Maurice Evans optimistic NBA can avoid lengthy lockout

Evans, who joined the Wizards in a trade deadline deal with Atlanta involving Hinrich, said two weeks ago that his primary objective this offseason is making sure that owners and players can reach a deal, “so we can have a season next year. I’m very optimistic.”

He conceded that a lockout would occur, but only because he doesn’t expect an agreement to be reached before the current CBA expires on July 1. The sides are extremely far apart, though the owners are expected to deliver a new proposal to the players’ union, possibly by Friday.

Evans said players might be willing to relent on BRI, but do not intend to budge on a hard cap.

“In my opinion, the current deal we have now is actually working,” Evans said. “So if we can just work from there and try and figure out something that works for everybody… Again, we want to bargain with them. We don’t want to throw darts and say who is right and who is wrong. We just want to get a deal. There has to be some model that says this is how we do business and it’s consistent from here out. Tweak this, and work from there. Honestly, I don’t think there is anything more we can give and a hard cap is definitely not going to happen.”

The owners are also expected to push for reducing the length of guaranteed contracts, and limiting the guarantees on some deals, which Evans felt is unnecessary. “I don’t think there is nowhere to go from here,” he said. “Everything has gone down. We can’t continue to diminish the years of contracts. GMs and owners don’t have to sign players for those allotted number of years. We don’t need to self-govern them. Doesn’t make any sense.”