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New C.B.A. Will Help and Hurt The Hawks This Summer

Authored by Patrick J. Austin - June 30, 2005 - 3:28 pm

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The NBA and its Players Association were able to hammer out a new collective bargaining agreement, avoiding a potentially disastrous lockout. The overall design of the agreement remains consistent with its predecessor, but some changes have been made that will certainly impact the Hawks—both positively and negatively.

On the positive end, the salary cap will be increased. This is great for us. The increased cap means we’ll have even more flexibility than expected--about twenty-five million dollars in cap space. Though, if Tony Delk decides to opt out of his contract we’ll have close to thirty million, but that’s not likely (Delk would be crazy to pass on a 4.5 mill option).

An interesting new addition is the one-time amnesty clause for teams over the luxury tax threshold. They can waive a player and avoid paying the luxury tax fees. For some teams, this could provide over fifty million dollars in financial relief.

This is both a positive and a negative for the Hawks. On the positive side, the free agent pool is going to become much deeper. Quality veterans will hit the open market and contending teams will spend a majority of their time courting them rather than going after the young free agents we covet.

On the negative side, this financial relief will provide flexibility and therefore higher spending from teams who would’ve taken a more frugal approach previously. That means Samuel Dalembert, a restricted free agent Billy Knight is enamored with, is probably staying in Philly, even if we sign him to a massive offer sheet.

Contract lengths, in terms of offers to free agents, have been shortened from six years to five years. This is negative for the Hawks and basically every other team trying to court a free agent. It provides another advantage to the home team that retains the respective free agent’s rights (on top of being able to offer more money than anyone else).

Overall, I believe the new C.B.A. is good for both the league and its Players Association. Though, for the Hawks, it could result in us missing out on the free agents we really want (and need) while overpaying for lackluster, mediocre talent. Let’s hope B.K. has some tricks up his sleeve.