1) The lack of free agents (due to us adding a 13th team)
2) the length of time that teams can protect players and what their salaries should be
So, let's look at the first one - the lack of quality FA's. First off, is it really a problem or concern? Do we want to have a whole bunch of quality FA's out there where you can just sign anyone at anytime? Oh man, Lamar Odom just got hurt, that's OK, I'll sign LaMarcus Aldridge. I don't think we're dealing with anything that drastic, but I'm wondering if there are more than a few owners who really are concerned about this FA issue. With 13 teams it does put more pressure on draft night. You must do your homework and prepare because if you fuck up the draft - you can't simply fix it through Free Agency. Is that a bad thing? We do have almost 7 months to prepare for the annual draft!! 7 months to prepare!! I guess one potential idea would be to reduce the current roster size. Right now, JBL teams could carry as many as 16 players if you count the IR spot. What if that maximum was 15?? Would adding 13 players (one from each team) back into the FA pool really make a difference? Most of the guys that would be back in the pool would be injured guys hanging around (Bynum, Flynn, Birdman, etc). I really don't want to change the active 12 man rosters because we've always had 12 active players. Always. I don't think that's an option. So, we would have to shorten the benches. But I don't know, I'm not sure the lack of quality FA players is as big an issue or concern to the masses...What say you???
The second issue is the Keeper situation. We discussed it during the summer and there was some excellent ideas floated. There are 3 things being discussed around this issue...
A) How many years can a player be protected?
B) What is the salary bump each year?
C) What do we do with the players already in year 3 (currently the final year)?
Currently, a player can be protected 2 years (initial draft year plus 2 keeper years). So, we see some players in contract year '3' on our rosters. Some want to extend this to a 4th or 5th year. Right now, we only have 7 players that are in keeper year 3. That's 7 players out of 195 on JBL rosters. Small potatoes. The original argument of why we only did 3 years was that so other JBL teams could have a chance to draft a player. Well, it certainly doesn't seem like this is an issue anymore as we have some great keeper rules in place that limit amount of players that can be protected each year based on where you finish in the standings. Personally, I would be OK seeing the service length extended to a 4th or 5th season (whatever the masses decide).
The current salary bump is $5 bucks a season. Again, only 7 players reached their 3rd keeper year. Who are they?
David Lee $26
Nene $12
Derrick Rose $29
Andrea Bargnani $15
Marc Gasol $13
Kevin Durant $43
Russell Westbrook $15
So, if owners were allowed to protect guys for a 4th season - how many of those guys would be worth keeping for another $5 bucks. I believe all of them.
What if the bump in year 4 was $10 bucks? You know what - I say all of them get protected again.
Again, we're talking about 7 players who fall into the category where they would be eligible for a 4th season. It's not much.
For simplicity, if we go down this road I would say just make it $5 dollar bumps because it really is such a small group of players that are affected.
I know our summer JBL podcast discussed the idea of a Restricted Free Agency system where the player in tear 3 would go back into the draft for auction and then the team who owned that player the year before could "Match" the winning bid and retain the players rights. Interesting concept but I don't think it will work with our online draft system that we are using now. And I think I can speak for the JBL masses in saying the online auction we use is amazing. Simple and fast. So, the RFA idea isn't going to work.
OK, so let's say we adopt a 5 year contract with $5 dollar bump ups each year. What do we do with the guys already in year 3 and who would have been going BACK into the draft if we didn't change the rule. Should we throw them back into the draft? Or should we simply implement and let the chips fall where they may??
Here's my 2 cents. We let them ride. Those 7 players would still have great value for all the other JBL teams by means of trade because they could get 2 more years out of them too. We could argue and say that Kevin Durant should go back into the pool so we could all draft him. Or we could say that he's eligible for 2 more years of protection and if we want to make Tim an offer for him - we make him an offer.
This 'Keeper' proposal should go the polls on the JBL site. There should be 3 polls.
1) What's the maximum contract years for a player? Currently we have 3 years. I say the poll should be 3, 4, or 5. Maybe some guys like the current 3 years - but I think we should give it a go at 4 or 5 years. If that's the case, then the 2nd poll would be...
2) What should the salary bump be for years 4 and 5?? $5 bucks? $10 bucks? It's got to be simple and easy to calculate. Again, I think the easiest is $5 bucks a year all the way through. Remember, currently there are only 7 players that even made year 3!! Also remember, that in any given year only 33 players can be protected (based on our weighted keepers by order of standings)...I think there are only 2 choices for the poll in this case - $5 or $10 bump ups.
And finally, we would have to decide the fate of the 7 players currently in year 3 of their contracts.
3) What happens to the 7 players in year 3 of their contracts?? They either go back into the draft or they are eligible for protection. I would clarify this and say if the decision is made that those players in Year 3 go back into the draft, that's fine. I would say that anyone currently in year 2 would be eligible for the full 4/5 years (just easier for tracking purposes)...
Anyways, I think those should be the next few polls to try and get the Keeper issue sorted out.
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