Are Mark Cuban’s Comments Evidence of Collusion?

Mark Cuban http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/10/08/mark-cuban-if-players-want-to-get-rid-of-max-contracts-they-have-to-give-up-guaranteed-contracts/

“If you give up guarantees, [i]t’s a trade-off….” “It was discussed during the lockout time among owners, but never got anywhere. So it was just one of those trial balloons. I’m not offering this as a negotiation, I’m not suggesting it, all I’m saying is that was something we discussed before, and max contracts are always big question, guarantees are always a big question. But we have two years before that’s even an issue, so no point discussing it now.”

While many of us read Cuban's comments and focused only on the impact on future labor negotiations; I could not help thinking that Cuban's words sounded a bit like the owners were discussing colluding to change the market which results in guaranteed deals (just as the NFL was accused of doing during the supposedly "uncapped year").

As I've stated many times before the only NBA contracts mandated by the CBA to be guaranteed are those belonging to 1st round picks on their rookie deals.  Any other guaranteed contract is the result of the negotiations as they exist in the current market.

With that in mind; its hard to not read Cuban's comments and feel that the owner's were discussing artificially changing the market which results in the lion's share of the workforce receiving totally guaranteed deals.