While not seeing it as worthy of league intervention, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says he is concerned by the implications of the mutual non-playing agreement between John Wall and the Rockets.
In a scheduled state-of-the-league press conference from All-Star Weekend in Cleveland, Silver was asked on Saturday about situations like the awkward one between Wall and the Rockets. He responded:
Of course, I think it’s a problem when players are paid not to play. In some cases, that’s by mutual agreement with the team. Maybe the team is in a rebuilding situation that is focused on certain players. There’s a sense that (a) veteran player isn’t fitting in for whatever reason to the culture they’re trying to create.
It’s a hard line here because if it is truly by mutual agreement, I’m not sure the league office should be interfering. On the other hand… you have an aggregate hard cap, in essence, where 50% in our system is paid to the players. For every dollar that goes to a player that is not producing on the floor, that’s a dollar less that goes to a player that is performing. That shouldn’t be ideal for players or for teams.
Silver said he did not have a “ready fix” for the issue, but noted that it could be addressed with players in future collective bargaining talks. For the foreseeable future, the plan clearly remains in place.
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