NBA Lockout

The owners are also likely to push for a reduction in both the length and size of NBA contracts in the next labor agreement. This could be the area where the owners make the greatest gains; while the "hard cap" concept doesn't resonate with the fans, even casual observers of the league can see the insanity of Joe Johnson -- a good player, but no one's idea of a superstar -- making $119 million over six years.

The owners will also look to remove some of the guarantees that are built in to today's NBA contracts. They'd love to move to NFL-style non-guaranteed deals that can be terminated at any time for any reason, but that seems too radical a departure from the current system to ever pass muster with the players. Perhaps some sort of more-aggressive buyout system -- one that would allow teams to get out from under albatross contracts like Eddy Curry's and Kenyon Martin's -- would work.

This could be an area where owners and players can find common ground. As we saw last summer, even top players are willing to take less money if it means landing in the right situation -- LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh all took less money from Miami than they could have earned otherwise.

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