The question at the core of the hard-cap discussion is a simple one: is it more important for the NBA’s teams to have parity or to have an identity? Just recently, a friend of mine who is by his own admission only a casual NBA fan commented that every year, there are only a few teams with a real shot at contending for a title, and you can usually tell who they are before the season even starts.  It would be a significant shock if a team that isn’t the Heat, Celtics, Bulls, or Magic made it out of the East, and likewise, the only teams with serious hopes of contending in the West are the Lakers and (to a lesser extent) the Blazers, Thunder, and Mavericks. Sure, there other teams besides these eight that will be good and/or fun to watch, but these are the teams we expect to still be talking about in May and June.

When my friend put it to me like this, I didn’t really have an argument. He pointed out that in the NFL, a league he cares much more about and follows far more closely than the NBA, the season is three weeks underway and he still has no idea who’s going to be in the Super Bowl. The 2009 champion Steelers didn’t even make the playoffs last season despite keeping their roster intact for the most part. To a lot of fans, especially of small-market teams, the parity makes the game more interesting and less certain year to year.

I understand all of that, and yet I can’t quite get completely on board with the idea. I like continuity. The single biggest reason I can’t get into college basketball is because any time there’s a truly exciting and game-changing player—a Kevin Durant, say, or a John Wall—I know in the back of my mind that he’s only there because the NBA has a one-and-done rule. If someone got hooked on watching Texas or Kentucky when these players were there, the team would look completely different the next year.

I worry the same thing would happen in the NBA with a hard cap. I like teams that have an identity. I like teams that build around a star and grow together, like Portland and Oklahoma City. I like those teams and I like dynasties, and there would be a lot less of both with a hard cap. The Chicago Blackhawks had to trade away significant players shortly after winning the 2010 Stanley Cup, because the NHL has a hard cap and they had a vast majority of their money tied up in a handful of players. What fan wants to see a defending champion have to blow itself up for financial reasons? Imagine if the Lakers had had to trade away Andrew Bynum and Ron Artest this summer. Didn’t the league create a salary-cap exception in the late ‘80s specifically so that the Celtics would be able to re-sign Larry Bird? It’s always better for the league if successful teams are able to stay together.

It is true that competitive balance is a problem in the NBA when compared to football and hockey. But there are other ways the owners should consider going about addressing it. For starters, way too many teams are unable to develop and build because they are tied down by overlarge, fully guaranteed contracts. Atlanta can be basically written out of the title-contender discussion right now because they’ll be paying a 35-year-old Joe Johnson $24 million in 2016 and there’s nothing they can do to get out of that, unless they find a taker for his enormous contract a few years from now. How huge would it be for team financial flexibility if the league put a limit on the amount of years on a contract could be guaranteed? Atlanta would be free to give Johnson a six-year, $124 million contract if they were so inclined, but the last three years of said contract would be team options. If he plays well, they can keep him around. But if he has a serious injury or a major drop-off in production, they won’t be completely handcuffed by this contract for over half a decade with no wiggle room.

I completely get why owners want a hard cap—it would help control costs and prevent another Heat-style superteam from forming. If Ted Leonsis is to be believed, we may very well be heading toward a hard-capped NBA as soon as next year. But is that necessarily a good thing? For at least some of us as fans, the personality- and team-driven storylines are just as compelling as the on-court action, and I worry that a lot of the NBA’s narrative-based interest would be lost with these rigid financial constraints.

Email me | Twitter: @ripcityproject | @shighkin

On the Wesley Matthews signing:

No, the Blazers don’t do this every year just to mess with Utah. Matthews fits an essential need as a wing defender who can space the floor with his 3-point shooting, something the Blazers need if their defensive skill can catch up to their offense. It’s a bit rich for a role player, but given the need this move filled and Matthews’ youth, it’s tough to criticize too harshly.

On the team’s biggest strength, size:

There’s a good reason for the Blazers to play as slowly as they do — they’re huge. I don’t just mean tall, either; Portland brings the beef. The Blazers have quietly become one of the biggest teams in basketball, and while a likely trade or two may diminish their size a bit during the season, they still can match up sizewise with anybody.

