Report: NBPA supports Josh Huestis' deal with Thunder

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If you were expecting the players union to interject in the dealing between Josh Huestis and the Oklahoma City Thunder, think again.

In his all-encompassing report on the situation Thursday, Grantland's Zach Lowe cites Huestis' agent Mitchell Butler, who argues that this move - which you can read about in detail in the posts below - is a positive one from the union's perspective.

From Lowe:

Butler says he discussed the plan with the players’ union, which has not registered any vigorous objection. The deal may work as a huge plus for Huestis, though it did push one likely first-round pick back into the second round — and out of the guaranteed money range.

The union actually views the Huestis move as an example of player empowerment that could have major long-term implications. “This is an example of the player flipping the script,” says Ron Klempner, the interim executive director of the union. “The player essentially drafted his team.”

The NBA itself may still take issue with the arrangement, which will see Huestis forgo his guaranteed rookie scale contract for a year while he earns peanuts in the D-League, as pre-draft discussions about compensation are prohibited under the league's by-laws.

Lowe's article also discusses the possibility of Huestis' situation changing the way the league handles negotiations for first-round picks, but Pro Basketball Talk's Dan Feldman does a good job providing the counter to abolishing the rookie wage scale:

The veterans who comprise the NBPA wouldn't go for it. Every member of the union has already gone through the draft, so they won’t vote to have their wages implicitly cut in order to pay future rookies. Veterans getting paid less than new draft picks was a big point of contention in the Glenn Robinson/Larry Johnson era, and even if such an arrangement helped players collectively, it doesn't help voting players (i.e., players already in the league/union) at all.

What we're left with, then, is an interesting experiment for player, agent and team, and a response from the league that may or may not come.