After nearly five full months, the NBA lockout is supposedly over! I’m one of the few people in this country that prefers the NBA product to any other sport (yes! even college football), so this news is especially great to hear.
This being a positive-news website (and I'd like to keep my job), I unfortunately can’t dig too far into why the lockout happened. But in short, the G-rated version goes as such:
- The owners wanted a new economic system
- The players did not want a new economic system
- After nearly a half of a year of public bickering (and then negotiations, in that order), they eventually came to an agreement
Will all of the fuss, and with over 150 days spent locked out, what changed? Well, to me it seems that outside of the big basketball-related income (BRI) shift, the lockout was able to achieve several smaller changes. I could break down topics like “stretch provisions” and “mid-level exceptions”, but someone else did that already and you can find riveting topics like those discussed in great detail over on ESPN.com by their “Capologist” Larry Coon. In short, for well-run, high-revenue teams that stay at or below the luxury tax threshold, like the Bulls, not a lot will change. For middling teams in small markets, like the Indiana Pacers, quite a bit has changed in their favor (shorter contracts, revenue sharing, increased "Bird Rights", etc.).
With the lockout tentatively ending early Saturday morning (November 25th), not to mention the rest of the details that needed to be ironed out, the league calendar will begin moving along pretty quickly. Training camp and free agency are set to begin on the same day (December 9th), so teams without a full roster or teams that need to make moves to get under the salary cap (or luxury tax line) will be at a disadvantage compared to teams who won't need to make many (if any) roster moves to start the year. More often than not in the NBA, the quality of a team hinges on continuity, and this lockout will reward teams and organizations whose rosters are already solidified going into this past off-season.
What does that mean for Chicago? Well, this year they should fare well. While staying pretty close to the luxury tax line, they only lost three free agents, only of whom made an impact on the court for the Bulls (Kurt Thomas). And he may be back. The Bulls’ roster is likely to remain unchanged for this season, unless they are able to pick up a good “amnesty” player (someone who will be paid their full salary by their old team, but whose salary won’t count against that team’s Salary Cap/Luxury Tax, but who can sign as a free agent anywhere). I wouldn't count on the Bulls using their amnesty rule in this off-season (you can keep it for several years).
In the short term, the Chicago Bulls are looking pretty good coming out of the lockout as an organization. Without many salary cap restrictions or potential roster changes on the horizon, the team that finished with last season’s league-best record should be strong. They have a young, talented core that has played mostly together for a full season. The Bulls' off-season kicks off on December 9th with training camp, and the season begins just 16 days later with their Christmas Day game against another great team in the Los Angeles Lakers.
Now that the lockout is over, it’s time to get locked-in to the NBA! The dog days are over!