HoopsHype.com Rumors

The N.B.A. players union is asking an arbitrator to clarify certain free-agent rights in a case that could immeasurably benefit the Knicks this summer, according to several people involved in the process. The case concerns what are known as “Bird rights,” which allow a player to re-sign with his team, without regard to the salary cap. The league contends those rights are lost when a player changes teams through waivers. The union is challenging that interpretation. New York Times

New York Knicks, Salary Cap 

A financial riddle stumped officials in one NBA team's front office. It concerned the league's byzantine legalese regarding the salary cap. They needed help, fast. One official phoned the league office, seeking clarity. Another inspected the text of the NBA's collective bargaining agreement, a canon of lawyerly jargon as comprehensible as Sanskrit. Then, another official surfed to an exhaustively detailed online FAQ about the NBA labor deal authored by Larry Coon, a 49-year-old information technology director at UC Irvine. Coon laughed as he shared this anecdote. His list of NBA sources spans across the league's 30 teams, all because he explains something most deem unexplainable: the NBA salary cap. "You're the reason I have a job," one NBA general manager told him. Aberdeen News

Salary Cap, Larry Coon 

Within the NBA, his work is appreciated. "It helps us because the more educated the fans are on the vehicles that you need to get things accomplished, the more they have realistic expectations," said Neil Olshey, the Clippers' vice president of basketball operations. For all the time he puts into his FAQ, Coon neither wants nor expects a dime in return; he doesn't even have advertisements on his simply designed site. It's a hobby to him, an entity free of commercial interest, and he wants to keep it like that. Aberdeen News

Los Angeles Clippers, Neil Olshey, Salary Cap, Larry Coon 

Crawford’s agent, Andy Miller, has been trying desperately for the past 48 hours to broker a three-team sign-and-trade deal between the Knicks, Hawks and another club under the salary cap to find a creative way to pay Crawford his market value, sources told The Post. The Warriors are one team Miller has tried to engage. The Knicks initially mulled dangling starting point guard Toney Douglas, an Atlanta native, in a potential deal, but they have since reconsidered, slowing progress. New York Post

Atlanta Hawks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, Trade, Toney Douglas, Salary Cap, Andy Miller 

According to one league source, short contracts are paramount right now to the Celtics, who are looking for salary cap flexibility the next two summers, with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen both entering the last years of their deals. “The issue all along for them has been the number of years, not the money,” the source said. “They look at that team they have now as being a one-year, and maximum a two-year project. Letting Baby go was more indicative of where the franchise feels it’s going. They just feel that they don’t want to do long-term deals. That approach is going to give them a lot of long-term flexibility.” Boston Herald

Boston Celtics, Ray Allen, Trade, Salary Cap, Kevin Garnett 

Ken Berger: When league business opens tomorrow, salary cap will be $58.044M, tax line will be $70.307M, and team minimum payroll of $46.435M. Twitter

CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, NBPA 

It remains to be seen just how much of a pay cut a top free agent would take to join the Miami Heat. But at least one admits the Heat’s salary-cap situation could make it difficult. Because they are over the salary cap, the Heat at most will be able to offer a free agent the mid-level exception of $5 million. That might not be enough to entice center Samuel Dalembert. “Yeah, that would be tough," Dalembert said Monday in a phone interview with FOX Sports Florida about signing with the Heat for that amount. “But you never know. There are trades and things that you could do." FOXSports Florida

Miami Heat, Free Agency, Trade, Samuel Dalembert, Salary Cap 

The Pacers talked to the Utah Jazz about forward Paul Milsap prior to the draft. Expect them to make a phone call to the Jazz again. The 26-year-old Milsap, a Pacer killer in the past, averaged a career-high 17 points last season. The Pacers can make this deal happen because they’ll have salary cap space and they won’t hesitate to give up a draft pick to get a player that will help solve their power forward problems. Indianapolis Star

Indiana Pacers, Utah Jazz, Draft, Salary Cap 

According to TNT’s David Aldridge (check out the video above), the two sides have not broached the subject of BRI yet, which means … which means the big lifting is still to come. Instead, D.A. says the structure of a luxury tax — one of the “system” issues that the two sides worked so hard on in their 15-hour session yesterday (and this morning) — is still being debated. The league wants a harsher one than is in the just-expired agreement in order to discourage big-spending teams from going over the salary cap. The union fears a tax that is too punitive would restrict player movement. NBA.com

CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA 

The NBA says Mark Cuban proposed a new salary cap exception, not the elimination of the salary cap, during a meeting between owners and players last week. In a podcast with ESPN.com, players' association executive director Billy Hunter said Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks' owner, proposed what he called a "game changer,'' which would replace the salary cap with a heavy tax for teams that spent to a certain level. Hunter said the players were interested in discussing the idea, but then were told by the owners they wouldn't pursue it. SI.com

Dallas Mavericks, CBA, Mark Cuban, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Owners 

