[新聞] More than half of teams won't fill r …
Associated Press
SAN ANTONIO -- The still-scuffling U.S. economy may keep some NBA teams from
starting the season with a full, 15-player roster, according to a survey of
all 30 franchises by The Associated Press.
With the season opening next week and final rosters due on Monday, the survey
found that nearly half the league plans to start with 15 players. But others
will carry the minimum 13 or leave one spot empty.
Chief among the reasons was flexibility -- having an available spot or two to
keep options open for trades or injuries in the long, 82-game season. No
teams outright said their decision would be driven by the economy, but the
bottom line is clearly an issue.
"NBA teams are businesses like every other in this country," Dallas Mavericks
owner Mark Cuban wrote in an e-mail to the AP. "Times are tough and I expect
many if not most teams to carry fewer than 15 players on their rosters."
NBA teams are allowed to carry 12 active and three inactive players. Not
filling all 15 slots would not leave a team at less than full strength for
games, though it might leave it short-handed for practices.
Denver will start with a 13-player model after going with 14 last season and
the full 15 in the two seasons prior.
In the first seven games last season, the Nuggets used more than nine players
only once. Mark Warkentien, the team's vice president of basketball
operations, said he likes having chairs open at the end of the bench, just in
case.
"There's an obvious economic benefit. I'm not going to deny it," Warkentien
said. "The compelling reason is the flexibility."
The minimum NBA salary this season is about $457,000 for rookies. The luxury
tax threshold is about $70 million, meaning teams must pay a $1 tax for every
dollar spent on salaries above that limit in a given year.
Expectations by coaches and general managers for their roster sizes this
season are generally in line with previous years. L.A. Clippers general
manager and coach Mike Dunleavy, for instance, said he's carried 15 players
the past few years -- 14 with guaranteed contracts -- and expects the same
again for this season.
But Dunleavy also said the Clippers have less of a financial burden this year
by signing younger guys to less expensive deals.
"If we hadn't, then I think I probably wouldn't have had a 15th guy,"
Dunleavy said. "Everybody is very conscious of the revenue situation."
Cuban said he would like the Mavericks to carry only 13 players but will
likely max out his roster after Dallas carried 16 guaranteed contracts into
training camp. A trade left the Mavs with 15 guaranteed deals and one
non-guaranteed contract ahead of Monday's deadline.
The climate is bad news for players because it could mean fewer jobs in the
league.
Curtis Jerrells, an undrafted rookie from Baylor who was cut by San Antonio
this week, said he feared economic factors could make sticking with a team
more difficult.
"That's stuff I can't really control," said Jerrells, whom the Spurs didn't
waive for financial reasons. "The economic deal ... this is my dream.
Regardless of what happens I'll go out and play hard. I'll be OK with it."
Billy Hunter, executive director of the National Basketball Players
Association, said the union is waiting to see whether NBA teams really keep
rosters leaner this season or whether it's simply talk. The economic crisis
and the number of teams struggling led Hunter and NBA commissioner David
Stern to begin their collective bargaining talks early, in August, even
though the current agreement runs through 2011.
"Obviously it's a concern for us as a union because we want to employ our
guys," Hunter said. "So for every two guys on a team cut, you take 30 teams
and if everybody reduced their roster by two, that's 60 jobs. So we're
obviously concerned."
Minnesota is leaning toward carrying 13 players this season after maxing out
their roster a season ago. Like Denver, Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte and
Philadelphia may also go a player or two fewer than a year ago.
Charlotte, which has lost millions each year since coming into the league in
2004-05, kept training camp at home this season to help cut costs and let go
staff, including a scout. The Bobcats carried 15 players for most of last
season but considered 14 during the preseason.
The Heat have generally carried 15 players and haven't ruled out doing so
this year. Miami already entered training camp $3 million into the
dollar-for-dollar tax, and team president Pat Riley wants as much financial
flexibility as possible heading into next summer's potential free-agent
bonanza in the NBA.
The Washington Wizards, meanwhile, are spending more on salaries this season
than ever before and, with a $78 million roster, will be paying the luxury
tax for the first time. It's about $8 million more than the Wizards spent
last season -- even though they expect to go from 15 to 14 players.
San Antonio went on an atypical spending spree this summer to bolster its
title chances, taking Richard Jefferson and the $29.2 million owed to him
over the next two years off Milwaukee's hands in exchange for three aging
bench players.
Milwaukee will still carry 15 this season but would have preferred 14 for
flexibility and injuries, Bucks general manager John Hammond said. But are
smaller rosters more about roster flexibility, or the economy?
"They go hand in hand," Hammond said.
--
少一個省一個！ :D
--
◢◤◢◤◢◤ ◢███ ◢◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢◤◢◤◢██◤◢███◤ ◢
◤◢◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢◤◢◤◢◤◢ ◢◤◢ ◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤◢◤ ◢ ◢◤
◢◤◢◤ ◢███◤◢◤◢◤◢ ◢◤◢ ◢◤◢◤◢██◤◢████ ◢◤◢
◤◢◤ ◢◤ ◢◤◢◤◢◤◢ ◢◤◢ ◢◤◢◤◢◤ ◢ ◢◤ ◢◤◢◤
◢◤ ◢███◤◢◤◢██◤◢██◤◢██◤◢◤◢ ◢███◤◢ ◢◤◢◤◢
◤ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢ ◢◤◢◤◢◤
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 140.115.43.161
NBAGM 近期熱門文章
PTT體育區 即時熱門文章
