When the idea of eliminating the maximum restrictions on NBA players came up, most people threw out the idea as nonsense. Most owners are in favor of max contracts, and doing away with them would also mean role players and bench players would get much less money. However, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban is somebody who didn’t throw out the idea completely.

Cuban says the league would consider eliminating maximum contracts if players give up guaranteed money.


As you can expect, there’s no way the players are giving up their guaranteed money. Oklahoma City Thunder star Kevin Durant thinks just the idea alone is crazy.

"I don't think that makes sense," Durant said. "Give up guarantees? Nah, I don't think so. Why? Why would we do that? Just because we asked for ... I'm not going to talk about this, man."

Durant, like many star players, believes certain guys around the league are worth way more than the value of their max deals. He points out that players like Kobe Bryant and LeBron James bring in a huge amount of money for their teams.

"Look at it like this: Kobe Bryant brings in a lot of money to Los Angeles, that downtown area," Durant said, according to The Oklahoman. "Clippers are getting up there -- Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and those guys are bringing in a lot of money as well. Look at Cleveland, look at Miami when LeBron [James] was there.

"These guys are worth more than what they are making because of the money that they bring to that area.

That's a conversation you can always have, but until it's changed, you never know what will happen to it."

Both the NBA and the NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) have the opportunity to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement following the 2016-17 season. If the NBPA decides to opt out, it’s because the players believe they are worth more money.

"At the end of the day, we will negotiate," James said. "We know it's going to happen at some point, because our deal is ending soon. We would love to do it sooner than later. We don't want to it to happen like it happened last time when we went into a lockout."

Cuban, and several other owners, have flirted with the idea of using a contract system similar to the NFL’s (National Football League). Under such system, the amount of guaranteed money would be negotiated for each contract, with no set cap.

It’s clear that the NBPA will likely opt out in hopes of getting some more money for the players. Luckily, the NBA and its owners have plenty of time to prepare for some tough bargaining following the 2016-17 season.

"It was discussed during the lockout time among owners but never got anywhere," Cuban said. "So it was just one of those trial balloons. I'm not offering this as a negotiation, I'm not suggesting it. All I'm saying is that was something we discussed before, and max contracts are always big question, guarantees are always a big question. But we have two years before that's even an issue, so no point discussing it now."

What Will Happen

First and foremost, there’s absolutely no way the NBPA would ever agree to do away with guaranteed money entirely. You can forget about that idea. With that said, the players will likely get more money if the opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement.

It would make a lot of sense for the league to use a system similar to what the NFL does. Each contract should be negotiated on an individual player basis. Like it or not, some players are worth more than others. The league will likely end up giving up max contracts which means eventually, players like Kevin Durant and LeBron James will be making much more money than they are currently allowed to.