I think that one problem is that the NBA is much more of a player’s league than the NFL. As KnickfaninNJ pointed out earlier, NFL players are generally easier to replace (AI has said repeatedly that he could be an NFL CB and most people seem to agree, Antonio Gates is a Pro Bowler after spending his NCAA career playing basketball, and Nate Robinson had a bunch of interceptions at UW). Plus, there are simply more of them.

If NBA owners institute a 2 year lock-out (which I don’t see them doing in the interest of their own wallets in the first place) I think you’ll have LeBron and the NY Nikes taking on Kobe and the LA Adidas and DWade and the Chicago Converses. In other words even a guy like me who believes in efficiency, defense, team play, and the little things is willing to say that stars drive the NBA (for better or worse). In the event of a lock-out, lesser players could go to Europe and still live very comfortably. I see Congress, Obama, and/or the Supreme Court getting involved and the players winning.

The analogy isn’t perfect, because high paid NFL running backs are usually productive until their body wears out. In the NBA overpaid players are more likely the result of poor GMing than injury. But the end result is similar: being handcuffed to a player financially who isn’t producing in games. And the NFL has a great way to deal with it (from everyone but that player’s pov), where the NBA doesn’t

You may be right about the running backs.  I don’t know the NFL well enough to notice something like that.    I assume you some are getting dropped who could probably still play but no longer at a level that justifies their salaries?  If so, then I would agree, the lack of committed contracts is having an effect.

That said, I take slight issue with some of your statements:

It will take the Knicks two years post Isiah Thomas (on top of the four years with Zeke at the helm) to be able to get out from the salary cap landslide he created.

In fairness, Isiah inherited an incredibly large salary cap mess from Layden (cursed be his name) that would have extended through almost all of Isiah’s years here even if Isiah did nothing.  But, of course, Isiah made it worse.

A highly sought-after player signing a long term contract [in the NFL] will usually receive a signing bonus, thus providing him with financial security even if he is cut before the end of his contract.

But that signing bonus is prorated to the years of the contract.  So an NFL player with a nonguaranteed contract, but a big signing bonus, still has a massive effect on the team’s cap once he’s cut.  I believe Washington has paid an enormous amount of its cap to players that no longer play for the team.

For instance if teams weren’t bound by large contracts to undeserving players, there would be more money to sign those who merit it. In other words, some of the younger Knicks might be splitting Stephon Marbury’s $19M per year.

Well, I’m all in favor of that but it would require another significant rule change.  The only Knicks that are underpaid (arguably of course) are those that are still on the rookie salary scale.  I can’t see the NBA owners getting rid of that little perk and, unsurprisingly, the NFL commish is trying to put a rookie scale in his league.

One worry I have about the hard cap is that it will reward poorly run franchises relative to the current system. As a fan who has little control over how NBA franchises are run this doesn’t seem so bad, especially when poorly run teams can luck into some lottery magic or a lopsided trade and emerge as contenders anyway.

Considering that NBA franchises are already monopolies in a financial sense, I’m not sure it’s a good idea for the quality of the league to offer incentives for teams to be inefficient both financially and basketball wise.

I’d really like to see some competition added to the league with a European style, worst two teams fall to a B league and best two teams from the B league are promoted. This would open franchises up to basketball competition (no tanking, drown-out rebuilding) and financial competition from better run organizations in the same city. Local governments would no longer be expected to waste tax dollars building new stadiums, or at least if they did multiple teams could play there–the best team eventually replacing the others. A real minor league system would complement this approach.

“In the NFL, the pool of available replacements seems closer to being able to play at the NFL level. Teams seem to find replacements for injured players that can go in and play pretty quickly.”

Very true. There are important differences between the NFL and NBA that I think warrant discussion.

And if I were the players I would fight for non-guaranteed contracts over shorter contracts. When you’re worth $10M a year, and you can get a 10.5% increase, you want as long a deal as possible, so the added raise nets you a much larger deal.