On the team’s biggest weakness, floor spacing:

The Blazers nearly always play with two guys who can’tshoot, and that crowds the floor for everybody else. … The starting lineup will feature Oden and Miller, neither of whom can shoot. When they check out, we’ll have Przybilla or Camby up front … or possibly Oden and Camby together. That’s two nonshooters in the frontcourt. And when Miller checks out, another iffy shooter, Jerryd Bayless, checks in.

On the Blazers’ prospects for this season:

Even if Oden can’t finish the season, Portland has three rising stars in Roy, Aldridge and the rapidly improving Batum. Plus, as last season proved, the Blazers’ depth allows them to survive virtually anything the regular season throws at them. This time I suspect they’ll be thrown a few more hanging sliders, and finally win a playoff series or two.

The entire article is worth reading for Insider subscribers, so check it out. Personally, I find it a little bit refreshing that somebody as mainstream as Hollinger is reminding everybody that Portland won the same amount of games last year as Oklahoma City, the unquestioned media darlings leading into the 2010-11 season, despite having everybody and the coach miss significant time with injuries.

Yesterday, the Oregonian’s Joe Freeman reported that the Australian guard, drafted at no. 55 overall out of St. Mary’s in 2009, is not expected to be at the Blazers’ training camp next week. Mills made the team’s roster last year but only appeared in three games over the course of the season, due to both a foot injury that kept him out most of the first half of the season and to the fact that Portland’s roster was already stacked with guards.

After the Blazers drafted two more guards in 2010, Mills’ future with the team became even more unclear. No. 22 overall pick Elliot Williams was guaranteed a contract because he was drafted in the first round, but as Summer League got underway in July there was sort of an unspoken understanding that Mills and Armon Johnson, drafted 34th this year, would be competing for the 15th roster spot. Shortly after Summer League, the team signed Johnson to a contract, effectively killing Mills’ chances at making the regular-season roster.

Before he fractured his foot during Summer League in 2009, several analysts included Mills on their lists of the biggest steals of the draft. His impressive play both at St. Mary’s and with the Australian national team in the 2008 Summer Olympics made him something of a cult hero among hardcore hoops junkies, so there was a higher level of interest in his development than is usual for a late second-round pick. But the sad reality is that the Blazers just don’t have room for him to get significant playing time. Andre Miller isn’t going to lose his starting point-guard job anytime soon, and Nate McMillan and the Blazers’ front office are still very high on Jerryd Bayless’ potential. After that, you have to factor in Johnson and Williams, new free agent signee Wesley Matthews, a seemingly re-committed Rudy Fernandez, and (of course) Brandon Roy. Even if a roster spot somehow opened up for Mills, that’s seven other guards he’d have to compete with for minutes. Since he was apparently not invited to the Blazers’ training camp, he is now free to accept invites from other teams where he might have a better shot at making the roster, or to take a job with a European team, where there has been some interest in him over the summer. It’s probably in his best interests to have these options, rather than accept an invite to camp in Portland where there is clearly not a spot for him.

As for his financial situation, the Blazers do still own his rights as a restricted free agent, meaning they have the right to match any offer made to him by another team. A few readers have asked why the Blazers haven’t renounced his rights if they aren’t planning on re-signing him. The answer to that question probably involves the stockpiling of assets. If Mills signs with a team in Europe, he will join several other players the Blazers currently have stored away overseas, including Victor Claver, Joel Freeland, and Petteri Koponen. If after he plays in Europe for a few years another NBA team shows interest in signing him to a contract, the Blazers will still own his rights and thus be able to leverage that team’s interest into a sign-and-trade deal of some kind. It would be a similar situation to Josh Childress’: he wasn’t re-signed by the Hawks in 2008, opting instead to play for the Greek club Olympiacos. Then, this summer, he was dealt from Atlanta to Phoenix in a sign-and-trade that netted the Hawks a second-round draft pick. This is probably what the Blazers are hoping will happen with Mills. He was slowed down by injuries his rookie year in the NBA, but there’s no doubt that he can play and will find success somewhere, be it in the NBA or elsewhere. It just won’t be here.

UPDATE: Ben Golliver of Blazersedge tweeted this afternoon that Rich Cho does, in fact, expect Patty Mills at Blazers training camp next week. I still highly doubt he makes the team, but there you go.

Email me | Twitter: @ripcityproject | @shighkin