially savvier GMs and assistant GMs. Teams are starting to realize that under this CBA if you put yourself in cap hell, you are screwed for a very long time. Just taking the insanity of the Knicks and Mavs, who aren't or can't, spend like crazy has removed a lot of available money from the system. Just look at how teams are demanding first round picks just to take on salary (Kurt Thomas last year, Carney and Booth this year) or dumping good players like Camby for less than peanuts. Cap space is what everyone wants now, of course, in a few years they will have spent it in the 2010 orgy to come.
2. The luxury tax has finally created a real hard cap. Even the big franchises don't want to cross that line anymore and most that did found that they could not buy a championship.
3. The slotting system is finally developing. By creating a system of maximum and minimum player salaries in the CBA, a natural stratification of players is occurring. For a while GM's like BK did not catch onto this and routinely overpaid for mediocre players. Given the factors discussed above we are starting to see teams say, you are a second rate star, you don't get the max. For a while any promising young player got the 4 year max with no stratification between the Iversons and Van Horns of the world. Experience, better management and the luxury tax have forced teams to start strtifying or slotting their stars. Again, when teams have tons of cash in 2010 and a limited number of true stars to spend it on, expect to see a sellers market again. Right now we are in a buyers market.
4. 2010 - It is what everyone is waiting for. The economy is in a recession (no matter what TPTB say), raising ticket prices will be tough for a few years and everyone is saving for summer 2010 as if they are all going to be getting James and Bosh. Personally, I would prefer to have a team full of signed up prime young talent heading into 2010 with a few expiring contracts to trade. having a billion dollars in cap space menas generally you have a crappy team, maybe with some promising young guys, but not in or near their primes. I think teams like Philly and Chicago (if they sign their RFAs to good contracts now), Portland, LAC and Seattle will be in better positions, except geographically, than stripped down versions of the Nets and Knicks to grab those big name players in S&T deals. they will have teams ready to compete and talent and contracts ready to trade.
5. Ego - No agent or team wants to go first signing their RFA's this year for fear of looking like they made a bad deal. Again this goes to the idea of startification or slotting. The true superstars like Deron Williams and CP3 have been paid the max, the current crop of RFAs are all second level guys, similar in talent and appeal. It is similar to the slow progress you see in signing NFL first rounders. Once a few get signed, the rest will follow. Who is brave enough to go first? Personally I think most of the talk out of Philly and GS has seemed quiet and cooperative. I expect Iggy, Williams, Ellis and Biedrins to get signed without much trouble. these teams seem to be working harder behind the scenes. GS probably goes first, with Philly and Chicago to follow. Charlotte and Atlanta are just bad franchises with bad management.
Stern is too smart to illegaly promote or tolerate obvious collusion, but he is also a smart enough guy to have essentially created this slotting and stratification over time. It took several years for the luxury tax to really become a factor, but after getting burned by the tax or seeing other teams get burned by it, owners have canned the guys who overpaid (bye bye BK, BK2, Isiah, sadly the new guy in Milwaukee is as bad as the old one) and hired the new young guns like Stefanski, Presti, Pritchard, etc to run their teams without making them go broke. Plus a lot of these rich owners are taking ahit themselves with the stock market tanking and want to amke some money from their toys, instead of losing it. Collusion, not really, let's call it Stern-allusion and it's completely legal.
