The NBA is hearing the renewed calls from small-market executives to overhaul the buyout free agency system, an insistence that the odds are unfairly weighted against them and that the salary cap system has been contorted to satisfy the glamour markets supply of star talent for championship runs.
From Andre Drummond to the Los Angeles Lakers, Blake Griffin and LaMarcus Aldridge to the Brooklyn Nets, there are front office executives determined to push the commissioner’s office to reexamine the process of post-trade deadline buyouts. If the clear-eyed reality is that these players are simply faded All-Stars released from the backend of expensive contracts, the visual of them flocking to super team rosters in two marquee markets does cast a chilling impact on the league’s collective psyche.