Possible Consequences Of The NBA Lockout

Last week we heard from Big Derf Sports' own Alex "Skillet" Scarlett about his ideas for solving the NBA lockout problem. Today we have a column here from guest writer Scott Zimms that does a great job of summing up how we got to this lockout, and the effects it might have if it continues.....

Monday 4/11/11 Daily Links

According to espn's Adam Schefter... The NFL and the NFLPA are to be sent to mediation this week.  Awesome news.  I always believed the lockout would end quickly, but with them getting sent back to mediation this week, there is a serious possibility that this might be hammered out before the draft even takes place. That would  give draft picks a defined value with the expected rookie salary limits and possibly give an opportunity for some free agency to happen before the draft. Even though I'm an optimist, it's nice to put in the bag that football will be back on this year.

Rotographs Week 2 Two Start Fantasy Pitchers analysis and the update.  And Tristan Cockcroft's week 2 forecast - I write all my fantasy analysis based on daily leagues because that's how I believe it should be played in the internet age, but I realize that some readers have weekly leagues. I'll link to good different analysis every week and likely to Tristan's amazing full forecast on most weeks.

MLBDepthCharts.com - Just linking to this site for it's general awesomeness. I use it all the time to recheck teams lineups for my fantasy advice.  The info is available elsewhere obviously, but all the relevant lineup stuff is just a click away from the mlbdepthcharts main page and you'll use fangraphs or something usually if you want to check player stats.

My Thursday Fantasy Column - Yeah, linking to myself.  Besides my daily pitcher pickup columns, i also write about fantasy in general here.  The column format is still a work in progress, but do look for it every Thursday-ish here.  And everything from this column is still good save my good word for Mike Aviles. He's been benched since.

Daily Links For 3/31/11

NBA Investigating Jay-Z - Jay-Z Was in the University of Kentucky locker room after their win over North Carolina and there are photos and video to prove it.  As a part owner of the Nets, Jay-Z should know better than that and I'm betting he does.  However, I think that Jay-Z, like everyone else, just doesn't care about the NCAA.  Because he's not an athlete, the NCAA can't really punish him and the NBA has already set a precedent of just fining executives for smoozing up to college players.  Jay-Z can afford to pay a fine or two.  The NBA should make an example out of him or someone for this kind of activity, whether it's a draft penalty or something else it shouldn't be just a fine.

Wilpons Continue To Try And Sell Part of The Mets - The Wilpons need to come back to reality.  Everyone knows that the Mets aren't doing too well financially...No one is going to buy part of the team from them if it's not a majority share.  It'd basically be a sunk cost to give the Wilpons the money for a minority share of the team.  You're just buying in to the ability to lose money with the Wilpons.  And everyone knows that the Wilpons absolutely need to get capital.   Each time you hear about what the Wilpons are willing to sell, the share gets bigger and bigger.  If investors just wait it out they know they'll be able to eventually work out a deal for a majority share of the team and likely get it at a good price as the Wilpons will be desperate.

Warren Moon angry about Cam Newton's treatment - Warren feels that people's dislike of Cam Newton stems from the fact that Newton is a black man playing quarterback.  That is crazy.  It has nothing to do with the fact that he is black.  Newton has proven himself a bad character guy.  He had problems at Florida before transferring.  He not only stole a laptop but was also caught cheating three times.  That is a red flag.  At the Combine, before he's played a NFL down, he was calling himself an entertainer and icon and talking about himself in the third person.  That is a red flag.  It's not because he's black, it's because he has shitty character.  Moon brought up the fact that people had seemed to get over their racial bias after JaMarcus Russell went first overall, but JaMarcus had horrible character and was not a hard worker off the field which is why he failed.  Teams don't want to draft Newton for his amazing potential and have the same thing happen with Newton that happened with Russell.

Pegged Cap was NFL Players Idea - The NFLPA was complaining about the NFL's cap offers and the fact that anything over the predetermined cap would be going mostly into the owners pockets...But as it turns out the pegged cap was the players idea.  It makes sense.  The pegged cap protects the players if the NFL ends up falling short of revenue projections.  It gets them a guaranteed cap set point even if the NFL itself isn't making money.  But because they are getting that, they shouldn't be complaining about the NFL getting more of the money over projections.  If the players want that protection from the NFL not making enough revenue, the NFL owners should get some sort of compensation for offering that protection, and that should be the owners getting a greater share of the money over projections.

Chad Pennington Tears ACL in Basketball Game - Only news because Pennington is such a class act.  He's a guy who has come back from injury after injury and was working his way back from another shoulder injury when this happened.  He's likely to miss the whole 2012 season, and is expected not to come back after that.  Hopefully he catches on as a coach somewhere next year if he's not going to be playing.  Too smart a player to end his relationship with football just because he won't be playing.

Daily Links For 3/18/11

Jim Tressel Self Increases Suspension - This came out late last night.  Because his players received a five game ban for their actions but Tressel only received a two game ban for knowing about them, he volunteered to have his own suspension increases to match his players' suspensions.  Classy Classy move in my opinion.  There are too many guys like Rich Rodriguez who bail on their players.  For Tressel to stand up and ask for his suspension to be extended is a great move on his part.

Mets Cut Luis Castillo - This is only news because somehow they cut Castillo but Oliver Freaking Perez still has a job.

More Union Said League Said In Lockout Talks - Union now saying NFL was changing status quo with their last offer.  NFL says union could have kept negotiating about it.  I personally don't care as long as they figure it out soon.

Also a little programming note.   MLB Fantasy Sleeper Column coming Monday.

Don't Hate The Game, Hate The NFL Players Association

The NFL and it's players are going to court because both the union and it's leader DeMaurice Smith wanted to go to court.  The players know that in a battle between them and billionaires, the public is inclined to take their side. Which is why I'm writing this article about the truth...An educated public will understand that the players union's goal was not to negotiate, but to decertify.  All of these quotes are taken directly from nfllockout.com, the player's lockout website and  are taken from the post that is supposed to explain why the union had to decertify.

Lockout? No Chance - Why the NFL Will Have a New CBA By March 4th

There will be football next year. Neither side is willing to admit it, but both the NFL Owners and the NFAPA know that a deal is going to get done on time.  There is too much money on the table for this to not work out and the owners know that the players can't afford to not come to the negotiating table.  The players union knows that it is going to agree to the deal in the end, but the union also knows that it's better for them to wait until March 3rd to finally agree.

How can I say all of that with certainty?  I've done the research and connected the dots that no one is talking about.  Rather than harp over what the Union and Owners say every day, I've gone back and looked at the current expiring CBA to understand why the Owners opted out to begin with.  

People believe the NFL and the Union are fighting over stuff they really aren't as concerned with.  The eighteen game season is something the players aren't happy about, but it will add in the end add cash to their pockets.  It's not the line in the sand people would have you believe it is.  Also unimportant is the debate over the proposed rookie salary scale, as the players and owners alike agree that the rookie salaries are out of control.

So what is the arguing really about?  Cash, obviously.  The owners did a bad job negotiating the last agreement and haven't been making enough money.  The players, I'm sure, know that the last CBA doesn't work but aren't going to just freely give the money back to the owners.