There has been quite the uproar since Kevin Durant decided that he would be signing with the Golden State Warriors on the 4th of July. The Warriors were coming off of the greatest regular season of all time with 73 wins, and appeared to be heading towards a second consecutive NBA title before being stopped by LeBron James and the Cavaliers.
Saturday, Miami Heat President Pat Riley offered up a solution to the league’s “problem” by saying there should be a franchise tag in the NBA, where each team can sign one player for as much money as they wanted, without any cap rules.
Riley, from his presser:
“I believe that there should be a franchise tag on one of your guys. My opinion of a franchise tag — this is why they don’t allow me to talk and give opinions in the collective bargaining agreement — is that a franchise player to me would be a player in which you can pay him as much money as you want.
“It doesn’t go against the cap. Everybody gets one player, that Kevin [Durant] you get 50 [million], LeBron you get 100 [million]. Somewhere along the way there are players in this league that are worth that kind of money. Or there’s a limit on that. But if you franchise somebody then you have the ability to protect [against your star player leaving for a super team.]”
This certainly seems to be a solution to “superteams,” but at the same time, there are really just two or three players in the league where if you placed them on another team, that team is immediately a contender. The Warriors were lucky by drafting well, and signing Klay Thompson and Draymond Green to long-term deals before the salary cap went up, which will allow them to secure Durant and Steph Curry in the future.
We also appear to be heading towards another Warriors-Cavaliers NBA Finals next season, but the Warriors really seem to be the only “superteam” with four All-Stars on their roster. The Cavaliers just happen to possess one of the greatest players of all-time in LeBron James.
Riley will absolutely be backed up by most — if not all — owners in the NBA, whether that’s for a franchise tag or another solution. It’s hard for teams to feel good about their chances this upcoming season when one of the best regular-season teams we have ever seen just added one of the best scorers the game has to offer today. At the same time, the Warriors have been on the other end of that.
Regardless, things should get interesting when the collective bargaining agreement gets renegotiated in the future.
