Mark Cuban Tears into NBA, Makes a Good Point About the New CBA

Like him or not, one thing about Mark Cuban that's refreshing is that he gives you an unfiltered insight into his thoughts.

The Dallas Mavericks owner is at it again. This time Cuban was ripping the NBA for the trade between the league-owned New Orleans Hornets and the Los Angeles Clippers that saw Chris Paul join forces with Blake Griffin.

If you remember, before Paul was traded to the Clippers, the Hornets had a three-team deal in place that would have seen Chris Paul go to the Lakers, Lamar Odom to the Hornets and Pau Gasol to the Houston Rockets. While New Orleans would have also received Luis Scola, Kevin Martin, Goran Dragic and a first-round draft pick from the Rockets.

Cuban disagreed with that move at the time. Now he apparently disagrees with the move that sent Chris Paul and two second-round picks to the Clippers for Eric Gordon, Chris Kaman, Al-Farouq Aminu and Minnesota's unprotected first-round pick.

But Cuban isn't upset because he felt the NBA didn't get a fair deal when comparing the two offers. As he said:

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"It's not about being better or worse," Cuban said when asked to compare the offers for Paul. "It's hard to judge any trade until it's done. It's about the concepts involved and the integrity of what we went through for the CBA. That's what it's all about. (The league office) screwed the pooch either way."

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What it's really about, according to Cuban, is:

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"I don't think it was about the Lakers, per se," Cuban said before the game. "I think it was just the way they did the deal, which was ridiculous. I don't think it was about which team. I think it was the fact that, even with the Clippers, we just went through this whole (collective bargaining agreement) and said the incumbent team still has the advantage and then the team the league owns (wimps) out. And look how it's worked out for them."

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Cuban's right. It isn't about the Lakers, the Clippers or even the Hornets. It's about the principle of the recent NBA Lockout and the subsequent new CBA.

One of the driving forces behind the NBA lockout, other than a reduction in player salaries, was to give the incumbent team the best possible chance to keep its players.

And, in effect, they did that. Incumbent teams can offer more money to retain their own free agents. They can exceed the salary cap—via the Larry Bird Rule—to keep their own players. But it really doesn't matter.

They've had similar provisions in past CBAs and it didn't prevent small-market free agents from fleeing to the larger markets.

There's really nothing the league can do, other than hope that more players like Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are willing to sign long-term extensions without opt out clauses. But the further we go, it seems like those cases like Westbrook and Durant are rarities, especially when you have above-average—not star—players like Brandon Jennings, already doing their, "homework on big-market teams."

It's a real problem for the NBA and it's one that apparently wasn't fixed with the new CBA. Supposedly there are a lot of provisions that take effect in the future that will limit players from bolting to large-market teams with regularity, such as major increases in luxury tax to teams to routinely find themselves over the luxury tax threshold.

NBA fans better hope that's truly the case. Because unless you're a fan of a select few large-market teams, it's becoming increasingly hard to get behind the NBA.