The NBA is back!

Now that the NBA owners and players have finally agreed to a tentative deal to end the lockout, the agreement is expected to lead to the finalization of a new collective bargaining agreement that will allow the league to open it's doors on December 9th.  Teams would then be allowed to sign free agents and open training camp, with a 66 game regular season planned to begin on Christmas Day. 

While it's exciting that the season (most of it anyway) has been saved, it's frustrating that it took so long to get to this point.  Particularly when the deal doesn't appear to be all that different from what most people expected all along.  I've been saying for months what my opinion was on how the deal should work and even outlined a projected solution in an article several weeks ago.  From what we've heard so far regarding the details of the new agreement, those predictions don't appear to be that far off.

Keep in mind that while the committees representing each side have agreed to the deal, the rest of the owners and players still need to vote on it, while plenty of paper work still needs to be filed before the deal becomes official. Therefore some of this may be subject to change.
Based on what we currently know about the deal, here is a breakdown of some of the key components of the new deal. 

• Players will receive 51.1 percent of BRI for this upcoming season.  Throughout the course of the deal (which lasts for 10 years, but either side can opt out in 2017), the player's percentage will fluctuate between 49 and 51 percent, depending on league income.  This essentially should average out to close to a 50/50 split.
• Mid-Level Exception: teams under the luxury tax can give up to 4 year contracts, starting with a base salary of $5 million for the first year of the deal.  Teams that are over the luxury tax are limited to offering 3 year deals that start at $3 million.  They have also included a $4 million apron to allow teams close to the tax line to still be able to use the full mid-level exception as long as doing so does not put them more than $4 million above the tax line.

• Larry Bird rights remain, allowing teams to re-sign their own players with 7.5% raises each year as opposed to the 4.5% allowed to non-Bird deals.  There has been no mention of this being limited to one player per team or any sort of franchise tag, as was previously discussed.  However, the new agreement does offer a new stipulation that helps teams retain young super stars.  A player finishing his rookie scale contract will be eligible to receive a maximum salary equal to 30 percent of the salary cap (up from 25 percent) if he signs with his prior team, as long as they have been a two-time selection to the All-NBA first, second or third team; twice an All-Star starter or a one-time MVP.  This stipulation is being called the "Derrick Rose Rule," after the reigning MVP, who is still locked into his rookie contract.
• Sign-and-trade deals will still be allowed for all teams in the first two years of the agreement.  For the remaining 8 years of the deal, teams can only be eligible for a sign-and-trade deal as long as doing so doesn't put them more than $4 million over the luxury tax.  This compromise is a huge benefit for Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Derron Williams, but in the long run will help cut back on scenarios where teams are held hostage in another Carmelo situation where their stars are looking to flee for bigger markets.
• Amnesty provision: each team will be allowed to waive one player prior to the start of any season during this deal.  This provision can only be used once per team and can only be used on existing contracts signed under the old CBA agreement.  The player will still be paid, but their contract will be erased from the team's salary cap and luxury tax.

Aside from a few small tweaks here and there from concessions the owners gave in to in order to get the deal done, this is very similar to what I outlined several weeks ago.  Many others have made similar predictions as well.  Most of the main points of this new deal aren't much of a surprise to those that have followed this situation.  The sides have been negotiating this for two years now, so what took so long?

Money?  Power?  David Stern and Billy Hunter's stubborn desire to continue to push back to make their roles seem more important?  Perhaps it's a combination of all of these factors - and then some.  Regardless of the reason, the result is that it cost us 20% of the season.  While a 66 game season may actually be closer to an ideal schedule than the normal 82 game slate (the number should be around 70), the fact that it's been compacted into a shorter time frame could have drastic results on the performance of players this season.  Not only will training camps and pre-season be cut short, but in order to squeeze in as many games as possible without extending the end of the regular season out too far, the league is forced to schedule a lot more back-to-back games.  In some cases we may even see teams playing on three consecutive days.  That's an incredibly grueling schedule, especially for older teams. 

It's far from a perfect situation, but it's far better than being stuck in Stern's nuclear winter scenario.  At long last, at least there will be basketball.