Hunter said that during last week's long negotiations there were multiple ideas presented, with one interesting concept coming from Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Hunter said Cuban came up with a structure called the "Game-changer" that included no salary cap. Hunter said he took that back to the players and they had a version of it they liked and then Hunter said two or three owners were very excited about it. And then a couple small market owners put the kibosh on it. "We're open to the idea Mark Cuban put on the table," he said. CBSSports.com

Dallas Mavericks, CBA, Mark Cuban, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Owners 

In one small but encouraging sign in the last-minute negotiations between the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association on a new collective bargaining agreement, a source who has been briefed on the discussions between the two sides said Monday afternoon that the sides are close to an agreement on one "system" aspect that has proven troublesome -- a new, shorter mid-level exception for free agents. Owners have sought a major reduction in the mid-level, one of the key ways that teams over the salary cap are nonetheless able to add players. Implemented in the 1999 CBA after players agreed to accept maximums on player salaries, the mid-level was designed to give non-superstar players a chance at a good payday during their careers, and it has done just that. Tied to the average salary in the NBA, last year's mid-level started at $5.8 million. With annual 8 percent raises, a five-year mid-level contract would be worth $37 million. NBA.com

Free Agency, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA 

On the system side, the sides are still working on how the salary cap will be implemented. At one point, the league discussed a "flex cap" that would set a $62 million cap as a goal for each team, but allow certain exceptions to a rigid final cap number. The league has also proposed a "supertax" that would further punish teams that exceed the luxury tax threshold. In the last CBA a team had to pay a $1 tax for every dollar it was above the tax threshold of $70.307 million. Owners have proposed increasing that tax to as much as $4 for every $1 in a scale that would increase as teams went further and further above the threshold. NBA.com

Free Agency, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA 

Minnesota Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams, the No. 2 overall pick in this year's NBA draft, said he will attempt to sign with a professional team overseas if the NBA lockout does not end "within the next week or so." "I'm really going to be looking into it," Williams told GoAZCats.com, a website that covers University of Arizona sports, about his intentions to play overseas if the lockout continues. "I think that's the Plan B, especially at this point." St. Paul Pioneer Press

Minnesota Timberwolves, Free Agency, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Derrick Williams 

Once again, Phoenix Suns owners Robert Sarver was the most vocal proponent of the owner’s case, and he befuddled players by insisting that his wife had asked him to bring back the middle level exception in a designer bag. He’s been a strong advocate for a hard salary cap, and a source said that Sarver told the players in the room that he hadn’t been able to get the return on buying the Suns that he had hoped. Yahoo! Sports

Phoenix Suns, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, Robert Sarver, NBPA 

For the first time in two years of labor talks, NBA owners made a modest push from their rigid stance on implementing a hard salary cap, league sources told Yahoo! Sports. The owners proposed at Tuesday’s negotiating session an idea similar to the current system that allows teams to pay a luxury tax for going over the cap. Only, now there would be ultra-punitive measures against higher-spending teams. The current system has teams pay a dollar-for-dollar tax for exceeding the cap. Yahoo! Sports

CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA 

Sources told ESPN The Magazine's Ric Bucher that the owners modestly budged from their long-held position on establishing a hard cap but as of Tuesday night were willing to relax the cap only if the following conditions are met: The so-called Larry Bird exception, which allows a team to offer its free agents the maximum in years and salary regardless of their other committed salaries, is limited to one player per team per season. ESPN.com

CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA 

Jody Genessy: ESPN salary cap expert Tom Penn: “If NFL is a badly sprained ankle, NBA is a torn ACL, a microfracture and a ruptured Achilles” via katu.com Twitter

Tom Penn, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA 

Manu Ginobili: Right now it's a very delicate situation. We're not even close reaching an agreement with the NBA owners. It's very clear that we want to play, that we want to continue doing what we have been doing for so many years but they want to change the rules on salary cap, contract years and other things. But what they asked for starters is so far away from what we are willing to accept. Right now we're not even close. It looks like there could be another meeting within the next weeks and get a little bit closer, but I doubt there's going to be an agreement soon. Differences are so big and sadly there's a lot to negotiate. We want to reach an agreement as soon as possible so the season can start when it's supposed to start because if not, it becomes more and more difficult to train and stay in shape and the whole situation hurts the fans and we all lose. Diario Panorama

San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Owners 

Will further discussion once a week and we'll see who weighs more than the pressure does not reach and a happy ending. The two sides have much to lose because it is a very serious year after a lockout. The fans do not return immediately to the court, players become devoid of state and not at their best, you have to compress the games ... is a whole different season. Let's see, but we estimate that the league will inevitably start later and will be a difficult situation for everyone. ProjectSpurs.com

San Antonio Spurs, Manu Ginobili, CBA, Salary Cap, David Stern, Lockout, Billy Hunter, NBPA, Owners