To be perfectly honest, I love the sliding scale of the NBA draft. It keeps unproven players from being ridiculously overpaid (see: Matthew Stafford, Stephen Strasberg, etc.). It’s why I think the NFL will switch to the sliding scale when their collective bargaining agreement runs out.

Now, on the other hand, I’m all for making money. These kids have a talent, have worked their whole lives to achieve success, and deserve to be rewarded. I hope they all make the money they can.

However, I don’t like this whole idea of demanding trades. You’ve entered the draft. It’s not fair to teams for a player to say, “I’m not okay with playing for teams X, Y, and Z, but A, B, and C are all right.” What if Blake Griffin had said, “I just want to be a Laker. Otherwise, I’m not playing.” If you enter the NBA draft, you are stuck playing for the team that drafts you. It’s an honor that a team deems you worthy of being its first-round pick. Act like it.

Now, back to the money. I believe the NBA should give these players two ways out (which is pretty much what they do): the NBDL or Europe. I don’t have a problem with players like Rubio going to Europe and forgoing their NBA careers for money abroad. My problem is them holding themselves as ransom for the teams that drafted them. Eventually, those teams have to trade the rights to those players (usually in a salary purge). This, along with subpar management, which the T-Wolves, Grizzlies, etc. have in spades, leads to small market teams staying out of the spotlight.

This, of course, leads to a completely separate argument, albeit one that does connect the dots. When was the last time one of the NBA’s bottom 15, or small market teams won an NBA championship. Miami in 2006. Before that? The 1979 Seattle Supersonics. That’s a 27 year gap, for those of you who are mathematicall challenged like me. Before that, only a handful of teams from small markets won the championship, all before the shot clock, all before media exposure really hit the NBA, and before there were many teams. The point is, if the NBA wants to allow these cities to be punching bags, they should allow the Ricky Rubios to demand trades. Otherwise, they need to step in and curb the rebellious sides of these kids.

The NBA is a business, though, and David Stern clearly loves to see cash flow into the league, so he won’t stop it. While that’s the official stance of the league, I hope Rubio does whatever he wants and makes a killing along the way. If that means going back to Europe, fine. If it means getting traded, also fine.

I’m sorry this was so rambly. It is five in the morning, and I haven’t slept in a long time. Hopefully, my point(s) still come(s) across. In conclusion, I like the sliding scale and money, and hate the disrespect of players towards the teams that drafted them, along with the ambivalence of the league concerning such matters as the Rubio case in connection to small markets.

To be honest I don’t think its right that Rubio would hold a team hostage. The Timberwolves knew that he didnt want to play there so you can argue that the team put themselves in that position regardless if its fair or not, at least Rubio was clear that he did not want to be there…

Under the current system what he is doing is wrong but I think that it is also unfair to give a player basically no say in where they are going. I understand that playing in the NBA is a huge honor but I mean any player has to think about his future, so he should be able to have at least some sort of say in what team he plays…Just my opinion.

Only because I believe it’s disrespectful. Also, it eliminates the purpose of the draft.

Having said that, I can’t fault a person who tried to take control of his situation.